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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Zeitgeist confronts its "Paid" Critics

The Nadir of Paranoia: Zeitgeist Confronts its Paid Critics. (UPDATED!)

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Muertos
This blog, originally published August 23, 2011, was updated September 8, 2011, and again on September 19, 2011. Scroll to the end for the updates.
I did not want to do another Zeitgeist blog, which will be my second in a week. I would really rather move on to other things. But once in a while the Zeitgeist Movement says something so outrageous, bizarre and extreme that it’s difficult to let it pass without comment. Thus, here we are again.
This time the statement comes directly from the top: the cult’s leader and director of the Zeitgeist films, arch-conspiracy theorist Peter Joseph Merola. I’m assuming you’re familiar with the fracas that occurred last week regarding a Zeitgeist Movement member who posted a topic on their forum that unmistakably and unequivocally advocated acts of wanton violence and terrorism, especially against an undefined “elite” that the member believes is in control of the world. That topic was eventually deleted. The deletion caused some controversy on the Zeitgeist forums. As he sometimes does, the movement’s leader, Merola, stepped in to add his “final word” and to lock the topic. Merola states:
“Keep moving forward and stop paying attention to these trolls. Remember, they have a job to do and will seek anything to exploit. So the more you all talk about it, the more they get paid and have to run with. (yes, I have inside info that the major trolls are paid to do what they do which explains why they are able to blog everyday, monitoring almost everything from this Forum to our Facebook pages to Youtube. It is nothing new. Just watch. Every word I say here will end up twisted on one of the blogs. Timing tests have been run by a few of us to see how fast these guys can catch things that are posted and removed and they seem to be working almost in real time meaning there are likely many of them working in shifts, hiding behind one name/blog.)the original thread noted should not have been deleted- it should have been addressed and corrected.”
As you can see I havent twisted any of his words; this is exactly what he said. We can even set aside, for the purposes of this blog, the last sentence which expresses support for the original pro-violence post. Merola is employing the fallacy that whatever the trolls think is bad, he is going to praise. Thats quite poor judgment for him, but thats neither here nor there.
The topic in which this statement appears directly refers to my previous blog, so when they refer to trolls they are clearly talking about me. In case the import of this statement escapes you, here is the leader of the Zeitgeist Movement directly asserting that I am being paid to write anti-Zeitgeist blogs. In simpler terms used more often by conspiracy theorists, I am accused—by the leader of the Zeitgeist Movement—of being a “paid disinformation agent.”
The “Disinformation Agent” Trope in Context
This is not the first time such an accusation has been leveled against me. In fact it happens pretty frequently, as the “paid disinformation agent” trope (sometimes referred to as a “shill”) is an extremely common one among conspiracy theorists. It was used against me only last week on a Facebook group I occasionally post on which was flooded by 9/11 Truthers. Among the most paranoid of paranoid conspiracy theorists, any person who disagrees with conspiracy theories in any way is probably a “paid disinformation agent.” The charge is leveled against people, as it was in this case by Mr. Merola, without a single shred of proof. It comes about as a result of a convergence of two factors: first, disagreement with conspiracy theories; and second, an arrogant certainty on the part of the person making the charge that no one could disagree with conspiracy theories unless they were being paid to do so.
Several things fascinate me about the statement as it was made here. First, it comes directly from Merola himself, speaking for and with the voice of the Zeitgeist Movement. Secondly, it illustrates the deep thrall of conspiracy theorist thinking and conspiracy theorist ideology that emanates from the very top of the Zeitgeist Movement and the primacy of such ideology to the group. Thirdly, it demonstrates, far better than I can do with my own words, how and why members of the Zeitgeist Movement fundamentally misunderstand the criticisms made against them. Merola’s statement is so illuminating as to speak volumes about what this organization really is, what it believes in and why it will never be taken seriously.
Okay, Who’s Paying Me, And How Do You Know?
