8 ms·

The accidental invention of the Illuminati conspiracy

62 points by gpvos 9y ago

bitL 9y ago
Hehe, KLF is gonna rock ya! They are supposed to respawn this August, so I am curious what would happen (after a 23-year hiatus). I am pretty sure Scooter will ape them again though... Anyway, over here in Ingolstadt the original Illuminati were nothing like what Deus Ex depicts; it was mainly a club of nerds competing with another club of nerds called freemasons; the latter group making fun of the former that their "secrets" suck and only the first few levels had some "secrets", the rest had none. Simply a silly game that people took way too seriously out of boredom. They then practiced the art of spying on each other and as the mutual mistrust developed, they later disappeared.
- mattkevan 9y ago
  They're justified and they're ancient and they drive an ice cream van... The KLF (and Bill Drummond in particular) are truly inspirational in how they engage with popular culture while still being deeply conceptual artists. And have a ton of fun. John Higgs' book on them is a good read. It goes into detail about the illuminati and Robert anton wilson (fun fact: Drummond did the set design for the play mentioned in the article). The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780226551/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I.hKzbX1CB8G5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780226551/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I....
  - bitL 9y ago
    So, let's conspire a bit here... The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front) had a hand in creating music genres such as trance, acid house, ambient; the song "What Time Is Love?" is arguably the most remixed song ever (you can even see Armin performing it in Greece). They took a retired US country singer and made her sing about an ice cream van, then a Deep Purple singer to spoil America's 500th anniversary, and used a grind-core band while firing blanks from M16 during Brit Awards. They did the wicker man burning, obviously to popularize Burning Man in Europe. They deleted their back catalog in order not to allow anyone to re-release their music and burned the only million they got from their music. Upon closer analysis and research, this all is so improbable it obviously couldn't be an accident, so there must be somebody behind them making all this happen! I know who that is, it's the Illuminati v2.0!
    - mattkevan 9y ago
      Oh my goodness, it's all starting to make sense! Don't forget the contract signed on the side of a hire car and subsequently pushed off a cliff. Or mysterious rites on the Isle of Jura...
falcolas 9y ago
I think the Illuminati, and other conspiracies, are so popular because it's comforting to believe that someone, no matter how megalomaniacal, is taking actions that lead to a higher purpose. The thought that nobody is really in charge - that there is no higher purpose - can be pretty damned scary and isolating.
- posterboy 9y ago
  All you are really saying is, people belive in something (because its hard to believe in nothing). That doesn't explain the type of believe they hold. While anarchy has to be the default assumption, its hardly the commonly accepted notion of the status quo. It seems much more comfortable to assume that everything is in order of a personally profitable higher purpose. Whereas conspiracies are usually attributed to a lack of moral and socially intollerable consequences. I mean, how are conspiracy theories comforting instead of scary? Instead, conspiracies and anarchy alike are scary because of a lack of cooperation.
- dispo001 9y ago
  Its not like wealthy, powerful, privileged people could actually get together and forge some kind of sinister plan to expand their wealth power and privilege - Right? If that would be possible there would be clear signs of it all over the world. It would require great effort not to notice it.
  - 0xcde4c3db 9y ago
    They pretty obviously can and do. However, explanations of world events quickly get ridiculous when it's posited that there's one such group in charge rather than multiple ones in conflict/competition.
- cerealbad 9y ago
  Bill Cooper's Mystery Babylon radio series from the late 90s is archived online and was intended to act as an in depth primer >40 hours. Quigley's books are freely available from his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley It's relatively harmless and in good fun. Saying there is nothing there betrays ignorance on the source material. If anything I'm prone to believe some of the conspirators are behind the dissemination of the theories, if only to draw a little attention and recognition from a largely disinterested general public. You work for money right? How does this scale?
patrickg_zill 9y ago
The real reason for the prevalence of conspiracy theories: some of them turn out to be true! See the recent LIBOR conspiracy. Hundreds if not thousands of people knew about it, yet it never leaked until some chance emails turned up during discovery of some other financial malfeasance.
- sverige 9y ago
  The phrase "conspiracy theory" was coined by the CIA. [1,2] It is one of the greatest counters to the exposure of secrets ever invented. This article is a good example of why it is so effective. Who's going to question the authority and veracity of the BBC? [1] https://projectunspeakable.com/conspiracy-theory-invention-of-cia/ https://projectunspeakable.com/conspiracy-theory-invention-o... [2] http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/1967-he-cia-created-phrase-conspiracy-theorists-and-ways-attack-anyone-who-challenge http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/1967-he-cia-created...
  - dispo001 9y ago
    To point out the obvious: people who most badly need to understand this are not able to understand what it means. We need some approach like Not Sure talking with plants.
  - mcguire 9y ago
    [3] Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco.
