Analysis of John Moore's Conspiracy Theory by jdifelice on July 15 th, 2010 at www.scribd.com You can find the article HERE I will have all the links for the videos this guy is talking about in here link at the bottom under John Moore s YouTube Greatest Hits. Global Warming: What the Government Isn t Telling You I watched all 12 parts of this presentation. I have also read about many other conspiracy theories in the past. Here are my thoughts on this one. The Presentation The speaker, John Moore, did not come off as a crackpot, as I expected. He instead seemed genuine and sincere and his arguments were logical. Some of the science he described was correct, like how he knew that the floating ice of the north pole will not affect sea levels when it melts. But his presentation was unpolished, and he seemed uncomfortable speaking in front of an audience. This was unexpected because he hosts his own radio show, and I assumed this was not his first speaking gig. The fact that it was unpolished made it seem more genuine, but it struck me as odd. The worst thing about the presentation were the two obvious laugh tracks. Not only did they sound like laugh tracks, but at one point the camera zoomed out and you could see how few people there were in the audience. One has to wonder why they added laugh tracks to this presentation. Conspiracy Theory Characteristics There are certain characteristics that most conspiracy theories have. This one has all of the ones I can think of. Basis in Fact Every successful conspiracy theory must be based upon some established fact; a theory won t survive and propagate without it. The established fact here is that the ocean levels are rising and that they are going to continue to rise. This observation has been around for decades. All of the predictions Moore makes about rising sea levels and what the coastline of the U.S. will look like afterward have been out there for some time. The only difference between this video and what has already been stated by scientists is the cause and the timeframe. Moore mentions Al Gore s movie An Inconvenient Truth. In it, Gore regurgitates the current scientific predictions of rising sea levels. Gore says it s caused by global warming, will take decades if not centuries to reach doomsday levels, and is reversible. Moore also regurgitates scientific model predictions, but says the cause is Page 1 of 5
the tenth planet, is irreversible, and will happen in a time frame of years. Moore spends most of the video describing what will happen once sea levels rise, how he obtained this secret knowledge, and then how to survive it. He spends very little time explaining how this new planet will cause it. So really, he s not saying anything new: we already know that sea levels are rising, we know bad stuff will happen if they do, and we know we ll need mad survival skills when it happens, skills like growing our own food and making guns. If he doesn t sufficiently explain the cause, who cares how he got this secret information? (not that he tells us anyway). The video is roughly two hours long, and he might have spent ten minutes on the tenth planet and how it will cause this catastrophe. Incorporation of Other Conspiracy Theories Moore mentions at least three other conspiracy theories in his dissertation. He mentions the Kennedy assassination very early in the piece. This leads into the conversation Kennedy had with the Pope. He also mentions the underground base in Denver and the New World Order. This is how conspiracy theorists seek legitimacy. This can also be observed in the Bible. The writers of biblical texts often referred to earlier texts in the Bible to make it seem that their text was completing a story or a prophecy. Texts that did so would have a greater chance of being included in the canon and surviving over time. Classified/Secret Sources Every conspiracy theory has, at its center, some guy who used to work for the military or government and is privy to top secret information that he can t describe in detail and can only allude to. John Moore is this person here. There are things that he tells us to Google, like the discovery of the tenth planet and the relocation of CIA offices. When people do find these things on Google, it gives legitimacy to the theory. But this isn t the really important information. This is publicly available information. The crux of the theory is based upon classified information and interviews with mysterious people: things that we cannot Google and cannot verify. Involvement of a Higher Power Human beings need to believe that someone or something is in charge, has a plan, and is controlling things, even if that someone or something has malicious intentions. Traditionally it has been the God/Satan combo. Then God fell out of favor with some, and they directed their belief systems to other higher powers: the Knights Templar, the Free Masons, the New World Order, One World Government, the United States Government, Grey aliens, etc. People need structure, they reject chaos, and they must find meaning when bad things happen. When 9/11 occurred, it was too scary to think that a few terrorists got together and destroyed those buildings. It made the U.S. government look weak. It sounds twisted, but some people would rather Page 2 of 5