First things first, Merola’s charge is so ludicrous on its face as to be actually funny. I mean, does he really believe I get paid to do this? By who? The government? I assume that must be what he and other Zeitgeisters are thinking, though in this topic they don’t specifically identify the source of my supposed salary. It’s clear that many of them are thinking the same thing, though. One user comments, following Merola’s initial statement:
“Wouldnt it be interesting, Peter, to trace their salaries back to the source; we both probably know very well where it would lead.”
Yes, in their delusional fantasies it would, of course, lead to THE GUBBERMINT, the evil powers-that-be who are so terrified of the Zeitgeist Movement that they would use taxpayer’s money to pay me to write blogs trashing them. This demonstrates the astonishing arrogance of Zeitgeist members, and one they share with conspiracy theorists at large. They believe that their ideology and ideas are so airtight that no one could or would legitimately disagree with them—and because of this certainty, they assume that anyone who does so must be proceeding from some ulterior motive.
This type of thinking is common among Zeitgeisters. One prominent pro-Zeitgeist blogger has been searching for over a year to discern my “true motivation” for opposing Zeitgeist, since he refuses to believe it is because I oppose the Movement’s emphasis on conspiracy theories. No; he’s sure there’s some other ulterior motivation that must explain my intransigence. Well, Merola seems to have figured that one out: he thinks I oppose Zeitgeist because somebody, most likely the government, is paying me to oppose it.
That’s a very easy out for Zeitgeisters, isn’t it? “Oh, no one really disagrees with the Zeitgeist Movement. The ones who say they do are just being paid to!” This absolves them from dealing with the true reasons why people criticize them. It is also deeply and incorrigibly paranoid.
This is what they think? Really? They think the evil gubbermint, in the guise of hobbyist bloggers, is out to get them in some sort of grand shadowy conspiracy? As astounding as a fairy tale like that is to rational eyes and ears, in actuality it’s not too far from the fairy tales that most Zeitgeisters fervently believe—like “9/11 was an inside job,” one of the most notorious false conspiracy theories pushed by Merola in the Zeitgeist movies.
I also find it interesting that Merola says he has “inside info that the major trolls are paid to do what they do.” Oh, really? I’d be interested to see this “info.” In fact, in this blog I call upon him to make this “info” public. How does he know I’m being paid? Is it, as I suspect, simply more innuendo and broad leaps of intuition, to which conspiracy theorists are especially prone?
The Truth About This Blog (And Its Relationship To Others)
In all fairness Merola is not referring to me alone. Although anyone anywhere who voices any criticism of the Zeitgeist Movement is subject to being called a “troll,” when Merola refers to “the blogs” I suspect he means this one as well as James Kush’s, which is specifically devoted to criticism of Zeitgeist. Another prominent anti-Zeitgeist blogger is “MarioBrotha,” but he has been on hiatus both on his blog regarding the Zeitgeist Movement and his other blog about Desteni, another notorious cult that uses conspiracy theories as a recruiting tool.

I do not know James Kush. I’ve replied to him a few times on Twitter or on web forums but we don’t correspond or collaborate. Not long ago he posted something on his blog referencing one of my blog entries. I messaged him on Facebook (he is not a friend of mine on Facebook) asking him to correct a typo, which he did. That’s the total extent of coordination I’ve ever had with James Kush. I don’t agree with everything on James Kush’s blog; he uses a lot of hyperbole and dramatic language that I think overstates the case against Zeitgeist. I feel the same way about “MarioBrotha,” who I also don’t know and have never collaborated with. We are not “in cahoots” in any way. My blog is my own. I alone make the decisions about what I’m going to write about and when.
There is a person who is active on YouTube who also criticizes the Zeitgeist Movement. His handle is “RonaldoDeLosMuertos.” On at least one occasion Merola has mistaken me for him. I guess that’s understandable; it’s a pretty wild coincidence that two different guys out there, who have never met each other, are both known on the net by handles incorporating the words “Los Muertos” and who are both critical of the Zeitgeist Movement, and as we know, conspiracy theorists are loath to believe in coincidence. But I’m not Ronaldo. We have no working relationship and no collaboration on blogs.
