Conspiracy web sites have paid shills?

[Critical Thinker]

I have noticed that there has been a deluge of posts to Craigslist that promote stories on conspiracy profiteering web sites. It was more than a simple coincidence that the same story would be posted and reposted (ad nauseum) in several different cities forums day after day.




After a little more research I found posts on Craigslist for "writers" for some of those conspiracy profiteering web sites.





I found that there are some people who create many Facebook pages promoting themselves and their videos, as well as promoting many of the conspiracy profiteering websites.


https://www.facebook.com/socalskywatch?ref=ts&fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/San-D...96348250403666
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-...64896093535878
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailychemtrail/
https://www.facebook.com/events/537858932910745/


In addition to their more non-conspiracy Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/syd.stevens?fref=ts

His real Name is Tim Svetz, though he goes by the name Syd Stevens.

Also with links to their Wordpress blog and YouTube videos they have of chemtrails.

http://socalskywatch.wordpress.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/socalskywatch?feature=watch

I noticed also the dozens of his posts to beforeitsnews (one of the conspiracy profiteering web sites)








And he is also hosting a viewing of Why in the World are they Spraying? San Diego Premiere

https://www.facebook.com/events/466321883415082/

and he also posts links to other conspiracy profiteering websites as well.


I am of the opinion that in the 'conspiracy theorist crowd' there are 2 types of people; people that seek to be influential and make a buck selling the conspiracy BS, and the other people that are 'true believers' and honestly believe that crap. When I see someone so avidly promoting conspiracy websites and their BS I am thinking that he is one of the persons seeking to gain by spreading that BS. I am wondering if there has been any other documentation of the conspiracy theory profiteers paying people to endorse and spread their conspiracy theories and web sites?

[Critical Thinker]

.... and here is the connection between Mr Tim Svetz (aka. Syd Stevens, Socal Skywatch) and posting to Craigslist.

[George B]

Makes sense . . . always follow the money . . .

[jvnk08]

I have a friend who writes articles for either BeforeItsNews or AboveTopSecret... I didn't realize he might be getting a kick-back from them. The subject matter doesn't stray too far into the fringe, though, they are mostly about real or perceived injustices in the world.

[Mick]

Interesting today there was the "UFO" story, which I did a quick debunk for:
http://metabunk.org/threads/1098-Deb...ver-California

The "news" story that promoted it was:
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.a...81474981841340

The Writer is Tom Rose, and he posted it as happening yesterday, even though it happened seven years ago, and the piece was very melodramatic, with lots of groundless speculation, like "Isn't that extremely dangerous?". Turns out he also writes for Examiner.com (a hotbed of bunk), and has a book called "Doomsday 2012: The UFO Phenomenon". He's got about 100 UFO type posts on Examiner.com.

Examiner.com (and seemingly gather.com) is basically a "content farm", like ehow.com - endless streams of banal content that someone knocked out in a few minutes for a few dollars. All aimed at pulling in clicks, so they can sell ads.

So yeah, there's a clear profit motive in promoting bunk. The content creators seem to be doing it purely with the intent of getting readers, and are totally unconcerned with reality. It's how the supermarket tabloids have evolved onto the internet.

[Woody]

I am of the opinion that in the 'conspiracy theorist crowd' there are 2 types of people; people that seek to be influential and make a buck selling the conspiracy BS, and the other people that are 'true believers' and honestly believe that crap. When I see someone so avidly promoting conspiracy websites and their BS I am thinking that he is one of the persons seeking to gain by spreading that BS. I am wondering if there has been any other documentation of the conspiracy theory profiteers paying people to endorse and spread their conspiracy theories and web sites?[/QUOTE] Although I agree with these two definitions I believe you left out the third possibility, that conspiracies exist. There are many though history, and to completely and fully trust our media, our government, our propoganda (ex: WMD's in Iraq) then you are a fool.

[JFDee]

Although I agree with these two definitions I believe you left out the third possibility, that conspiracies exist. There are many though history, and to completely and fully trust our media, our government, our propoganda (ex: WMD's in Iraq) then you are a fool.

