It’s one of the great ironies of our age to hear conservative voices challenging empire serving narratives swallowed in part or whole by both liberal Left (Owen Jones, Paul Mason, George Monbiot) and far Left (SWP, Workers Power).
Think Peter Hitchens of the Daily Mail, questioning the evidence-lite – nay, evidence defying – chemical weapons allegations against Assad. Think American Conservative (big-C), or Reagan appointees Stephen Cohen and Paul Craig Roberts; aghast at the crassly Orwellian demonising of Russia by media once known as the ‘quality press’.
With that in mind, hear what American conservative (small-c) Tucker Carlson had to say on Fox News – Fox News! – on April 11, the day Julian Assange was dragged from the Ecuador Embassy.
I think one of the biggest problems is that a conceptual wedge has been pushed between “the Left” and “conspiracy theory”. Admittedly – demonisation of the latter term has been one of the most spectacular achievements of recent propaganda which has established that conspiracy theories are self-refuting e.g. the very word “conspiracy” induces a guffaw. But when conspiracy theories are voiced they tend to turn up on the Right – which may be why the Right are ahead in this respect i.e. they openly acknowledge that conspiracies happen all the time. But the Left are supposed to deal in “structural analysis” which is meant to be mutually incompatible with conspiracy theory. And this conceptual wedge is as propagandistically effective as the stain on the word “conspiracy” itself.
I’m guilty myself, George. See this piece where I publicly ridicule 9/11 ‘truthers’. And this one where I’m obliged to eat my words.
My error, as a marxist, was to confuse two separate issues. Because marxism doesn’t rely on conspiracy, looking instead to capital’s intrinsic laws of motion, I drew the non sequitur conclusion that 9/11 ‘truthers’ must be wrong.
There’s a bit more to it, of course, but my adding 2 + 2 to get 5 was a big factor in my airy dismissal. Not that I call myself a truther even now. But I do know the best of them are to be accorded a good deal of respect.