"Iron Man 3" As Conspiracy Narrative

The new movie "Iron Man 3" has pulled in the second-highest opening weekend in the history of cinema. It also boldly incorporates popular conspiracy narratives that the mainstream media normally condemns.

Spoilers for "Iron Man 3" ahead.


Mandarin Is The Fake Bin Laden

The "twist" of the entire movie is that The Mandarin, a villain that looks like a cross between Fu Manchu and Osama Bin Laden, is a complete fake. He is an actor, hired by A.I.M., an Illuminati-type terrorist organization created by scientists and working with traitors within the government. A.I.M. purposely manipulates the public by having this actor and his pseudo Al-Qaeda type group take responsibility for terrorist attacks.

In case it needs to be made any clearer, at one point in the movie it is stated that Mandarin is a fake "just like Bin Laden and Gaddafi."

The idea that Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are "fakes" created by the C.I.A. (CIA/AIM), the Illuminati, or another such organization, has been made by many high-profile people within the conspiracy theory community, most notably Alex Jones. From Jones' Infowars website:

The real Osama bin Laden is a Western-trained CIA asset with the declassified code-name “Tim Osman.” He was chosen to lead the Mujahideen / Taliban in Afghanistan, in part, because his wealthy family has been a long-term business partner to key families in the West, including the Bush family (Carlyle Group). In fact, George H. W. Bush, the father, had been meeting with one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers on the morning of 9/11. The real Mujahideen has been used for a variety of Western-backed political purposes, namely upheaval and regional-destabilization.

Further, Jones/Infowars alleges that many of the Bin Laden videos we have seen are fakes, complete with multiple actors playing the terrorist leader:

"Admittedly fake videos with bad look-alikes and audio recordings supposedly sent by bin Laden surfaced routinely just before elections (Tom Ridge later admitted that terror threats were elevated to help Bush’s re-election bid) or when the American people needed a reminder of the threat of terror. Prior to the admissions, analysts correctly suspected that al Qaeda video logos matched the signature of the CIA-linked Intel Center, revealing an unholy connection at the source of the video-taped threats."

Again: this is the crux of the entire "Iron Man 3" movie, its big surprise: basically, that an allegorical Bin Laden is a fake and a smoke-screen. And if Bin Laden is a fake, it makes the Seal Team 6 stuff quite questionable.

The question must be asked: if conspiracy theorists are supposedly hated so much, their ideas so crazy -- why was this the central idea of the film? Further: why did the American public so readily accept it by going in droves to watch this movie?

It is significant to note that there is also a nod to the MSM/government suspicion of Libertarians/Constitutionalists -- in the backdrop of The Mandarin's videos are the words, "We The People."


Boston Bombing Parallels

There are creepy parallels between the terrorist bombings in "Iron Man 3" and the recent Boston Marathon Bombings. In the movie, bombs seemingly go off in several high-traffic civilian areas. When Tony Stark's assistant Happy is caught in one of them, the tableau is extremely similar to that of the aftermath of the bombings.

Everybody thinks that the Mandarin (representing Bin Laden/Al-Qaeda) are related to one of the bombings. Another bombing is blamed on a "domestic terrorist" -- a returning army veteran. As Infowars has mentioned many times on their site, returning vets are being "profiled" by the U.S. government as potential terrorists: "The government seems to be obsessed with targeting disgruntled veterans with pre-crime and other unconstitutional forms of surveillance, demonization and harassment..."

The focus on people missing limbs -- including one haunting image of a little girl -- also subliminally bring up memories of the Boston Bombings.


Army Vets Given Mind-Control To Become Human Weapons

Tony Stark finds out the that real culprit is not Mandarin or the vets, but A.I.M. -- who targets injured army vets and makes them undergo painful experiments to literally become human bombs!

These vets are essentially Manchurian Candidates and "sleepers," who can "go off" at any moment. Jones and other theorists have openly wondered if the Boston Bombing suspects might also be "mind-controlled" agents of a shadowy group that were sent to commit the attacks. From an article on Examiner.com:

The fact that the CIA successfully trained unsuspecting individuals to place and explode bombs and to serve as assassins while under hypnosis back in the 1950s raises serious questions. Could the Boston Marathon bombers and even the Newtown, Columbine, and other school shooters have been programmed to carry out these destructive deeds?