That may be true, but mind that - on the other hand - the general "conspiracy theorist crowd" seems ready to believe the wildest claims on YouTube and Facebook.
Why not apply the same caution there?

Example: in videos and image captions, you will often find the claim that 'normal' contrails dissipate in few minutes, so trails that stay for a long time must be chemtrails.
This is a completely bogus assumption, but people are still parroting it in discussions without checking the base of that claim (who brought it up first, was this person qualified, what is the state of science ?) ...

[Woody]

That may be true, but mind that - on the other hand - the general "conspiracy theorist crowd" seems ready to believe the wildest claims on YouTube and Facebook.
Why not apply the same caution there?

Example: in videos and image captions, you will often find the claim that 'normal' contrails dissipate in few minutes, so trails that stay for a long time must be chemtrails.
This is a completely bogus assumption, but people are still parroting it in discussions without checking the base of that claim (who brought it up first, was this person qualified, what is the state of science ?) ...

JF, then we both agree, use caution when reviewing claims. Or, as it is within the courts, if something is wrong look to a motive, there is always a motive involved in ones actions. Why state WMD's in Iraq? Mutiple motives behind this, but the primary motives are 2, secure oil and he put a hit out on my dad, thus a conspiracy was developed to accomplish his goals and fulfill his motives. $$$ and revenge, the two top motivators in any criminal activity.

[Jay Reynolds]

Example: in videos and image captions, you will often find the claim that 'normal' contrails dissipate in few minutes, so trails that stay for a long time must be chemtrails.
This is a completely bogus assumption, but people are still parroting it in discussions without checking the base of that claim (who brought it up first, was this person qualified, what is the state of science ?) ...

Who brought it up first?

Larry Wayne Harris sold books and helped others sell colloidal silver water.
Next came William Thomas, who sold vitamins he said would protect you from chemtrails.
Thomas allied with John Hammell who still sells sulfur he says will protect you from chemtrails.
Jeff Rense and Art Bell both promoted the hoax on radio and internet through the first five years, they sell advertising and wanted to attract traffic.
The owner of chemtrailcentral.com, once the hub of activity for the whole milieu, tried to establish himself as a clearinghouse for all things conspiracy.
Steadham called it the "X- Network", and it was a very ambitious project to get click revenue which never panned out.
Michael J. Murphy was unemployed, he sought money for his first movie from G. Edward Griffin who sells all sorts of stuff and does endorsements and gets click-through ad revenue.

I could go on and on, but to my knowledge there has NEVER been a shortage of folks working to make a buck off of chemtrails.

[JFDee]

Why state WMD's in Iraq? Mutiple motives behind this, but the primary motives are 2, secure oil and he put a hit out on my dad, thus a conspiracy was developed to accomplish his goals and fulfill his motives.

The Iraq WMD affair is actually an interesting example. I agree it was a conspiracy of the top government - and a rather bungled one. Few people outside the U.S. were convinced by the "evidence", and critical voices inside were hesitant to call the bluff loudly enough, fearing being labelled 'unpatriotic'.

The conspirators were not even able to plant actual evidence during the chaos of the Iraq war.

On the other hand, if chemical spraying on a global scale were a reality, imagine how big the conspiracy would have to be. Tens of thousands of aircraft engineers, ground technicians, chemical suppliers would have to be involved. Pilots would have to know about the additional load to correct their weight balance calculations.
And all this is running like a clockwork, with no hiccups and no whistleblowers?

What would a news broadcaster pay for a story like this - and no takers, in a slumped-down economy?

I don't know about you, but I find all this totally implausible.

[MikeC]

JF, then we both agree, use caution when reviewing claims. Or, as it is within the courts, if something is wrong look to a motive, there is always a motive involved in ones actions. Why state WMD's in Iraq? Mutiple motives behind this, but the primary motives are 2, secure oil and he put a hit out on my dad, thus a conspiracy was developed to accomplish his goals and fulfill his motives. $$$ and revenge, the two top motivators in any criminal activity.

