More on Conspiracry

There are many, many issues in society we must face. Many are very worrying indeed. However, what some of the conspiracy folks don't realise is that their views detract from the main issues by pushing folks, who need reliable information, into some wild and highly speculative positions. This doesn't help the case of those of us that seek to pursue goals for a better society, as we can get lumped in with the conspirators when talking about verifiable information. I have now watched two presentations by a Mr Brian Gerrish and both seem to apply to this discussion. The man seems like a decent chap, and I am sure he is, but he moves from pieces of information to unsound conclusions. This is something we are all prone to if we start to question things, but it is a tendency that must be resisted if we want to obtain useful information. Lets look at one point:
Mr Gerrish is very unhappy about the charity Common Purpose. He sees them as large scale evil, rather than an organisation that does things, like many others, that might be bad on an "everyday" level. Now I must be clear that I am not saying that they are bad at all as I don't have the evidence to make claims either way. Back to Mr Gerrish- he sees the manipulation of people through the groups use of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) as part of this large scale evil. Now after watching a video clip he provides of the CEO I am pretty sure that she is using NLP in her presentation but what do we draw from that?
Well, first a disclosure. I trained in NLP and use it in psychotherapy. The way it is taught and the explanations for it aren't necessarily correct (even the founders cautioned against believing the models used are true). The effectiveness of it for manipulating, or assisting change in (depending on your view), other people has never been proven. I might suggest that when it does work for changing someone's mind it may well be due to other factors, possibly linked in with parts of the reasons given in NLP. What really should worry people is that unproven systems get so easily picked up by people, even governments and police forces- who we really need to be more critical and thoughtful- and in the process make lots of money for folks promoting those systems. The money being spent on Common Purpose courses and hypnosis in other areas of public life, by us the taxpayer, may well indeed be a gross waste of time and money that could have gone into the NHS or spent on, the on the beat, Bobbies.
So the fact that the CEO might be using NLP, coupled with the fact that to many folks any thoughts that someone might be trying to influence them outside their awareness immediately provokes a strong emotional response, may well have led to 2+2 equalling 5.
My mind control post might be worth reading if you haven;t already done so.
So for the growing number of folks that miss the important facts about what is happening in this world because they are lost under some of the outlandish theories doing the rounds, or the folks ripe for the extreme right to pick up because they get the wrong information on many aspects of what is going on- even though there may be bits of fact in there too- I would say to them that they need to research more thoroughly, read stuff that counters their thoughts and watch their own reactions to it and also, over time, build up a picture based on checking evidence from many sources, looking for information that discredits the speakers and writers they have favoured to keep balance. Both sides of the argument may well have useful facts for us and both may well have lots of rubbish they peddle too.