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talkpoliticsI am very sad that I did not find this out until after Conspiracy Theories Month, but now having found it, I can't not share it, because it's just too insane to keep to myself.
So, there's this website called The Vigilant Citizen. One of my classmates linked to it on his Facebook, and knowing him as I do, he's seriously concerned about this, which is scary, as you'll soon see.
If you go into the "About VC" section, at first the author seems fairly reasonable. He's got a bachelor's degree in Communications and Politics! He's "a music producer who has composed music for some fairly well-known 'urban' artists!" He really really wants you to understand importance of symbols! In everything! By the third paragraph it's pretty obvious that the guy is a nut.
The topic my classmate specifically looked at (in his own words, "it's worth another look if anyone is interested in seeing the occult influence over entertainment") was the 2009 VMA awards show. Every year, as most of us know, MTV hosts the Video Music Awards to, I guess, award the best videos of the year (I've never watched it myself, as I find awards shows to be even more vacuous and pointless than reality TV). But, as VC tells us, it's all part of a diabolical scheme to corrupt the youth of the world.
In short (you can real the whole masterpiece here), it goes like this: the entire 2009 VMA awards show was a carefully-staged and ingeniously-disguised occult ritual, meant to surreptitiously open the viewers to evil influences. It included:
So yeah, at first read it seems like a joke, but the level of detail the author goes into makes it apparent that, no, he actually believes what he's saying, Jack Black (Jack Black! I mean, for God's sake, Jack Black! If I were Satan I think I'd pick a somewhat more sinister minion than Jack Black) really did lead the congregation in a prayer to Satan, the whole show was one giant, coordinated occult ritual. And my classmate believes it, too.
What scares me is that this classmate of mine isn't just some random crazy nutjob wearing an end-of-the-world sandwich board on a street corner. He is an intelligent and educated man who has a Bachelor's Degree, an MBA, and is halfway to earning a JD. I've talked with him at length on a few occasions, and mostly he sounds perfectly normal. But he genuinely believes that there is a giant worldwide occult conspiracy whose aim is the destruction of True Christianity™ and the remaking of civilization into a New World Order, which works its evil into society through music and subliminal messages, and which is insidiously inserting its members into high positions in politics, business, education, and even churches. He genuinely believes that pop music stars such as Lady Gaga are using weird occult mind-control techniques to corrupt our youth. He genuinely believes that Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings were created by occultists to lure in children and open up their minds to Satanic influence. He genuinely believes that the US Government passed a law last year that allowed it to lock Truthers up for life so as to forever hide what really happened on 9/11. He genuinely believes that Jerry Sandusky was able to stay on at Penn State for so many years because he's a member of the Illuminati who have infiltrated every level of American society and keep one another in power no matter what.
And this guy, ladies and gentlemen, is going to be a attorney. You know, we joke about conspiracy theorists, we make fun of the kooky idiots who believe the Illuminati actually exist and the New World Order is real. It becomes less amusing, and more frightening, when you realize that some of the people who believe these things aren't, like I said, random nuts on the street, but are professionals, are politicians, are pastors. Are people, therefore, with actual power and influence. There are whole swaths of American Christianity that teach that the US Government is an evil tool of Satan, that there is a war between True Christianity™ and the US/UN/NWO that seeks to destroy the Christian faith, that everything from public school science class to Barack Obama are all part of a giant, coordinated, interconnected Satanic movement. Yes, they may be a small minority of American Christians, but they are an influential one.
It's all too easy to dismiss this as rank ignorance and uneducated stupidity, but too many people, like my classmate, really do believe this stuff, and that belief influences their voting. So no, I am not concerned about the Illuminati, because they don't exist. I am concerned about the lawyers, doctors, businessmen, politicians, and preachers who believe they do exist.
So, there's this website called The Vigilant Citizen. One of my classmates linked to it on his Facebook, and knowing him as I do, he's seriously concerned about this, which is scary, as you'll soon see.