Interesting to note: one such "human bomb" introduces herself to Stark as an agent of "Homeland Security" before attacking him.


Tony Stark, "Domestic Terrorist"

One of the most eyebrow-raising sequences of the whole movie is when Tony Stark, on the run from A.I.M. and the "human bombs," has to essentially turn to an "Anarchist's Cookbook" of home-grown weaponry to defend himself. This includes a lingering camera shot of a big bag of fertilizer he buys at a Home Depot-type store. I am surprised he did not buy a pressure-cooker as well.

Further: when Stark uses his "low tech" weapons to infiltrate A.I.M., he wears a hoodie and sunglasses...making him look like the Unabomber!

Why is Stark being show embracing the "tools" of "domestic terrorists" in order to save the day?


Traitors Within Government

A key reveal at the end of the film is that the Vice-President has been covertly working with A.I.M. to help them on their terrorist missions. This plot includes killing the President.


Conclusion

So here is what we have learned from "Iron Man 3":
* Bin Laden was a fake, used in continuing "False Flags."
* Veterans and Constitutionalists/Libertarians have been purposely targeted by "Homeland Security" as potential "domestic terrorists."
* Injured vets and other American citizens are used in MK-Ultra type experiments to create literal "human bombs" who are then used in terrorism.
* Factions of the government are working with a shadowy Illuminati/C.I.A. type organization in order to create "False Flag" terrorist situations and eventually conduct a takeover of the United States.

They say that every blockbuster movie sort of encapsulates the zeitgeist of the people who watch it; these films are inevitably a reflection of our very world. What does this all say about "Iron Man 3?"

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My Top 10 Favorite Conspiracy Books

Here's a list of my ten fave books about conspiracies, UFOs, the paranormal, and etc. Even more than being books I love, the titles on this list are great for the "beginner" who is just starting to delve into these topics of interest:



10. Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger

This book isn't about the "Entertainment Illuminati" per se -- but it maps out the framework upon which much of that lore is based. Come thrill at the utter murderous debauchery of Hollywood (where life is apparently cheap)! The author/filmmaker was, and is, heavily into the occult, idolizing Aleister Crowley and working with such luminaries as Anton LaVey and Jack Parsons' widow Marjorie Cameron -- so if anybody would know about the Illuminati's influence in the movie industry, it would be this guy. Also had a sequel book with gorier photos.

9. Dead Names, by Simon

Purporting to be a history of the "Simon" version of the Necronomicon, this book provides not only a nice history of the occult in New York City and background on one of the most famous books of magic in the world -- but it also gives you an "insider's" look at the mass corruption (with possible connections to international espionage) of the various "Orthodox" Christian churches. You'll never quite feel like you're getting the complete story from author Simon, in part because the author is really Peter "Sinister Forces" Levenda (who has a great deal of fun with it all).

8. Subliminal Seduction, by Wilson Bryan Key

If you are into spotting the "secret messages" behind pop-culture, this book is the Bible. Key's ground-breaking work analyzes advertising for "hidden" subliminals (most involving sex) designed to help sell products. These subliminals include sex acts painted in ice cubes and the word "sex" drawn faintly all over photographs. You'll literally never look at ads the same way again; this might mean that you are going as mad as Key, or stumbling upon one of the greatest conspiracies of all time.

7. Hellhounds On Their Trail by R. Gary Patterson

An exhaustive look at the connection between the occult and the music industry, this book is a must for anybody interested in Illuminati/pop-music lore. As with "Hollywood Babylon," the secret societies within Music aren't named as such, but it becomes quickly clear that something bigger and more systematic is going on rather than a handful of unrelated cases. This is one of the few books that have massively creeped me out; as if there was something demonic hidden in the pages themselves (which I realize sounds corny, but that's how I really felt).

