NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/callahan/13699

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-17 | 8.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!europa.asd.contel.com!emory!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.claremont.edu!nntp-server.caltech.edu!SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU!LYDICK
From: [e-mail] (Speaker-to-Minerals)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Franken-StM?
Date: 17 Nov 1992 04:35:12 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Lines: 133
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

StM walks up to the bar and says to Mike, "Rye.  Neat.  Double.  Please."
Mike serves him and StM walks to the line.  "To urban folklore!"  <CRASH>

"There is a small chance," says StM, "that in the coming few weeks or months
yet another rumor about the source of AIDS will start making the rounds.  If
this particular rumor DOES get started, it will involve the Nazi death camps
and the sealing of the records of the medical research that went on in those
camps.  If you should happen to hear such a rumor, DON'T BELIEVE IT.  The story
was an intellectual exercise; a demonstration of how to fabricate a conspiracy
theory that might stand up to scrutiny.  I should know.  I'm the one who
fabricated the story."

StM walks to the bar and orders another round of the same.  "You see, there's
been a thread going on in sci.skeptic the last few weeks involving the origin
of AIDS.  Prominent in this thread were a couple of people promoting a couple
of different conspiracy theories to explain the origin of the disease.  Several
people knowledgable in the field of microbiology and in the history of AIDS
repeatedly pointed out problems with these conspiracy theories.  Some of the
problems pointed out were that the technology to create the disease in a
laboratory didn't exist at the time of the first known case of AIDS, the fact
that neither HIV-1 nor HIV-2 bears any particular resemblence to the viruses
from which HIV was allegedly constructed in one of these conspiracy theories,
the fact that a sample of the smallpox vaccine which was allegedly contaminated
still exists and shows no indications of being contaminated, and so forth."

StM sips his drink.  "Still the conspiracy theorists persisted.  Finally one of
the biologists (a fellow by the name of Dan Ashlock who happens to be a former
Caltech student) asked
    Goddamnit could one of the SKEPTICS please construct and [sic]
    AIDS-was-caused-by-the-govenment theory?  Then it won't be quite so
    silly.

"Well, my next post to sci.skeptic started with the words,
    OK, I'll have a go at it:
and ended with the words:
    There.  How's that?

"In between was the best conspiracy theory I could dream up on 10 minutes'
notice.  It was certainly better than the ones that were being pushed by the
conspiracy theorists, but I figured it wouldn't stand up under close scrutiny.
Well, it's been a day an a half since I posted the conspiracy theory.  Several
people have responded.  The concensus seems to be that I've come up with a
pretty bullet-proof conspiracy theory.  The biologists admit that it COULD have
happened as my conspiracy describes it.  The strongest criticisms thus far are:
    1)  There's no direct evidence for it.
    2)  It doesn't make the U.S. government look evil enough.  Just
        incompetent (I *TOLD* you my conspiracy theory was plausible).
Well, of course there's no direct evidence for it.  Otherwise it wouldn't be a
proper conspiracy theory.  And of course it makes the U.S. government look
incompetent.  Assuming competence on the part of the U.S. govenment has been
the downfall of too many conspiracy theories for me to fall into that trap."

StM finishs this drink and buys another one.  "So far, there's no big problem.
I set out to create a plausible conspiracy theory and succeeded.  It was a bit
more plausible than I'd given myself credit for, but I could live with that.
However, things are turning a bit ugly.  Someone familiar with the history of
AIDS has sent in a followup post detailing some little-known information about
the history of AIDS.  Information of which I'd never heard and which had never
been posted to sci.skeptic.  Information which tends to corroborate my
conspiracy theory.

"My intellectual exercise is showing the first signs of becoming a bit of urban
folklore.  I hope it doesn't make it fully into that category.  My only
consolation if it does catch on will be that I'll have had the dubious honor of
starting a bit of urban folklore with a post to alt.folklore.urban.  That
newsgroup's supposed to debunk urban folklore, though, not create it.  In case
my conspiracy theory does catch on though, I'm reposting the original article
here.  I'd appreciate it if some of you would keep copies of it so that you'll
be able to provide details of the origin of this particular conspiracy theory
if it does catch on.  If that happens, perhaps you'll be able to persuade some
people that it's not true.  Anyway, here's the original article:
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Path: nntp-server.caltech.edu!SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU!CARL
From: [e-mail] (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Idiot theories abound (AIDS).
Date: 15 Nov 1992 23:24:05 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
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Distribution: world
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Xref: nntp-server.caltech.edu alt.folklore.urban:55846 sci.skeptic:32187

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Daniel A
Ashlock) writes:
>   Goddamnit could one of the SKEPTICS please construct and AIDS-was-caused-
>by-the-govenment theory?  Then it won't be quite so silly.

OK, I'll have a go at it:

AIDS was first discovered in the early 1940's in Germany.  The Germans, of
course, didn't know what they had, but they took due note of it.  When the
occupying forces took the camps, this discovery, along with serum samples of
several people suffering from the disease, came to the attention of someone
highly placed in the intelligence community, who decided to clamp down on the
information.  That's the REAL reason that the records of the Nazi's human
subjects experiments aren't generally available.  Has nothing to do with an
ethical bias against using data that was obtained the way this was or the
dubious quality of controls on the experiments.  The government, knowing from
the Nazi records that the disease was normally quite slow in spreading,
intentionally infected a number of people with it (in VA hospitals, of course)
in order to observe the progress of the disease.  The idea was that this virus
would make a particularly good assasination weapon, as long as one didn't want
immediate results.  The victim would die of pneumonia or other infection years
after being infected, thus making it virtually impossible to trace the assasin
even should someone suspect that the death wasn't entirely natural.  In the
interest of getting clean data, they of course did not tell the victims about
it.  This was done, of course, in the late 1940s.  The government STILL had no
idea of what the transmission agent was, but they did know (again, from the
Nazi records) that the disease could be spread via exchange of blood.  None of
the initially infected people were IV drug users.  It came as a great surprise
that the virus could so easily be spread by sexual intercourse.  Of course, by
the time the government realized this (latency of the disease being what it is)
so many people had been infected that the government was unable to halt the
spread of the disease, and instead simply abandoned the project.  All
principals in the research were, of course, either killed or bribed to keep
quiet.  Those other than the principals who were involved in the project were
never given enough details to be able to connect their work from the 40s and
50s with the epidemic of the 80s.  The number of cases remained small enough to
attract little notice until around 1980.

There.  How's that?
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Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: [e-mail] | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.