I'm not sure that oil and "he tried to kill my dad" would be at the top of my list.

I'd be more inclined to think the neo-com "here's an opportunity to bring democracy to the Middle East and save them from their heathen ways" BS would have been high on the list. Oil and "hitman" were, IMO, happy coincidence.

[Critical Thinker]

I noticed in another thread the link to the globalskywatch's page on how to make money pushing the Chemtrail agenda, which is yet another piece of the puzzle why some people are such avid proponents of selling conspiracy theories to others, despite the fact that what they are saying is evidence has been debunked.




and it is no surprise to see that Russ Tanner of globalskywatch is a Facebook friend of socal skywatch.

[cloudspotter]

That Russ is all heart isn't he.

[Jay Reynolds]

In last night's conference call, Russ Tanner admitted he had no qualms about using "Fear Based Marketing" tactics, even though he had seen our criticism of his advocation on this forum. He also called for his followers to connect every possible health concern with "chemtrails" even if there is no evidence for it. Basically, they are planning to blame anything and everything on chemtrails.

[jvnk08]

In last night's conference call, Russ Tanner admitted he had no qualms about using "Fear Based Marketing" tactics, even though he had seen our criticism of his advocation on this forum. He also called for his followers to connect every possible health concern with "chemtrails" even if there is no evidence for it. Basically, they are planning to blame anything and everything on chemtrails.

They aren't doing this already?

[Ross Marsden]

Yes, they are!

CHEMTRAILS: Black Carbon Aerosols From Wildfires Can Melt Artic Ice Faster Than Methane

Forcing drought by spraying aerosols from jet aircraft results in Greenland ice melts when black carbon from wildfires is deposited on tundra and established ice sheets.
Further investigation could show how geoengineering aerosols behave - to some degree – like black carbon to melt arctic ice.

[Cairenn]

If you want to see some real 'shilling' of fear, Check out Debra Dupree's posts on the Examiner. Especially those about the sinkhole in Louisiana.

She has managed to link the BP blowout, the sinkhole, a meteor shower and explosions at an army weapon's depot together. And folks believe her, hook, link, sinker

[Critical Thinker]

This is classic. On facebook he first 'likes' the meteorologist, then she accepts his friend request and then he attacks her when she doesn't agree with the chemtrail BS.

[Critical Thinker]

More evidence of conspiracy sites paying per hit on site, supporting the supposition that people are shilling on craigslist for the conspiracy websites.

[Rico]

This is classic. On facebook he first 'likes' the meteorologist, then she accepts his friend request and then he attacks her when she doesn't agree with the chemtrail BS

That was a painful read. Truly despicable behavior from a gang of nutcases. If there is ever only one reason for me to debunk chemtrails, I think it would be because of people like those.

[Pete Tar]

That was a painful read. Truly despicable behavior from a gang of nutcases. If there is ever only one reason for me to debunk chemtrails, I think it would be because of people like those.

Yeah, the self-righteousness of the truly delusional is sickening.

[Critical Thinker]

Oddly enough it seems that he is posting on beforeitsnews under more than one identity. This time making claims of police harassment of protesters, when all the cops are doing is assuring that they stay to the sidewalk.

[Critical Thinker]

This individual has at least 4 Facebook chemtrail pages he has started (plus other blogs):

https://www.facebook.com/socalskywatch?ref=ts&fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/San-D...96348250403666
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-...64896093535878
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailychemtrail/

And he then tells people "San Diego ChemtrailsThis is going on all over the world,Christina! Type in "Chemtrail" in the facebook search box, and look at all the pages that comes up!"

[F4Jock]

Oddly enough it seems that he is posting on beforeitsnews under more than one identity. This time making claims of police harassment of protesters, when all the cops are doing is assuring that they stay to the sidewalk.

By virtue of the loose definition of conspiracy damn near anything that involves two or more people discussing a way to accomplish something can be called a conspiracy. Harassment is somewhat analogous. No matter, wherever there is money to be made, legitimately or not, someone will take advantage of the situation and the sheep will be shorn with no compunction.