6. The Secret History Of The World, by Mark Booth

An epic overview of the history of esoteric thought since the dawn of recorded time, and of the secret societies that keep this knowledge alive (and hidden). You get a really good foundation in alchemy and occult symbology here, and it's stuff you can then apply to a whole host of other research. The only caveat is that, like "Dead Names," you always feel like the author is not telling you the full story -- or that he may have an agenda of his own (I am specifically referring to Booth's postscript entitled "Is The Anti-Christ Already Here?" -- a sharp departure from the balanced tone of the rest of the book).

5. Book Of Lies: The Disinformation Book of Magick

This is one of the very first books that introduced me to the word of conspiracies and the occult, and as such it was very formative for me. It covers it all: Crowley, Hitler, Sirius, William Burroughs, Lovecraft, LaVey, psychedelics, the Apocalypse. It will crack open your head and take you on a whole bunch of different directions (which, strangely, will all sort of take you to the same destination point).

4. The Spear Of Destiny, by Trevor Ravenscroft

This another of those conspiracy "meta-narratives" that ties together a massive amount of different people and ideas -- in this case, the occult, Nazis, secret societies, Christianity, reincarnation, and etc. And again, the narrator seems somewhat unreliable; but more than unreliable, he also seems somewhat mad. The conclusion Ravenscroft makes at the end of this book as to the Jews and the Holocaust is also quite jaw-dropping; the equivalent of driving a car steadily down a road for miles and then taking a sudden and violent left-turn right through the highway's shoulder and into a densely wooded area.

3. The Gods Of Eden, by William Bramley

This is, like "Behold A Pale Horse," a seminal work in conspiriology that countless writers have stole borrowed from. Bramley, a lawyer, systematically goes through the entire history of mankind, methodically building a case that alien "Custodians" have been manipulating humanity. Just like any good lawyer, Bramley will have you convinced of this tale of ancient astronauts and masonic secret societies whether you're a "believer" or not.

2. Sinister Forces, by Peter Levenda

I've admittedly only read the third and last volume of this series -- but its grand, operatic, all-encompassing narrative makes it a titanic work of conspiracy lore. This is Levenda's magnum opus, a work connecting the dots on everything from Satanism to JFK to MK-Ultra to Charles Manson to Jeffrey Dahmer. You can almost feel Levenda fighting off madness/depression/mania as he struggles to part it all down on paper; which is why, more than just conspiracy books, they almost read like works of art.

1. Cosmic Trigger, by Robert Anton Wilson

Yet another meta-narrative, this time weaving together the Illuminati (yes, referred to by name), aliens, synchronicities (as embodied by the "23 Enigma"), mind-expanding drugs, mythology...and of course Aleister Crowley. But what really made me place this book at the top is not just the skillful and humorous way we handles the subject matter -- but his overall advice on how to "handle" conspiracy/occult studies in general. Which is to say: keep an open mind and don't get too hung up o any one point of view (or, "reality tunnel"), as to avoid going stone-cold paranoid and get trapped in the "Chapel Perilous."

There were other books that I've also enjoyed that didn't quite make this list for one reason or another. I quite like David Icke's books, but they are hard to read straight through & are very derivative of other works (read "Gods of Eden" to see how much Icke "borrows"). "Behold A Pale Horse" by Bill Cooper is another book that I just couldn't read straight through, and was really bogged down by all the disparate sources and pages and pages of "official documents." Much of the MK-Ultra lore (Fritz Springmeier, "Trace-Formation," etc.) have some good stuff in it but also seems to go off the rails. Lastly, there's a rich library of conspiracy material with a specifically Christian view-point; I've avoided these in this list, as a lot of it hinges on "if you are not Saved you are going to Hell."

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Book Review: "Dead Wrong" By Richard Belzer and David Wayne

 "There are those in positions of power who malign the pursuit of justice by intentionally associating the word "conspiracy" with the delirious hallucinations of unbalanced minds. They're wrong. The real-world definition of conspiracy is simply; two or more persons agreeing to commit a crime. In short, they are everywhere, a constant component of daily events throughout our history, and are by no means the restless imaginings of an over-attentive audience.
--Richard Belzer, "Dead Wrong"

Richard Belzer, the co-author of the book "Dead Wrong" (2012, Skyhorse Publishing) is a synchromystic "nexus" in his own right; his conspiracy-theorist role John Munch appearing on more different TV shows than any other character. Outside of his main "beats" on Homicide and Law & Order SVU, Munch has "crossed over" in The X-Files, Arrested Development, The Wire, Luther, and a number of others. These "crossovers" are significant in that they not only have transcended the barriers of individual television programs, but even whole networks.