ourmandave 9y ago
Wait, so Tom Hanks' Angels and Demons wasn't a "recreation from actual events"?
- tempodox 9y ago
  They want us to believe that so nobody finds out that the Kremlin has that flask of antimatter stored in the basement.
  - mcguire 9y ago
    You don't?
- jccalhoun 9y ago
  That's what they want you to think!
qualitytime 9y ago
Listen, everyone has an urge to belong to some group. You might not act on the urge as Woody Allen: “I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member.” The illumaniti exists and it's at the top of the pyramid. But they are just like you and me, the only difference that they (or their ancestors) climbed up first. What do they see? No step to climb higher only others below clambering up.
- cromulent 9y ago
  Groucho Marx was the author of that quote, I believe.
- mcguire 9y ago
  I could be mistaken, but I don't think that was either a haiku or a limerick.
ringaroundthetx 9y ago
from Playboy employees writing fake and contradictory letters in the magazine about the Illuminati to adaptive plays and concerts, that means a lot of people really do read it for the articles
dsr_ 9y ago
It’s hardly instigated the mind-blowing epiphany – the realisation that it’s all fake – which the proponents of Discordianism had originally intended. The article doesn't emphasize this quite right. The key insight of Discordianism is that all of human society is "fake". If you can kick it, it's real; if you can't kick it, it's exactly as real as Eris is -- which is to say, the way people behave is in accordance with the way that they truly believe. The first level of Discordianism is to think that Discordianism is a joke. The second level is to realize that it's true. The third level is to realize that it's a joke that teaches you that everything that exists in and shared between minds has the same ontological basis: Discordia, Islam, Christianity, the US Federal Reserve System, Google -- they all exist because people believe that they exist and behave in ways that indicate that belief.
- weeksie 9y ago
  I remember reading RAW back when I was 19 or so. I think it was the Shrodinger's Cat Trilogy, then the Illuminatus! Just amazing stuff. And a massive piss take on the post modern novels of the day. Kallisti!
  - PoachedSausage 9y ago
    Wow, what a synchronicity. I was just thinking how the images from Charlottesville could almost have come straight out of Illuminatus Trilogy.
- mcguire 9y ago
  I, too, enjoy the game Sink and am a person of much ilk.
- Asooka 9y ago
  The fourth level is just enjoying the joke as it is?
  - Nydhal 9y ago
    The fifth level is becoming the joke.
empath75 9y ago
This guy is actually fairly ignorant of the history. The Illuminatus! Trilogy was a parody of conspiracy literature and was released in 1975. There were hundreds of books about the freemasons and the illuminati going back to the 18th century. There was a whole anti-Masonic political party in the United States in the 19th century. In particular, the book parodied the John Birch society. The real innovation in the book was how freely they mixed and matched conspiracy theories from the left and right to turn them into a gigantic ur-conspiracy.
- jhbadger 9y ago
  Yes, and even the idea of a parody of conspiracy literature wasn't all that new at that point. Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" had been published in 1965 and the group it describes, the Trystero, is the Illuminati in all but name.
Gargoyle 9y ago
Adam Gorightly, author of a couple of books about Kerry Thornley, has been documenting the early days of discordianism at Historia Discordia. Lots of gems from era, info on various Illuminatus Trilogy related things, etc, on that site. http://historiadiscordia.com/ http://historiadiscordia.com/
- mcguire 9y ago
  https://www.principiadiscordia.com/index.php https://www.principiadiscordia.com/index.php
fgandiya 9y ago
Great, so how do I tell my old pastor who made us watch hours worth of illuminati exposes In pop culture which relied on a lot of sharp shooting fallacies?
regularfry 9y ago
On the one hand, this is a fascinating fnord look into the history; on the other, how much should we believe the sources? It's presented as a factual article, but it would be the very essence of Discordianism for at least one of the named sources not to exist at all...
darkphoton 9y ago
What re-initiated the conspiracy theory was an Anti-Semetic Illuminati book written by William Carr in 1958 which linked it to the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. Also the conspiratorial aspects were real but represented how the Jesuits behaved in 18th century Bavaria. The Illuminati was modeled off the Jesuits and the Rite of Strict Observance, a controversial Masonic lodge that falsely claimed the Freemasons were attributed to the Knights Templar. The Illuminati ended in 1793 but did have some connections to the moderates of the French Revolution through Bode, Bonneville and Thomas Paine. The hysteria and exposure of the Illuminati, which was a rationalist secret society fighting for Enlightenment ideals, inspired countless other revolutionaries and secret societies, many Communist in nature. One of the most famous, was the conspirator, revolutionary and Freemason Philippe Buonarroti. Then there was the OTO and Aleister Crowley, which really had no connection to the Illuminati. In the 1920s, Milner's Kindergarten did engage in the Cecil Rhodes secret society promoting the Imperial Federation and Round Table movement. That did become the Royal Institte of International Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations. It was modeled on the Illuminati, but again that was the structure of the political secret society of the Vatican (Jesuits). Lord Rothschild was involved with Rhodes and Milner but he was against Imperial Federation. Mayer Rothschild was not involved in the Illuminati (all the members were made public) but a few Illuminati members were affiliated with him. But their philosophy was more akin to Thomas Jefferson and their structure just a political device to promote classical liberalism. The Illuminati was against the occult, but did reference the Alumbrados and Illumines of France. The core of all the esotericism is mainly from the 14 & 15th century where writers merged ancient Greek philosophy with Jewish mysticism. The conspiracy today is more an affront to classical liberalism, with ultra wealthy people believing in economic integration. The Establishment today is the complete opposite of what the Illuminati were fighting for. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Guy_Carr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Guy_Carr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Buonarroti https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Buonarroti
