A friend recently drew my attention to the fact that OccupyWallSt.org - which says it is the unofficial de facto online resource for the growing occupation movement happening on Wall Street and around the world - has now banned all discussion of "conspiracy theories", and will permanently ban you from participating on their website if you ever mention such a thing on their site. (See their moderating policy, under "no platform".)

I wasn't sure what the term "conspiracy theory" meant so I looked up "conspiracy" on legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com:

An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful or criminal act, or an act that is innocent in itself but becomes unlawful when done by the combination of actors.

I have to admit, looking at all the wars and economic disasters and forms of exploitation going on in the world, I'm not convinced that theories people may have about such "conspiracies" should be banned.

In any case, please vote and let us know how you feel.  Thanks!

All discussion should be allowed with the honest attempt to stay on a thread topic related to NTIP.  Obviously "conspiracy theories"  (such a negative baggage word, unfortunately) should be, and likely will be a topic for the forum to review in terms of how the power structure is old order dead stuff, screwing the people, and is necessary to talk about at least in as much it helps to wake folks up to small "t" truth that it's all bullshit etc.  Big "t" truth is Prior Unity etc, which is the heart of understanding in NTIP.  But it's also good to be informed, and also to understand the depth of the "conspiracy" that, I feel is actually the case, and can make our resolve even stronger as a global forum sick of these controllers ruining our health, finances, environment, creating war, and servicing an elitism that is running the whole shebang etc etc etc.  As the book says:  " Aren't you sick of the .... etc etc"  Well some folks still  need to be convinced.

No topic or issue of any sort should be 'banned'. It should be more than clear by now to even the sleepiest of social observers that plenty is grossly wrong in many areas that effect all of us. And the idea that there aren't 'two or more' up the line causing some dire outcome, whether through ignorance or intent, begs more of common sense than any so-tarred 'conspiracy buff''s possibly legitimate issue.

The real ultimacy of it is whether something is causing direct pain and travail of some sort, and does there appear to be enough evidence, even on the surface, to warrant an airing. Not any worn out old resistance to possible bad news, however complex or even bizarre on first learning. Many, many people already have no where to go to even be heard let alone believed.

If it becomes very clear that a participant here is in some sense way off track, perhaps even mentally, that can be considered individually, by readers and moderators.

I agree that we need to be active in preserving our right to free speech and free assembly. There is an article from February Harper's Magazine "Some Assembly Required" by Nathan Schneider, from Waging Non-Violence chronicling the beginnings of the Occupy Movement.

Unfortunately it is not possible to send a link unless I am a subscriber, but watch for it. Interesting article.


What I thought was way cool was that, at one point, when the initial leaders were considering the focus of the movement, someone suggested going to assist the Verizon strikers in their cause -- and one of the women involved offered her recommendation, "No, we need to appeal to the right, as well as the left".

Right-on, brilliant!

Not-Two is seeping into the collective consciousness.

Information is infromation even if it's not infromation. Myself, I am not darkended any more or less by information.  It is all the same.  But I like to be "infromed I suppose, It's better than TV= u kw wt i mean...?  Alt media, and the like is what it is, but upon making the rounds, I always have to decide for myself... One thing for sure, nothing is ever as seems.....

Presonally, I feel that conspiracy theories should be considered as to how factual they are and then maybe posted.  There are too many strange and disinfomative theories out there and just by posting them the website loses any validity.  So any theories need to be vetted to protect the integrity of this website.

Conspiracy theories tend to focus on the negative things that go on, often without mentioning a postive alternative and in that sense it is meditating on and giving energy to the negative, often calling for adolescent angry revolutionary actions. (You can't win this by fighting the powers that be, they have all the guns, but you can stop all the ways that we support the Petro-Dollar-War politics.)
Yet being blatantly ignorant and childishly going along with the negative power politics and it's negative effects on the people every day, is also not going to produce anything positive.

So I would very shortly and summary point at what is wrong or negative and then elaborately expand on what can be done that is positive and that doesn't fight the negative, but stops the support of the Petro-Dollar-War politics, by not giving it attention, not giving it money, not believing it is necessary and doing a lot of positive things that do not support this system, but that supports you, the people, locally and globally. (See my post under, 'Where do you invest your time & energy.')

And I agree with Rick, when somebody is only focussing on the negative, without turning it into something positive or pointing towards a positive action, then this person can be addressed by the administrator or other bloggers and if needs be this persons' posts can be removed by the administrator.