Munch/Belzer on "X-Files"

But perhaps even more "meta" than that is the fact that in real life, Belzer is a real, for lack of a better term, "conspiracy theorist." Or perhaps he is just a man who has a great deal of curiosity; an investigator into cases that are considered "closed" by our mainstream media. In that sense, he is truly not that different from Detective Munch.

And the book "Dead Wrong" indeed reads far more like a police procedural than a standard "conspiracy" text. Reviewing the deaths of such public figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Marilyn Monroe, and JFK, "Dead Wrong" places a strong emphasis on forensic evidence; while there is some speculation on motives and grander assassination plots, the focus always returns to "just the facts, ma'am."

Belzer and co-writer David Wayne's approach here, therefore, continually maintains this subliminal connection to Munch and the Homicide/Law & Order shows. And it becomes increasingly clear that these murder/"suicides," when seen through the cold, clinical eyes of the detective, have a whole lot more going on about them than the "official story." In the cases of figures like Monroe -- the forensic evidence of her death pretty much ruling out suicide -- this is quite disturbing.

Unless the forensics and other evidence that Belzer and Wayne so meticulously present here are falsified, "Dead Wrong" is a bombshell text in not only the genre, but in history books in general.

I do not exaggerate when I use the term "meticulously." If there is a flaw in this book, it's that the same evidence will be repeated over and over in the course of a chapter; though I have to wonder if this is less a problem with the editing and more of a conscious tactic to literally hammer home into our heads the importance of the forensics here.

While there's not a lot of actual conspiracy "theory" here, Belzer and Wayne come up with some very interesting ways of looking at famous cases that I never considered before. For example, the assassination of JFK. It is suggested in "Dead Wrong" that the reason the government engaged in such a massive cover-up was not so much because they were involved in the assassination (though a few rogue elements within might have been) -- but that discovering the truth about the assassination would in turn compromise other CIA operations:

"The cover-up was apparently necessitated by the exposure and implication of covert U.S. intelligence anti-Castro operations which were utilizing the Mafia to attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. It is an often overlooked fact that in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Robert F. Kennedy was the most powerful person in the United States -- more so than even new President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the hours after the murder, it was Robert Kennedy and Kennedy loyalists who controlled the autopsy, the doctors, the body of President Kennedy, and the actions of much of the Secret Service, law enforcement, and emergency personnel...Obviously, Robert Kennedy was not involved in the death plot against his brother. But just as obviously, his hand was forced into covering up the true circumstances surrounding the murder."

The forensic evidence is inconsistent with the notion she fatally overdosed on these pills

So we have the idea here that the parties who engage in cover-ups might not be the same ones who have committed the initial crimes. Same thing for Monroe -- she wasn't murdered by the Kennedys, but the Kennedys had to conduct a full cover-up in order to keep other secrets safe.

"Dead Wrong" ends with an afterward by Jesse Ventura. He reiterates a crucial point Belzer mentions in the introduction and which is exemplified in the methodology of the book itself: the idea that the word "conspiracy" has been automatically conflated with "crazy" in our mass-media, and why this is an erroneous assumption to make. Writes Ventura:

"Another disturbing trend in recent events is what I see as the very intentional manipulation of the word "conspiracy." They would have us believe that any person who believes that something might possibly be a conspiracy has to be a demented individual. They make it sound like one would have to be crazy to even suspect that members of our government could take part in a conspiracy. I suggest that the truth of the matter is quite the contrary. As this book has clearly established, conspiracies are not some rare occurrence in history. They are common. They can and do happen all the time."

Unless reading a lot of procedural/science stuff deeply bores you, I would strongly recommend adding "Dead Wrong" to your library. As much as I like the more esoteric/"outre" books on these topics, texts like this have the greatest ability to change minds...or at least render minds more open to new ideas and possibilities.