stirner 9y ago
The title should say "conspiracy theory". "Conspiracy" is not synonymous.
dereksine 9y ago
Like any organization, big or small. You will always have people with more influence and visibility at the top. Remember that the term Illuminati stems from the Latin word "illuminatus" which means "enlightened". I don't believe when people mention the Illuminati today that they're referring to the same Bavarian Illuminati historians reference but rather a new generation of the "enlightened". If pay close attention you're starting to see this today in tech as some of the industry veterans start to get closer with politicians and the Government through lobbying and advisory roles. The Illuminati concept often falls into the old "Us vs. The Man" mentality. Zuckerberg went through the same issues with privacy and now he's positioned to be a Global Leader. Hate to break it, but the Illuminati in some form does exist through various social clubs and organizations. I'd say it's not as direct as people position it but those groups definitely have an influence on world events and the future of our everyday lives.
anotherbrownguy 9y ago
The general message of the article is that Trump is using conspiracy theories to mislead the masses into supporting his extremist views. There is also a link to another BBC article called "How to avoid falling for fake news". Let's use those ideas to see if we are falling for fake news here. >Don’t be seduced by simplicity Maybe Trump doesn't have authority over what people believe? People have been believing in conspiracy theories forever... and there have been conspiracies forever. It's not like "conspiracy theory" is something that is false. Powerful people have conspired to lie to the public and do things that benefit themselves forever. >Be smart to doctored images (in the article, there is a link to another article which says fake images can change people's memories) The article shows a picture of Trump giving a speech, which is selected to have him with an unflattering face with a subtitle suggesting that he introduced conspiracy theories to the American mainstream. It seems like it is designed to plant into people's memories that he is the one doing this. They could have linked to an actual video where he actually said anything about Illuminati or other secret societies, but since no such videos exist, they have to plant these ideas by carefully selected images and associated subtitles. I mean a lot of the people seem to believe that Trump is a "racist" and a "sexist" despite there being no videos of him ever saying anything racist or sexist. Unflattering picture plus a TV comedy shows saying that he said those things to change people's memories? >Accept your ignorance OK. I don't know much about American politics or media or British politics or media for that matter. But I have been exposed to it because apparently no matter how unrelated an internet community or a discussion topic is, American politics finds it's way through. >Look beyond your bubble I try. >Consider the opposite OK. Let's see: # The 45th President of the United States was a notorious “birther” - Barack Obama's half brother, Malik Obama, is also a "birther" so maybe there's more to it? Maybe Obama was not born in the USA and they actually fabricated the evidence? I mean Obama was the president during the time and it couldn't have been that much difficult to fabricate a birth certificate. Also, the woman who issued it died in a plane crash a few years later (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/health-director-who-approved-obama-birth-certificate-dies-plane-crash-f2D11732106). Could just be a coincidence but I'm just considering the opposite. # He also accused various US states of voter fraud - I think most people agree with the idea of voter fraud and election hacking. So, maybe there was some fraud? # Pizzagate - Pedophiles with powerful political connections is not a new thing. Jeffery Epstein, a friend of Bill Clinton, is serving time because of pedophilia related crimes. The images in the alleged Pizza place instagram were very creepy to say the least (https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@rebelskum/james-alefantis-once-public-instagram-jimmycomet-now-preserved-on-steemit-blockchain). # Bowling Green Massacre - Maybe there was a massacre... which was classified and she leaked it and then later covered it up? Just considering the opposite. Just to consider the opposite of what the article is suggesting, maybe the powerful people in the world do conspire to keep their power? Powerful people do seem to meet in private, every once in a while. Why would they not discuss how to keep their power and ways to deal with their enemies?
mcguire 9y ago
"Then, an Illuminati role-playing card game appeared in 1975 which imprinted its mystical world of secret societies onto a whole generation." Ahem. Illuminati came out in the early '80s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game)).
dghf 9y ago
It's a shame that the author has effectively written out RAW's co-author, Robert Shea: he's not even named, mentioned only in passing as "another Playboy writer".