believe their government was directly involved in planning 9/11 than believe their government is incompetent and weak. But I don t think it s twisted; I think it s human nature. John Moore s higher power is God, and he admits he is a born-again Christian. This bit of news came at the end, right where the conclusions of a dissertation should come. I don t think it s an accident that he waited till the end of the presentation to mention this. I think this is one of the major points of his presentation. Problems with this Theory Lack of Compelling Evidence John Moore does not present any scientific evidence of how the tenth planet will bring about the pole shift. This is important because his theory is largely based upon science. He merely states, I am not a scientist and leaves it at that. But he did spend some time on the proof he found in biblical texts. He quotes from the book of Joshua where it is written that 4 extra hours of day light were given to the Israelites (who he kept calling the Israelis) during a battle. He then describes that this is corroborated by Chinese texts, but he doesn t mention what Chinese text it is. Moore s entire body of evidence is pulled from one verse in the book of Joshua. Moore also states that he s been performing research on this for 27 years, yet the tenth planet was only discovered five years ago. Does he suggest that NASA found this planet decades before and kept it quiet? If that s true, why would they release the news now? And if no one knew about this planet before 2005, how could he have been working on this theory for decades? CIA Moving: Who Cares? Moore puts a lot of stock in the fact that the CIA moved out of Virginia. He says it s because they re seeking higher ground. I say this could be a reaction to 9/11. Terrorists crashed planes into the Pentagon. It s probably a good idea to get them out of Virginia. NORAD s been in Wyoming for decades, and that had nothing to do with sea levels. Let me know when they start moving the White House, and then I ll start worrying. Walmart Building Secret Offices: Really? The most densely populated areas of on earth are along coastlines. These are the most desirable places to live, the places where ports exist and therefore jobs, etc. If Moore s theory is correct, we re talking about a loss of life on the scale of hundreds of millions if not over a billion people. Do you know what that would do to Walmart s bottom line? Who s going to buy all their stuff? Who s going to make all their stuff to sell, considering most of it is now made in places in Asia that will be underwater? If the C-level executives at Walmart really thought something like this were going to happen, do you think they d be planning how Walmart can survive it? These executives are Page 3 of 5
already worth billions of dollars. Don t you think they d be getting out of dodge, liquidating their shares, and hunkering down to live out their days swimming in their piles of gold coins, Daffy Duck-style? This is the most ridiculous notion Moore made in the whole presentation. Newly Discovered Heavenly Body This conspiracy theory is common in that it is driven by the discovery of a heavenly body. When new heavenly bodies are discovered, certain people usually the religious, the paranoid, or both see this as a sign from God. Remember the Hale-Bopp people? Dangerous things can happen because these people tend to reverse the scientific method (see below). Reverse Scientific Method When scientists observe some phenomenon, they employ the scientific method, which requires that they create a hypothesis, conduct experiments and collect data, analyze the data, and then come to conclusions. When you reverse the scientific method, you start with a conclusion, and then seek out observations that support it. When people do this, really bad things happen, and that s what John Moore has done here. He started with a conclusion: the world is going to end. How does he know the world is going to end? Because it s written in the book of Revelation. He s a born again Christian and takes the Bible so literally that he has created an entire theory around a verse in the book of Joshua. So he, and other people who are really religious, go out looking for signs of the end of times. They read about the discovery of another planet in our solar system, and that looks like a sign to them. Biblical Contradiction There have been doomsday prophets throughout human existence. My own theory is that this is because every generation, deep down, wants to think that they will be the last generation on Earth. People want to feel important, that the times they are living in are important. What could be more important than witnessing the end of times? My biggest criticism of John Moore s theory is that he contradicts himself, albeit indirectly. We ve established that he is a born-again Christian who takes the Bible very literally. He believes in the literal interpretation of the book of Joshua and the book of Revelation. So how can he suggest that the world will be destroyed by water when God promised in the book of Genesis that he would never again destroy the world by water? That s the problem with fundamentalists: they pick and choose what they want to believe based upon what suits their needs. Conclusions This theory contains enough elements that make it a rather common conspiracy theory. If you created a checklist of all the things a Page 4 of 5
conspiracy theory should have, this would have them all checked. The legitimate science that Moore quotes in his presentation is real and scary enough without the tenth planet business and Bible talk. Sea levels are rising, but I believe they are rising due to the melting of the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. I am concerned about this, but scientific predicts indicate that it won t happen on the time scale John Moore talks about. If there are predicted ill effects by the tenth planet, I would have to read about it in established scientific journals. I can t follow claims by people who can t provide this. Throughout human history, it has been impossible to suppress scientific discoveries, and some of the most powerful organizations that have every existed have tried and failed to do so. If there are catastrophic predictions regarding this planet, it will be known and it will get out there. No government could keep that from getting out because it s science, and anyone who can see and hear can do science. But it is wise to be prepared, just in case. Carmen s mom lives on five acres in the countryside of Ohio. There are two dwellings on the property. The land is farmable and is surrounded by soy and corn fields. The elevation is 1,000 feet above current sea level, so it will be dry. It is surrounded by fresh water lakes and streams and rivers. The closest city is Dayton which has a population of only 166,000 and is 25 miles away (and won t be underwater).you guys are invited. We ll provide the land and lodging, Wallace can provide the guns, and we can strap a plow to Mark since we don t have any other large mammals Page 5 of 5