"Dead Wrong" is available at:
Skyhorse Publishing
Amazon.com
the iBooks store, and more

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Alex Jones, "Holmies," And Celebrity Doubles: Surfing Down The Chapel Perilous

Alex Jones makes the big-time.

"Chapel Perilous is a stage in the magickal quest in which your maps turn out to be totally inadequate for the territory and you're completely lost. And at that point you get an ally who helps you find your way back to something you can understand. And then after that for the rest of your life you've got this question: Was that ally a supernatural helper, or was it just part of my own mind trying to save me from going totally bonkers with this stuff? And the people I know who've had that kind of experience, very few of them have come to an absolutely certain conclusion about this." 
-- Robert Anton Wilson 

I've stayed away from this blog for a number of reasons as of late, as several things have depressed me deeply and have shook my decision to continue writing this stuff.


The biggest thing on my radar is the Alex Jones meltdown on CNN recently. What a horrorshow. A friend of mine suggested that he was invited to speak on the Piers Morgan program with the producers specifically anticipating that he would go batshit crazy and make everybody else who is interested in fringe subjects also look like loonies; I partially agree with this assessment. It's almost like I can't completely blame Jones, as I think that the way he acted on that program was pretty much his honest-to-God default mechanism -- a mix between feeling paranoid away from his homebase, the adrenaline pumping from being on national TV, and so on.

But you know, a meltdown such as this doesn't help the thousands of people who do have legitimate questions about the status quo -- who desire to have a rational convo on gun control and whatnot. Doesn't help the NRA, doesn't help the cause of Alex's followers, doesn't help, doesn't help, doesn't help. And then Drudge chimes in with more incendiary headlines featuring pics of Adolph Hitler (which pretty much Godwins the entire discussion). I read these comments on Alex's YouTube, see these headlines on Drudge, read these articles like "The New South" on Salon, and I just think this is all a horrible combination, that's ultimately going to result in some Waco-like disaster.

"They are all the same actor"

Along those lines, at the beginning of the week I had an acquaintance targeted on this massive conspiracy site as the "actor-double" of James Holmes. This was a major clusterfuck nightmare, complete with my friend's contact info right on the website. The site -- which is extensive -- pretty much believes that most major events in the U.S. and whatnot have been staged by using celebrity actors. This site believes that Alice Cooper and Steve Carell are the same person. I had to read this site like 10 times to figure out if it was just an Onion-like put-on. It wasn't. And the fact that my acquaintance -- who, unlike most of the people libeled on the site, pretty much isn't even a celebrity (with celebrity-level security)  -- had his life turned upside-down over this was just horrifying.

An example of James Holmes fan art

Then there was stuff like the James Holmes fan club community coming out in full force this week -- which is another post entirely. They have their own conspiracy theories, which dovetails into these new Sandy Hook conspiracies....this Venn diagram of teenage fangirls and hardcore old-school theorists (some of whom believe that no children were harmed in SH and it was all just a Hollywood production)...

All these things and more makes fringe researchers -- or the merely curious -- look like maniacs, and distracts people from the real issues.

Fuck, it is so depressing. Reading some old stuff from Robert Anton Wilson and Tim Leary that's cheering me up a little bit, as well as a Red Ice Radio interview with Drunvalo Melchizedek that at least gave me some new positive ideas -- I mean, I don't buy everything Melchizedek says, but it was a good change of pace with some insights I haven't thought of before. Stench of Truth as usual tries to refocus stuff on the issues. And I got some good synchromystic notes written out that might make some fruitful posts -- or at least research for shits and giggles -- down the line. But this week was rough, with me questioning a lot of stuff.

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Batman "Solves" The "Paul Is Dead" Conspiracy Theory

Batman knew the real truth behind the "Paul Is Dead" rumor -- and it's a shocker!

Batman #222, published in 1970, featured a very Beatles-looking band called "The Oliver Twists." Robin investigates the rumor that band member Saul Cartwright (Paul McCartney?) had died in a freak motorcycle accident and was replaced by a double. Luckily, Batman/Bruce Wayne is the major stockholder in The Oliver Twists' music label Eden Records (or, Apple Corps), and the two have access to the band.

What is the true shocking secret of the story "Dead...Till Proven Alive?" Saul is Saul -- it's the rest of the band members who are fakes, the originals having died in a tragic plane crash.