62 points by gpvos 9y ago

bitL 9y ago

Hehe, KLF is gonna rock ya! They are supposed to respawn this August, so I am curious what would happen (after a 23-year hiatus). I am pretty sure Scooter will ape them again though... Anyway, over here in Ingolstadt the original Illuminati were nothing like what Deus Ex depicts; it was mainly a club of nerds competing with another club of nerds called freemasons; the latter group making fun of the former that their "secrets" suck and only the first few levels had some "secrets", the rest had none. Simply a silly game that people took way too seriously out of boredom. They then practiced the art of spying on each other and as the mutual mistrust developed, they later disappeared.

mattkevan 9y ago
They're justified and they're ancient and they drive an ice cream van... The KLF (and Bill Drummond in particular) are truly inspirational in how they engage with popular culture while still being deeply conceptual artists. And have a ton of fun. John Higgs' book on them is a good read. It goes into detail about the illuminati and Robert anton wilson (fun fact: Drummond did the set design for the play mentioned in the article). The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780226551/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I.hKzbX1CB8G5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780226551/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I....
- bitL 9y ago
  So, let's conspire a bit here... The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front) had a hand in creating music genres such as trance, acid house, ambient; the song "What Time Is Love?" is arguably the most remixed song ever (you can even see Armin performing it in Greece). They took a retired US country singer and made her sing about an ice cream van, then a Deep Purple singer to spoil America's 500th anniversary, and used a grind-core band while firing blanks from M16 during Brit Awards. They did the wicker man burning, obviously to popularize Burning Man in Europe. They deleted their back catalog in order not to allow anyone to re-release their music and burned the only million they got from their music. Upon closer analysis and research, this all is so improbable it obviously couldn't be an accident, so there must be somebody behind them making all this happen! I know who that is, it's the Illuminati v2.0!
  - mattkevan 9y ago
    Oh my goodness, it's all starting to make sense! Don't forget the contract signed on the side of a hire car and subsequently pushed off a cliff. Or mysterious rites on the Isle of Jura...