If you’ll notice, at least since mid-2010 my blogs about Zeitgeist have been largely reactive: responding to things Zeitgeisters say and do. Kush, Mario and Ronaldo often work on the same basis. If, for instance, a Zeitgeister makes statements directly advocating violence, it’s likely several people working independently of each other will choose to comment on that incident. If the Zeitgeist Movement splits from the Venus Project—which is the single most important thing that’s happened to the Movement in the past year, with the possible exception of the Loughner shooting—you can also expect more than one comment on that incident. Furthermore, various bloggers who are critical of Zeitgeist are active on Twitter, and as you know, on Twitter it’s very easy to re-tweet the content posted by others. People who share viewpoints about anything—politics, music, movies, celebrities, etc.do that. It’s the essence, in fact, of social networking.
Merola seems to read a lot into the fact that “troll” blogs are updated frequently—and this may be the source of his evident delusion that criticizing Zeitgeist is some sort of “full time job” which is possible only if it earns a dedicated salary. This too is ridiculous. Yes, I have posted many articles this summer. That’s not surprising, considering my work deals with education and summer is my off-season. Would it surprise you to know that I’ve also written two novels this summer? Or that I covered a music festival and wrote a 30+ page review, which in fact is beginning its run on a music website on the very day I’m writing this blog? Would it surprise you to know that I own and operate three other blogs in addition to this one, none of which have anything to do with Zeitgeist or conspiracy theories? Would it surprise you to know that I’m doing research for a book on American history? Or that I have a significant other and family members with whom I spend a great deal of time?
Would it surprise you to know that this article, from inception to publication, took a little more than an hour to write, edit, polish and upload—and that I spent more time on this particular article than I usually do?
What’s also amusing is the fact that criticizing Zeitgeist is not the point of this blog. I don’t do blogs on Zeitgeist alone. I blog about movies. I blog about technology and communications. I blog about history. I blog about politics. I blog about books. And yes, I’ve blogged about Desteni. In another ironic twist, I once had a Zeitgeister claim that my investigation of Desteni was just a sham, and that it was really about Zeitgeist—that I’m making stuff up about Desteni and trying to use it to make Zeitgeist look worse than it is.
Are you beginning to understand the unwarranted sense of self-importance that these people have?
Do you want to know the single most popular article, in terms of page views, in the history of this blog? Here it is. It has nothing to do with Zeitgeist, Desteni, or conspiracy theories. It’s about the Wacken Open Air festival. I originally wrote it years ago and republished it here when I opened this blog on Blog.com (which costs nothing to use, by the way). Looking at the hit statistics, month after month it is that article that’s most read, by a wide margin. So for Merola to claim that “the more you all talk about it, the more they get paid” is asinine. Since my most all-time popular blog article is about Wacken, are the Zeitgeisters going to claim that perhaps Im being paid by the organizers of the Wacken festival?
Merola’s claim that not only am I paid by the government, but that I must be more than one person—or have a dedicated staff that monitors Zeitgeist 24/7 and works in “shifts”—is so far in the realm of delusion that it constitutes science fiction. I’m not sure how his “timing tests” prove that I have a staff. Again, if there is any evidence of these bizarre and paranoid claims, let him present it. Somehow I don’t think he will.
The Bottom Line
Just to be very clearly on record I will make a number of clear and unequivocal statements. Not because I feel the charge of “paid disinformation agent” has any validity, but because if I don’t, the Zeitgeist conspiracy theorists will read some oblique admission of guilt into my failure to make them. So, here they are.
  • I am not paid by any person, agency, group, board, bureau, business interest, coalition, cartel or any other entity to write this blog.
  • I make no money whatsoever from this blog. Even the ads on the page don’t inure to my benefit; they go (I suppose) to support the webservers of Blog.com.
