#76: John Coleman

Coleman is an ardent believer in the Maurice Strong conspiracy. ”The what?” you might ask if you are unfamiliar with the strange features of the looniverse.

"Militia members are famously worried that black helicopters are practicing maneuvers with blue-helmeted UN troops in a plot to take over America. But the actual peril is more subtle. A small cadre of obscure international bureaucrats are hard at work devising a system of 'global governance' that is slowly gaining control over ordinary Americans' lives." So said the journalist Ronald Bailey back in the nineties – Bailey might be credited as the instigator or at least popularizer of the Maurice Strong conspiracy and the idea that AGW is a UN conspiracy to take over the US and erect a world-government, but Bailey has later turned around and admitted that the evidence for global warming is pretty compelling and backpedaled wildly from any association with said conspiracy. Coleman, however, marches onward, impervious to reason, evidence or sanity. Maurice Strong is a Canadian business man and environmentalist who has had several positions in the UN over the years. How he came to be the target of a conspiracy is a little unclear.

There also seems to be some uncertainty regarding whether Strong is supposed to be a member of the Illuminati, but he is, in any case, one of the main figures behind the New World Order. (the conspiracy is – of course – also endorsed by the Locust blog, a nexus for lunacy that must be seen to be believed).

Coleman’s take on the issue is here, and while the most important and influential Maurice Strong conspiracy theorists are James Inhofe, Wes Vernon and (probably) Jesse Ventura (all three will receive separate entries, don’t worry), Coleman’s screed is delightfully representative of the mindset and reasoning behind the movement.

Well, ok – Coleman might be one step ahead. He is firmly on the Strong-is-a-member-of-the-Illuminati side. In fact, Coleman has written mind-bogglingly illuminating articles on the Illuminati as well, such as this one. In this well-researched essay he identifies several targets of the Illuminati, including (this is not the looniest one, trust me, but it is one of the shortest): “12. To introduce new cults and continue to boost those already functioning which include rock music gangsters such as the Rolling Stones (a gangster group much favored by European Black Nobility), and all of the Tavistock-created rock groups which began with the Beatles.”

“Tavistock”? Oh, right, here you go (Here’s the link to the real Tavinstitute; it is not entirely clear what set Coleman’s snowball rolling. Maybe you could try to watch some of his numerous YouTube contributions. I’m not sure I would recommend it, however.)

Diagnosis: Baffling. The Maurice Strong conspiracy is very popular, and although it is just one side-branch of Coleman’s rather more ambitious theory, its denialist supporters would do well to consider the mechanisms that led them to support it in the first place – leafing through Coleman’s essays should help do that, I hope. Then again, probably not.