falcolas 9y ago

I think the Illuminati, and other conspiracies, are so popular because it's comforting to believe that someone, no matter how megalomaniacal, is taking actions that lead to a higher purpose. The thought that nobody is really in charge - that there is no higher purpose - can be pretty damned scary and isolating.

posterboy 9y ago
All you are really saying is, people belive in something (because its hard to believe in nothing). That doesn't explain the type of believe they hold. While anarchy has to be the default assumption, its hardly the commonly accepted notion of the status quo. It seems much more comfortable to assume that everything is in order of a personally profitable higher purpose. Whereas conspiracies are usually attributed to a lack of moral and socially intollerable consequences. I mean, how are conspiracy theories comforting instead of scary? Instead, conspiracies and anarchy alike are scary because of a lack of cooperation.
dispo001 9y ago
Its not like wealthy, powerful, privileged people could actually get together and forge some kind of sinister plan to expand their wealth power and privilege - Right? If that would be possible there would be clear signs of it all over the world. It would require great effort not to notice it.
- 0xcde4c3db 9y ago
  They pretty obviously can and do. However, explanations of world events quickly get ridiculous when it's posited that there's one such group in charge rather than multiple ones in conflict/competition.
cerealbad 9y ago
Bill Cooper's Mystery Babylon radio series from the late 90s is archived online and was intended to act as an in depth primer >40 hours. Quigley's books are freely available from his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley It's relatively harmless and in good fun. Saying there is nothing there betrays ignorance on the source material. If anything I'm prone to believe some of the conspirators are behind the dissemination of the theories, if only to draw a little attention and recognition from a largely disinterested general public. You work for money right? How does this scale?

patrickg_zill 9y ago

The real reason for the prevalence of conspiracy theories: some of them turn out to be true! See the recent LIBOR conspiracy. Hundreds if not thousands of people knew about it, yet it never leaked until some chance emails turned up during discovery of some other financial malfeasance.

sverige 9y ago
The phrase "conspiracy theory" was coined by the CIA. [1,2] It is one of the greatest counters to the exposure of secrets ever invented. This article is a good example of why it is so effective. Who's going to question the authority and veracity of the BBC? [1] https://projectunspeakable.com/conspiracy-theory-invention-of-cia/ https://projectunspeakable.com/conspiracy-theory-invention-o... [2] http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/1967-he-cia-created-phrase-conspiracy-theorists-and-ways-attack-anyone-who-challenge http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/1967-he-cia-created...
- dispo001 9y ago
  To point out the obvious: people who most badly need to understand this are not able to understand what it means. We need some approach like Not Sure talking with plants.
- mcguire 9y ago
  [3] Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco.

ourmandave 9y ago

Wait, so Tom Hanks' Angels and Demons wasn't a "recreation from actual events"?

tempodox 9y ago
They want us to believe that so nobody finds out that the Kremlin has that flask of antimatter stored in the basement.
- mcguire 9y ago
  You don't?
jccalhoun 9y ago
That's what they want you to think!

qualitytime 9y ago

Listen, everyone has an urge to belong to some group. You might not act on the urge as Woody Allen: “I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member.” The illumaniti exists and it's at the top of the pyramid. But they are just like you and me, the only difference that they (or their ancestors) climbed up first. What do they see? No step to climb higher only others below clambering up.

cromulent 9y ago
Groucho Marx was the author of that quote, I believe.
mcguire 9y ago
I could be mistaken, but I don't think that was either a haiku or a limerick.

ringaroundthetx 9y ago

from Playboy employees writing fake and contradictory letters in the magazine about the Illuminati to adaptive plays and concerts, that means a lot of people really do read it for the articles

dsr_ 9y ago

It’s hardly instigated the mind-blowing epiphany – the realisation that it’s all fake – which the proponents of Discordianism had originally intended. The article doesn't emphasize this quite right. The key insight of Discordianism is that all of human society is "fake". If you can kick it, it's real; if you can't kick it, it's exactly as real as Eris is -- which is to say, the way people behave is in accordance with the way that they truly believe. The first level of Discordianism is to think that Discordianism is a joke. The second level is to realize that it's true. The third level is to realize that it's a joke that teaches you that everything that exists in and shared between minds has the same ontological basis: Discordia, Islam, Christianity, the US Federal Reserve System, Google -- they all exist because people believe that they exist and behave in ways that indicate that belief.