If you go into the "About VC" section, at first the author seems fairly reasonable. He's got a bachelor's degree in Communications and Politics! He's "a music producer who has composed music for some fairly well-known 'urban' artists!" He really really wants you to understand importance of symbols! In everything! By the third paragraph it's pretty obvious that the guy is a nut.
My efforts to further understand the forces governing the world lead me to study secret societies, mystery religions, esoteric sciences and ancient civilizations. I’ve spent the last seven years researching Theosophy, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Bavarian Illuminati and Western Occultism. These schools of thoughts have many things in common: they are based on Hermetic teachings (Hermes, Thoth, Enoch, Mercury), they attach EXTREME importance to symbolism and they recruit within their ranks the most prominent people of all fields of society: politics, law and public service. The natural result of this phenomenon is the display of occult symbolism in all aspects of society, especially music, movies and buildings. My goal is to bring out the meaning of these symbols in a clear, concise and entertaining way.
The topic my classmate specifically looked at (in his own words, "it's worth another look if anyone is interested in seeing the occult influence over entertainment") was the 2009 VMA awards show. Every year, as most of us know, MTV hosts the Video Music Awards to, I guess, award the best videos of the year (I've never watched it myself, as I find awards shows to be even more vacuous and pointless than reality TV). But, as VC tells us, it's all part of a diabolical scheme to corrupt the youth of the world.
In short (you can real the whole masterpiece here), it goes like this: the entire 2009 VMA awards show was a carefully-staged and ingeniously-disguised occult ritual, meant to surreptitiously open the viewers to evil influences. It included:
- A high priestess giving an opening sermon: Madonna's tribute to a fallen saint, Michael Jackson, including an occult prayer (Vincent Price's "Darkness falls across the land" monologue from the Thriller video)
- The initiation of a new member of the inner circle, through ritual humiliation (the Taylor Swift/Kanye West fiasco)
- A congregational prayer to Satan (led by Jack Black!)
- A blood sacrifice (Lady Gaga's performance where she, apparently, appears to be covered in blood, surrounded by a Masonic-themed stage set)
- The symbolic initiation of a new member into the Masonic order (Pink)
- The acceptance of a new member into the order by the Inner Circle: Beyonce and Taylor Swift's friendly little moment, wherein they hugged while a strange message ("RDFO IL 40 PRO DEL ATO") was projected on the screen behind them
So yeah, at first read it seems like a joke, but the level of detail the author goes into makes it apparent that, no, he actually believes what he's saying, Jack Black (Jack Black! I mean, for God's sake, Jack Black! If I were Satan I think I'd pick a somewhat more sinister minion than Jack Black) really did lead the congregation in a prayer to Satan, the whole show was one giant, coordinated occult ritual. And my classmate believes it, too.
What scares me is that this classmate of mine isn't just some random crazy nutjob wearing an end-of-the-world sandwich board on a street corner. He is an intelligent and educated man who has a Bachelor's Degree, an MBA, and is halfway to earning a JD. I've talked with him at length on a few occasions, and mostly he sounds perfectly normal. But he genuinely believes that there is a giant worldwide occult conspiracy whose aim is the destruction of True Christianity™ and the remaking of civilization into a New World Order, which works its evil into society through music and subliminal messages, and which is insidiously inserting its members into high positions in politics, business, education, and even churches. He genuinely believes that pop music stars such as Lady Gaga are using weird occult mind-control techniques to corrupt our youth. He genuinely believes that Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings were created by occultists to lure in children and open up their minds to Satanic influence. He genuinely believes that the US Government passed a law last year that allowed it to lock Truthers up for life so as to forever hide what really happened on 9/11. He genuinely believes that Jerry Sandusky was able to stay on at Penn State for so many years because he's a member of the Illuminati who have infiltrated every level of American society and keep one another in power no matter what.
And this guy, ladies and gentlemen, is going to be a attorney. You know, we joke about conspiracy theorists, we make fun of the kooky idiots who believe the Illuminati actually exist and the New World Order is real. It becomes less amusing, and more frightening, when you realize that some of the people who believe these things aren't, like I said, random nuts on the street, but are professionals, are politicians, are pastors. Are people, therefore, with actual power and influence. There are whole swaths of American Christianity that teach that the US Government is an evil tool of Satan, that there is a war between True Christianity™ and the US/UN/NWO that seeks to destroy the Christian faith, that everything from public school science class to Barack Obama are all part of a giant, coordinated, interconnected Satanic movement. Yes, they may be a small minority of American Christians, but they are an influential one.
