Conspiracy Conference: ‘Patriots,’ Others Tout Tales of Government Evil
There’s a conspiracy believer sucker born every minute
More in the continuing epic of the business of paranoia and the profits of doom.
It was a weekend of worrying and finger pointing. Many used the conference to reinforce their belief that either the government, corporations, Jews, Communists, secret societies, shadow governments or aliens are doing something very bad to the rest of us, and most the world unfortunately just doesn’t know about it. While many of those who attended seemed harmless, if overly given to theories with little observable basis in reality, the event was thick with the kind of conspiracy theories that animate the antigovernment “Patriot” movement.
It wasn’t all conspiranoia, however. At least one smile was readily apparent — the one on the face of Brian William Hall, the Bay Area promoter, conference organizer and “truth movement” guru who sold tickets for $99 a day or $219 for his special “conspiracy weekend package.” (T-shirts, extra.) Hall also sold table space to a large room full of vendors peddling everything from “ear coning” and palm reading to assorted books on how to fight the IRS, detect covert government spies, survive a nuclear war, fight the “New World Order” and discover “the truth” about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Hall said his 11th annual conspiracy convention, in addition to helping his bank account, was an opportunity “for those of us in the truth movement to assess ourselves.” “I believe we are indeed a legitimate movement of concerned citizens,” he said. Those in attendance represented a “wide spectrum politically and spiritually.” For example, he said, fundamentalist Christians and agnostics can come together to jointly fight the New World Order.
“Most of us are not ‘buffs,’” Hall bristled. “This is not cute. It’s not fun. This country, this planet [are] in serious doo-doo, deep doo-doo.”
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