weeksie 9y ago
I remember reading RAW back when I was 19 or so. I think it was the Shrodinger's Cat Trilogy, then the Illuminatus! Just amazing stuff. And a massive piss take on the post modern novels of the day. Kallisti!
- PoachedSausage 9y ago
  Wow, what a synchronicity. I was just thinking how the images from Charlottesville could almost have come straight out of Illuminatus Trilogy.
mcguire 9y ago
I, too, enjoy the game Sink and am a person of much ilk.
Asooka 9y ago
The fourth level is just enjoying the joke as it is?
- Nydhal 9y ago
  The fifth level is becoming the joke.

empath75 9y ago

This guy is actually fairly ignorant of the history. The Illuminatus! Trilogy was a parody of conspiracy literature and was released in 1975. There were hundreds of books about the freemasons and the illuminati going back to the 18th century. There was a whole anti-Masonic political party in the United States in the 19th century. In particular, the book parodied the John Birch society. The real innovation in the book was how freely they mixed and matched conspiracy theories from the left and right to turn them into a gigantic ur-conspiracy.

jhbadger 9y ago
Yes, and even the idea of a parody of conspiracy literature wasn't all that new at that point. Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" had been published in 1965 and the group it describes, the Trystero, is the Illuminati in all but name.

Gargoyle 9y ago

Adam Gorightly, author of a couple of books about Kerry Thornley, has been documenting the early days of discordianism at Historia Discordia. Lots of gems from era, info on various Illuminatus Trilogy related things, etc, on that site. http://historiadiscordia.com/ http://historiadiscordia.com/

mcguire 9y ago
https://www.principiadiscordia.com/index.php https://www.principiadiscordia.com/index.php

fgandiya 9y ago

Great, so how do I tell my old pastor who made us watch hours worth of illuminati exposes In pop culture which relied on a lot of sharp shooting fallacies?

regularfry 9y ago

On the one hand, this is a fascinating fnord look into the history; on the other, how much should we believe the sources? It's presented as a factual article, but it would be the very essence of Discordianism for at least one of the named sources not to exist at all...

darkphoton 9y ago

What re-initiated the conspiracy theory was an Anti-Semetic Illuminati book written by William Carr in 1958 which linked it to the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. Also the conspiratorial aspects were real but represented how the Jesuits behaved in 18th century Bavaria. The Illuminati was modeled off the Jesuits and the Rite of Strict Observance, a controversial Masonic lodge that falsely claimed the Freemasons were attributed to the Knights Templar. The Illuminati ended in 1793 but did have some connections to the moderates of the French Revolution through Bode, Bonneville and Thomas Paine. The hysteria and exposure of the Illuminati, which was a rationalist secret society fighting for Enlightenment ideals, inspired countless other revolutionaries and secret societies, many Communist in nature. One of the most famous, was the conspirator, revolutionary and Freemason Philippe Buonarroti. Then there was the OTO and Aleister Crowley, which really had no connection to the Illuminati. In the 1920s, Milner's Kindergarten did engage in the Cecil Rhodes secret society promoting the Imperial Federation and Round Table movement. That did become the Royal Institte of International Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations. It was modeled on the Illuminati, but again that was the structure of the political secret society of the Vatican (Jesuits). Lord Rothschild was involved with Rhodes and Milner but he was against Imperial Federation. Mayer Rothschild was not involved in the Illuminati (all the members were made public) but a few Illuminati members were affiliated with him. But their philosophy was more akin to Thomas Jefferson and their structure just a political device to promote classical liberalism. The Illuminati was against the occult, but did reference the Alumbrados and Illumines of France. The core of all the esotericism is mainly from the 14 & 15th century where writers merged ancient Greek philosophy with Jewish mysticism. The conspiracy today is more an affront to classical liberalism, with ultra wealthy people believing in economic integration. The Establishment today is the complete opposite of what the Illuminati were fighting for. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Guy_Carr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Guy_Carr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Buonarroti https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Buonarroti

stirner 9y ago

The title should say "conspiracy theory". "Conspiracy" is not synonymous.