It's all too easy to dismiss this as rank ignorance and uneducated stupidity, but too many people, like my classmate, really do believe this stuff, and that belief influences their voting. So no, I am not concerned about the Illuminati, because they don't exist. I am concerned about the lawyers, doctors, businessmen, politicians, and preachers who believe they do exist.
(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 18:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 18:41 (UTC)It's funny, though, that the Gnostics were recognized as a heresy as early as the second century, and that the supposed "artificial" elements grafted onto the "pure" Gnostic Church by those evil orthodox bastards, such as the hierarchy, the importance of Scripture and Tradition, the Eucharist, the Trinity, and a distinct lack of Gnosticism, are all attested by the end of the second century. Moreover, the line of bishops in many of the early churches can credibly be traced back to the beginning, and none of them were Gnostics.
But, yeah, Constantine's Sword! The papacy! The Councils! It was all a conspiracy to hide the truth, and Mary Magdalen really was the 13th Apostle!
(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 19:22 (UTC)I wouldn't mock her scholarly efforts with the finger-quote treatment. You may not agree with how others present her work, but she's no academic slouch.
(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 19:24 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 3/1/12 19:37 (UTC)I used to fancy doing a Master's in ancient history, but that History of the Roman Empire class pretty much ruined the idea. Also the fact that I'm horrible with foreign languages. :P
(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 19:40 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 19:44 (UTC)I just did a general history program for my BA...ended up concentrating on Russian history. Not the most useful of degrees, perhaps, but the Russian history professor had us watch Alexander Nevsky in class. :D
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Date: 3/1/12 21:16 (UTC)I dunno that the last sentence actually follows. I know they tell all of us aspiring attorneys that we're going to be big important folks, but for every President Obama there are a dozen Orly Taitzes.
(no subject)
Date: 3/1/12 23:10 (UTC)Personally, what's the big deal? They're masons. They lay bricks. I like brick buildings because termites don't. Let them have their cabal-ish fun.
(no subject)
Date: 4/1/12 01:39 (UTC)Shhhhhhh, we're trying to keep it quiet!
Kidding, mostly. I could see it, maybe if I stretched it a bit, but like that VMA's thing, it's a bunk idea. Although, it could be a justified thing given Christianity is responsible for more murders, rapes, torture, and genocides than any other group across the history of the entire planet. You know, back in the days when the Church put the 'thou shalt not kill' on the back burner in order to spread Christianity to the por lost masses.
All those misguided folks that believed in other religions. Those savages that resisted seeing the truth of God. Etc, etc.
I find a small bit of comfort in that all the Christians of the past that committed those atrocities are burning in Hell.
Asa rule you'll find that most crazy nutjobs are completely reasonable, intelligent, well spoken people. It's the fringe element to the crazy nutjobs that make people think crazy nutjobs are supposed to be anything else. I know a guy, well read and quite intelligent, who can go on at length about how the Earth isn't under the control of humanity but a group of alien reptoids that manipulate every detail of all of our lives.
Personally, I'm more inclined to believe Hello Kitty is out to destroy the world.
Going to be a lawyer, eh? No shocker there. Most folks in the legal system have a pretty twisted sense of reality as it is.
I don't know that the Illuminati actually exist today. I do believe there was such an organization once though. Don't mind me though, I'm a nut :)
(no subject)
Date: 4/1/12 03:36 (UTC)group across the history of the entire planet."
I dunno...I think Stalin and Mao might together win the prize there. And law folks are so soaked with alcohol that indeed their sense of reality is sseriously whack. lol Seriously in a law school of around 400 students I think there are maybe ten students who don't drink (i.e. nine devout Mormons and me).
(no subject)
Date: 4/1/12 04:07 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/1/12 05:12 (UTC)