  • Writing this blog is not my job, my occupation or the central/most important thing in my life. Far from it. In fact, if you asked me to make a list of the 100 most important things in my day-to-day life, this blog might be about number 90.
  • I oppose Zeitgeist because it is the source of a great deal of belief in conspiracy theories. If you ask a believer in conspiracy theories how he or she began believing in them, it’s very likely they’ll tell you their interest was sparked by one of two things: Alex Jones or Zeitgeist: The Movie. All of my criticisms of the Zeitgeist Movement—its promotion and advancement of conspiracy thinking and conspiracist ideology, its weird worldview, its advocacy of violence, its cult characteristics—are tied in one way or another to the central truth that Zeitgeist is a conspiracy movement.
  • Every criticism of the Zeitgeist Movement that I’ve ever made on this blog is one that I genuinely believe on the basis of reliable evidence and cogent reasoning. I am not “making stuff up.”
  • I believe that pushing back against conspiracy theories, debunking them and shedding light on their deceptions is a positive social good that has positive real-world consequences.
  • I do not oppose Zeitgeist because I am paid to do so.
  • I am not a Christian. I do not oppose Zeitgeist because of any religious “bigotry” or any other religious reason.
  • I do not support unfettered free market capitalism. I do not oppose Zeitgeist because it supposedly threatens a capitalistic world order. Although I think Zeitgeist’s economic ideas are ridiculous, I do not oppose Zeitgeist out of economic ideology.
  • I have never been a member of the Zeitgeist Movement, have never posted on their forum and have never been in any way associated with them. (The charge is occasionally made against me that I’m a “disgruntled former member,” or that I employ “sock puppet accounts”).
  • I do not believe Zeitgeist is “occult,” or is part of the “New World Order” or any such rubbish.
  • I am not Ronaldo DeLosMuertos, James Kush or MarioBrotha. I do not collaborate with any of these people and I do not coordinate any content that appears on this blog with any other person.
  • I do not have a staff working for me.
I believe this is as exhaustive a reply to a bizarrely paranoid idea as is warranted—in fact, it’s probably extreme overkill. Ideally I’d like to say that this will serve as my final words on this blog regarding the Zeitgeist Movement. But every time I think this organization can’t top their latest blunder, they seem to find a way to surprise me. Perhaps next time I should merely let their incompetence, stupidity and paranoia speak for itself; those qualities are becoming so prominent and unmistakable that they are beginning to eclipse Zeitgeist’s critics’ capacity to interpret them.
Thanks for reading.
Update 8 September 2011
Yesterday, September 7, Peter Merola gave a podcast/web broadcast in which he addressed, among other things, the subject of anti-Zeitgeist disinformation campaigns. You can hear his broadcast here. I listened in, curious if he would perhaps present the information he claims he has that I am paid to write this blog and to criticize the Zeitgeist Movement.
He did not. That doesn't surprise me, because of course there is no such evidence; Merola just made it up. He did, however, elaborate on his own delusion of persecution by making some remarks about the disinformation phenomenon. Although Merola was as unclear and deliberately verbose as he usually is, near as I can tell he seems to believe that I and other bloggers who comment negatively on Zeitgeist are employed by some sort of for-profit entity whose business is to smear people and organizations on the Internet. Merola got there by stating the existence of reputation companies, which help you rehabilitate your image on the Internet for a fee, and then supposing that there are also companies that do the exact opposite, to smear somebody for a fee.
This is, of course, absurd. Yes, there are reputation companies that help you rehabilitate your image on the Internet. That is true. But the opposite does not exist. Any company that had that as a business model is asking for trouble, because theyre opening themselves up to liability for defamation; no one would write insurance for such a company. Furthermore, how are you supposed to find such a firm, even if one exists? The Yellow Pages? Switchboard.com?