dereksine 9y ago

Like any organization, big or small. You will always have people with more influence and visibility at the top. Remember that the term Illuminati stems from the Latin word "illuminatus" which means "enlightened". I don't believe when people mention the Illuminati today that they're referring to the same Bavarian Illuminati historians reference but rather a new generation of the "enlightened". If pay close attention you're starting to see this today in tech as some of the industry veterans start to get closer with politicians and the Government through lobbying and advisory roles. The Illuminati concept often falls into the old "Us vs. The Man" mentality. Zuckerberg went through the same issues with privacy and now he's positioned to be a Global Leader. Hate to break it, but the Illuminati in some form does exist through various social clubs and organizations. I'd say it's not as direct as people position it but those groups definitely have an influence on world events and the future of our everyday lives.

anotherbrownguy 9y ago

The general message of the article is that Trump is using conspiracy theories to mislead the masses into supporting his extremist views. There is also a link to another BBC article called "How to avoid falling for fake news". Let's use those ideas to see if we are falling for fake news here. >Don’t be seduced by simplicity Maybe Trump doesn't have authority over what people believe? People have been believing in conspiracy theories forever... and there have been conspiracies forever. It's not like "conspiracy theory" is something that is false. Powerful people have conspired to lie to the public and do things that benefit themselves forever. >Be smart to doctored images (in the article, there is a link to another article which says fake images can change people's memories) The article shows a picture of Trump giving a speech, which is selected to have him with an unflattering face with a subtitle suggesting that he introduced conspiracy theories to the American mainstream. It seems like it is designed to plant into people's memories that he is the one doing this. They could have linked to an actual video where he actually said anything about Illuminati or other secret societies, but since no such videos exist, they have to plant these ideas by carefully selected images and associated subtitles. I mean a lot of the people seem to believe that Trump is a "racist" and a "sexist" despite there being no videos of him ever saying anything racist or sexist. Unflattering picture plus a TV comedy shows saying that he said those things to change people's memories? >Accept your ignorance OK. I don't know much about American politics or media or British politics or media for that matter. But I have been exposed to it because apparently no matter how unrelated an internet community or a discussion topic is, American politics finds it's way through. >Look beyond your bubble I try. >Consider the opposite OK. Let's see: # The 45th President of the United States was a notorious “birther” - Barack Obama's half brother, Malik Obama, is also a "birther" so maybe there's more to it? Maybe Obama was not born in the USA and they actually fabricated the evidence? I mean Obama was the president during the time and it couldn't have been that much difficult to fabricate a birth certificate. Also, the woman who issued it died in a plane crash a few years later (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/health-director-who-approved-obama-birth-certificate-dies-plane-crash-f2D11732106). Could just be a coincidence but I'm just considering the opposite. # He also accused various US states of voter fraud - I think most people agree with the idea of voter fraud and election hacking. So, maybe there was some fraud? # Pizzagate - Pedophiles with powerful political connections is not a new thing. Jeffery Epstein, a friend of Bill Clinton, is serving time because of pedophilia related crimes. The images in the alleged Pizza place instagram were very creepy to say the least (https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@rebelskum/james-alefantis-once-public-instagram-jimmycomet-now-preserved-on-steemit-blockchain). # Bowling Green Massacre - Maybe there was a massacre... which was classified and she leaked it and then later covered it up? Just considering the opposite. Just to consider the opposite of what the article is suggesting, maybe the powerful people in the world do conspire to keep their power? Powerful people do seem to meet in private, every once in a while. Why would they not discuss how to keep their power and ways to deal with their enemies?

mcguire 9y ago

"Then, an Illuminati role-playing card game appeared in 1975 which imprinted its mystical world of secret societies onto a whole generation." Ahem. Illuminati came out in the early '80s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati_(game)).

dghf 9y ago

It's a shame that the author has effectively written out RAW's co-author, Robert Shea: he's not even named, mentioned only in passing as "another Playboy writer".