Conspiracy theories more dangerous than swine flu?

But I agree with sensibleskier that using the term "conspiracy theorists" is unfair.  It's political correctness.  What does it mean anyway?  That there are legions of hysterics out there looking for a spook under every rug?

No, the term has been used by the mainstream media to dissipate debate into those myths which they have been hired to erect, like Japan attacking Perl Harbor unprovoked, or the lone gunman of the JFK assassination, or al Qaeda acting alone on 9/11.  These have all been thoroughly debunked, but it is the media's job to cordon off criticism with these types of ad hominen accusations.  These include attacks that critics of Zionism are "anti-Semites", or that supporters of social programs are Communists and Socialists, or that Global Warming debunkers are financed by "Big Oil", and so on and so forth,

This is alternative media, and I would hope that we would see an effort to allow a wider range of debate, not repeating the memes employed by the mainstream media to confine discussion to the dictates of corporate sponsors.

I'm not familiar with the theories of Lanctot, but depopulation has indeed been an important agenda, particularly in the last half of the 20th century.

The notion was first devised by John Malthus (1766 – 1834), who posited that population growth would outpace humanity's ability to provide for itself.  Malthus therefore recommended that governments adopt certain social policies to prevent human over-population, such as the promotion of hygienic practices amongst the poor or “undesirable elements”. The spread of disease, he thought, could be further assisted through discriminative vaccination and zoning programs.

Malthus' prognosis was sensationalized in a book that became a best-sellter in the 70s, called the Population Bomb.  According to its author, Stanford Professor  Paul Ehrlich, "A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions."

Ehrlich’s prescriptions were reminiscent of Malthus', where he advocated for “compulsory birth regulation… (through) the addition temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired family size.”

Here's a few disturbing remarks from some prominent Malthusians:

“If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.”

Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund

“A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”


Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine

“There is a single theme behind all our work–we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it….” “Our program in El Salvador didn’t work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people…. To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females….” The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death….


Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs.

“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”


Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider – Founder and Secretary, respectively, The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991

“War and famine would not do. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. AIDS is not an efficient killer because it is too slow. My favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world’s population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. “We’ve got airborne diseases with 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that. “You know, the bird flu’s good, too. For everyone who survives, he will have to bury nine”

Dr. Eric Pianka University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert, showed solutions for reducing the world’s population to an audience on population control

“The present vast overpopulation, now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answered by future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, but must be met in the present by the reduction of numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever means necessary.”

Initiative for the United Nations ECO-92 EARTH CHARTER

“The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries’ shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.”

Obama’s science czar John P. Holdren: From a book he helped write ‘Ecoscience’, co-authored with Paul Ehrlich