Its also interesting that Merola never identified precisely who is supposed to have hired the nonexistent company that I supposedly work for. He said nothing about that. He merely droned on about COINTELPRO, which is a favorite conspiracy theorist meme; Merola did acknowledge that COINTELPRO no longer exists, but this went by so quickly that you could barely catch it. No, he went on to compare the supposed persecution of the Zeitgeist Movement to the FBI campaign against Martin Luther King in the 1960's.
Yes, you read that right. Merola invited a comparison between himself and Martin Luther King. Because I write blogs criticizing Zeitgeist, I am as evil as the FBI was in the 1960's by trying to impede civil rights.
Obviously this whole thing is ridiculous. I need not state again, as I did in the main part of this blog, that I'm not paid by anyone to write this blog, and the idea that someone disagrees with Zeitgeist only because they're paid to is ludicrous, arrogant and delusional. This is, I believe, nothing short of a concerted strategy of criticism avoidance. Merola is telling his foll owers that they need not even consider any criticism leveled at the movement, because those who criticize it are being paid to, so naturally all their points are completely irrelevant and made-up. This is another example of cult-like behavior: theyre being paid to criticize Zeitgeist is a thought-ending cliché, which is a tactic commonly used by cult leaders to short-circuit any possibility that their followers might think critically about the indoctrination to which they have been exposed.
Aside from flogging the disinformation horse, Merola did say, offhandedly, one thing that was very encouraging. In talking about the redesign of the Zeitgeist Movement website, he told his followers that there will no longer be a centralized web forum. Essentially, Zeitgeists forum will eventually be shut down. I guess Merola and his moderators are tired of Movement members saying embarrassing things that result in frenzied attempts at spin control. Individual chapters, supposedly, can institute forums on their own websites if they want to, Merola said, but the big show is off as soon as the new site goes up, whenever that is.
This will probably mean the effective end of the Zeitgeist Movement. As an organization that exists almost entirely on the Internet, the lack of any central communicative function within the cult will effectively kill it. The Zeitgeist chapters are, for the most part, pretty irrelevant to the cult; from what I've been able to observe most of them exist only on paper, or at least their real-world presence is not very significant. If the cult is reduced to a website providing one-way communication, I don't really see how the movement uses that as a base for growth. Zeitgeists numbers are declining anyway. According to Alexa.com, which I check now and again to see how many people are surfing onto various Zeitgeist-related sites, considerably fewer people are interested in the Zeitgeist Movement now than were at the beginning of 2011. That does not bode well for a movement that insisted its third movie, the interminable Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, would bring in millions of new members.
Now if youll excuse me, I must go collect my paycheck from COINTELPRO.
Update 19 September 2011
The pro-Zeitgeist blogger to whom I linked above did another blog on me recently clarifying his position. He now pronounces that the reason I oppose Zeitgeist is because my father was in the military, and therefore I must be acting out of patriotic motives and opposing Zeitgeist because it threatens my beloved country. He got there by churning through my Twitter posts for hints of my personal life and family background, and happily seized upon something he thought he could sell as a reason why someone like me is so thick-headed as to not immediately accept the Zeitgeist Movement and Peter Joseph Merola as the savior of all mankind.
This supposition itself is so ridiculous as to be beneath substantive comment. At least he didn't jump on the paid disinformation agent bandwagon, as his leader Merola has done. I remark only that its yet another example of precisely the effect I describe in this blog: refusal by Zeitgeist members to believe that there are legitimate reasons for opposing their group and their ideology, and that those reasons are not, and never have been, concealed from anyone. It also illustrates, again, the depth of conspiracist thinking at the core of Zeitgeist ideology. In a conspiracist worldview, all motives are hidden, and all truths must be revealed through detective work. There's no such thing as taking someone at face value. If someone says they oppose Zeitgeist because it pushes conspiracy theories, they must be lying; indeed, that person must be a conspiracy theorist themselves! The nadir of paranoia at which the Zeitgeist Movement exists can have no more eloquent demonstration.

Another TZMer says SP members get paid by the guberment!

https://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/forum/5549/another-tzmer-says-sp-members-get-paid-by-the-guberment/