Featuring a cover that looks like that of Abbey Road but from a different angle, Batman #222 just proves how utterly pervasive the rumor of Paul McCartney's death and "replacement" was in pop-culture, just a scant year after it started.

Source: Oddball Comics

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Reality Glasses: Ingress and Conspiracy Hipsters

Google's new massively-multiplayer game "Ingress" -- in which players are led to real places via their phone, playing against real players who also might really be the same place you are -- is the very definition of blurring fantasy and reality. If you take into account that Google is starting to promote its "Project Glasses" at the very same time -- both "Ingress" and "Project Glasses" (basically, "Internet Glasses") using similar info-overlays -- the line gets even more blurred.

the brave new world of "Augmented Reality"

But what was most immediately interesting about "Ingress" was how it appropriates widely-disseminated "conspiracy" theories and tries to sell it to a hip, young, mainstream audience.

The "trailer" for "Ingress" starts with these lines read by a narrator:

"This is not psychosis or some cognitive break, but an actual takeover of the mind."

Then we see an image of the corkboard full of clippings that has, through mass-media, become synonymous with "the conspiracy nut":



It then references two concepts that anyone familiar with the Alex Jones show or David Icke would recognize immediately. References to "The Resistance" (compare to talk of "tyranny," "Prison Planet," and so on):

And "The Enlightened" (compare with the standard refrains "Wake Up" or "I am just trying to wake you up" or "I have just become Awakened to the conspiracy"):

Then we have a shot of what looks like a triangle with an "eye" on the top, which has been bisected by another line -- considering the rest of the content of this "trailer," probably not a coincidence:

Here are two more lines that are constantly evoked on the Jones show and the like -- almost word-for-word:

Now a narrator says the following, accompanied with this image:

"Much of sculpture found in our modern cities is based on designs seeded in the human mind."

Of course, symbolic architecture is another huge "conspiracy" topic, as are...

Stargates.

Accompanying the above image is the following:

"Some places have an energy that not only attracts people, but events."

Then there is talk about mind-hacking, and ideas that cannot be let out to "infect" the world. Luckily, another narrator -- younger, hipper -- says that he knows that "many tools will be needed to fight this battle," and holds up a smartphone device:

Then the scene switches to "overlay vision":

And now let us compare with a screenshot of the Google "Project Glasses" "trailer":

"Ingress":

"Project Glasses":

These seem like very similar things to me.

Let's now skip a bit to the demographic "Ingress" is being marketed to (also taken from the trailer):

So we have two ideas here:

1. Google is marketing a "fantasy" game ("Ingress") that looks very much like a "reality" project ("Project Glasses")

2. Themes most associated with "conspiracy" theories (and related media, like talk shows) are purposely being used here, but the game is marketed to mainstream, young "iPad Generation"

Conspiracy Symbolism is the shizz...

Let's take on the second idea first. As a life-long reader/researcher of esoteric and "conspiracy" type topics -- which I largely hid from my peers because of its "kook" stigma -- I find it absolutely hilarious that now these same symbols and narratives are being purposely marketed to said peers. And that's all this could be -- a simple marketing thing, inspired all the way back by the success of the "National Treasure" movies and "DaVinci's Code" before that (and, well, "X-Files" before that).

It's the deep intersection between fantasy and reality within the game "Ingress" itself -- as well as between it and the very real "Project Glasses" (both made by the same company, remember) that I find extremely interesting -- and which muddies my initial take on the second idea (simple marketing) a little bit.

Is there something more going on here? Or am I just playing into the marketers of this game's hands, by expanding "the mystery" by assigning meaning to where there might not be any? <--this might be a very real possibility, yet I'm feeling playful and inquisitive and have decided to go deeper down the rabbit hole, though I might only find a logo and perhaps a t-shirt at the bottom (maybe also one of those "livestrong" type rubber bracelets).

In the next post on this subject, I'm going to examine the plot of "Ingress" further -- and point out its uncanny and similarities to a movie trailer that has just hit the Internet. The movie in question might seem like a very unlikely choice...but, considering the demographics we are talking about here, maybe not.

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