Posts by HORansome
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The X Files gives me gas and the Da Vinci Code...
(Although I do use the Da Vinci Code as an example in the course I teach on Conspiracy Theories, mostly because the `Holy Blood, Holy Grail' book has some great examples of very wonky thinking).
Actually, early X Files was quote good. At the moment I'm mostly looking at actual historical incidences of Conspiracies and some of the weird Conspiracism in History because there is a case to be made that claims that Conspiracy Theories are more frequently verified than people like to think.
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The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories.
(Which, I can see the claims now, is why I'm paranoid about losing my data.)
I looking at Conspiracy Theories from the viewpoint of epistemology; what kinds of beliefs about the world are they, what kinds of warrant do they have and is the prima facie suspicion of Conspiracy Theories actually justified.
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I sort of do, yes. I have a very messy file system; some stuff is in my Documents folder, some is in Downloads, other parts are on the Desktop. I'm also constantly doing things to my TeX install and so it turns out that just backing up Documents (which is a mirror of my iDisk) isn't really very useful if I have a catastrophic crash. I also have a very complex but useful versioning system that maintains not one but two rsync-ed copies of the actual core thesis files so it becomes near to impossible for me to lose work. If the Internet dies and there is an EMP pulse that destroys all technology I'm screwed (the one thing I don't have is a paper copy, oddly enough; I might fix that tonight). If we still have the electric on tomorrow I'm fine.
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I've used Time Machine to get my system up and running again (I backup at least once a day because I live in fear of losing my PhD thesis) and it's great.
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Ah, just read backwards to find the 'Let's not talk about things potentially incurring the wrath of the SG.' Zipping it now.
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Amen to that man Tussock.
Russell: As to what peace activists might do with silencers... I think you might have meant 'What would some alleged peace activists be doing with silencers?' Tarring all the arrestees with the same political brush, terrorist or otherwise, really doesn't help matters.
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Islander:
I heard stuff to that effect. Certainly, given the rampant paranoia at the time the servers were (I believe) confiscated it seems understandable. But no, I haven't looked into it. It's a philosophy thesis, primarily, and thus I'm looking at the structure of Conspiracy Theories as beliefs rather than the individual beliefs themselves.
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Well, not necessarily culturally; I was at Parihaka this year and I can say that Valerie Morse's te reo seemed stronger than Emily Bailey's.
Valerie Morse does seem the wild card of the bunch; as I said to a friend of hers (somewhat inadvertently) she does seem to be the one most likely to forment revolt. But, even granting her extremism, to tar the others with such guilt by association (and the curious case of alleged associated ownership of the weapons in question) seems, well, unproven at this stage.
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Apparently I am, in the same respect that I'm okay with farmers arming themselves and gangs in Christchurch collecting weapons.
Which is to say that I'm not all that comfortable with people having weapons but I'm more uncomfortable with what appears to be very selective condemnation of people for very similar behaviours. Especially given the paucity of weapons in respect to this particular `group' (and I use the term loosely).
(There's also stuff to be said about the culture in and around Ruatoki, especially surrounding gun ownership, none of which I am culturally qualified to really comment upon, but I suspect an understanding of the people of Tuhoe probably explains a lot of it.)
And the continued reference to molotov cocktails; I mean, really, anyone can make those. I'm fairly sure I can rattle one up right now.
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And, indeed, I have. I suppose I better turn this into a drink or something before it evaporates.
Had there been (mere) arrests in respect to Firearms Charges the issue would have been less contentious (and, one hopes, the actions in Ruatoki would not have eventuated). But the Police charged people with terrorism. Now, I'm writing a PhD thesis on Conspiracy Theories and I make a habit of studying things that look conspiracy theoretic and the October 15th fiasco looks less like a conspiracy to overthrow Pakeha New Zealand and more like Police incompetence.
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Two things:
One: I think there's something interesting here to say about the Burden of Proof (something for a future blog post, methinks); given that we have a presumption of innocence in our justice system we might well think that people like Jamie Lockett and Valerie Morse are more entitled to make extraordinary claims in regards to their assumed until otherwise innocence than the Police are in respect to their postulated guilt.
(This seems especially true when the Police-cum-the State, for example, don't seem to be playing fair, as I think may well have been the case in October of last year. A fair amount of material prejudicial to the defendants' cause did seem to come from the Crown.)
Two: Like many who won't officially admit to having read the interception material I found it interesting. I suspect it depends on your base assumptions; I don't think anything much was going on and bugger if I can find evidence agin that proposition. Others (like, let's say, Russell) did find things in the interception material. I suspect a lot of it turns on whether you think the Police had reason to be suspicious. There's an awful lot of literature on this kind of cognitive bias and a lot of it is beginning to filter into discussion of how it influences jury trials.
The worrying thing about some of the literature is that it suggests that, despite protests to the contrary, people can know how reading (or hearing, et al) such information and forming such a bias could prejudice them (say, in a jury trial), will then claim that knowing this means that, of course, they won't be prejudiced (being aware of the bias) but still end up making prejudiced decisions.
Also, long time reader, first time poster.