I was wondering if anyone here knew of what kind of conspiracy theories would have been running wild among right wing extremists in the US around 2001, though before 9/11
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I don't know much about conspiracy theories but I have worked with an academic whose main research interest were conspiracy theories. Maybe check out his (academic) book:
Butter, Michael. Plots, Designs, and Schemes: American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present. DeGruyter, 2014.
The Wikipedia page on conspiracy theories is a good starting point; anti-semitic conspiracy theories and the New World order probably fit the bill, as would the Cliton body count, and possibly theories about Pan Am 103 (the trial was 2000-2001) and the Oklahoma bombing?
The Turner Diaries (published 1978) was still circulating--I remember that the public library in my home town had a copy of it (circa 1999-2001).
"ZOG" (for Zionist Occupied Government) was one of the buzzwords of the time, and don't forget that the farm crisis of the late 1980s, with family farmers losing their land to foreclosure, gave a good deal of impetus to right-wing radicalism. There was at least one case where a farmer who'd lost everything went to town and shot up the bank--far-right radicalism conflated banks, the Fed, the government and Jews into one vast sump of iniquity.
Those old standbys, the Rothschilds, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and the Trilateral Commission figured in conspiracy theories of the day, just as they do now.
Holocaust denial was alive and well--David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel in 1996.
There's always the antivaxxer stuff--while most right wingers are pro vaccine, the far right antivaxxers (Alex Jones, etc) think vaccines are a World Government conspiracy to cause autism/cancer/homosexuality on a mass scale, with the ultimate goal of reducing the human population
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Yeah, I originally made the mention about FEMA concentration camps, but then I got unsure of when that theory started up, and unsure if the timing would be right.
2. The Clintons had people killed who were in their way to absolute power.
3. The oil cartel was actually controlling the world, including wars. Some of this has been partially proven like when the automotive industry killed public transportation in the 1940s.
*I also want to point out that there was a spin off series from The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen. It starred three conspiracy theorists who ran a magazine and newspaper. In the pilot episode...which aired in March 2001...the father of one of the Lone Gunmen tips them off that the military is about to stage a plane hijacking in order to preserve funding for the military industrial complex. If they can't prevent it, the hijacked plane will be flown into the World Trade Center.
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Butter, Michael. Plots, Designs, and Schemes: American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present. DeGruyter, 2014.
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Maybe something to do with gun control? After Columbine it was a big issue.
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"ZOG" (for Zionist Occupied Government) was one of the buzzwords of the time, and don't forget that the farm crisis of the late 1980s, with family farmers losing their land to foreclosure, gave a good deal of impetus to right-wing radicalism. There was at least one case where a farmer who'd lost everything went to town and shot up the bank--far-right radicalism conflated banks, the Fed, the government and Jews into one vast sump of iniquity.
Those old standbys, the Rothschilds, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and the Trilateral Commission figured in conspiracy theories of the day, just as they do now.
Holocaust denial was alive and well--David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel in 1996.
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(The comment has been removed)
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They were mostly three things:
1. The moon landing was a fake.
2. The Clintons had people killed who were in their way to absolute power.
3. The oil cartel was actually controlling the world, including wars. Some of this has been partially proven like when the automotive industry killed public transportation in the 1940s.
*I also want to point out that there was a spin off series from The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen. It starred three conspiracy theorists who ran a magazine and newspaper. In the pilot episode...which aired in March 2001...the father of one of the Lone Gunmen tips them off that the military is about to stage a plane hijacking in order to preserve funding for the military industrial complex. If they can't prevent it, the hijacked plane will be flown into the World Trade Center.
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