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Sitting here on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Perpignan, during the Coronavirus lockdown, I\u2019ve been reminded about some thoughts I\u2019d been having about Conspiracy Capitalism. All across social media I\u2019m seeing conspiracy theories joining hands \u2013 5G is now a direct cause of the Coronavirus, the mandated isolation is a cover for New World Order<\/a> Phase II, every pandemic exercise over the last few years has been a dry run for government control[1]<\/a> and the hospitals are all either empty, full of crisis actors or mannequins. The Climate Hoax seems to have been side-lined…for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d been thinking about all of these webpages that get shared, and their connections to businesses who also seem to sell products that are tenuously related to the misinformation contained on these pages. An example is page that I saw being shared (just before I finally quit Facebook) from the site Natural News[2]<\/a> with the information that even \u201cNASA admits that climate change occurs because of changes in Earth\u2019s solar orbit, and NOT because of SUVs and fossil fuels<\/a>\u201d. Prime fodder for those that believe that humans have no influence on climate change and for those who see it all as a hoax. Natural News also happens to promote a variety of products ranging from organic popcorn<\/a>, homeopathic silver remedies<\/a>, through to survival gear<\/a>, pandemic protection kits<\/a> and Geiger\/EMF meters<\/a>. Via armed self-defence videos<\/a>, it also reroutes people to a mirror store<\/a> selling the same products. A honeypot for the concerned. This is a webmaster who knows their public and how to attract them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, I don\u2019t want to single out Natural News, or anyone\nelse, as the sole offender in using conspiracies and pseudoscience as a strategy\nto draw people to their products \u2013 we\u2019ve already seen the likes of Alex Jones\nsaying that his\ntoothpaste would cure the corona virus<\/a> and a popular American pastor<\/a> selling\ncolloidal\nsilver solutions for the same purpose<\/a>. First, I would like to talk about my\nown experiences with online SEO tactics, Multi-Level\nMarketing<\/a> and perhaps tell a story about some ideas I have about Conspiracy\nCapitalism and how it came about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in 2009, an old acquaintance contacted me regarding some\nbusiness ideas he had. He wanted some help figuring out some software that\nmight give him the edge in a crowded market. Dave \u2013 as we\u2019ll call him \u2013 was barking\nup the right tree. I\u2019d been busily figuring out software and hardware for some\nyears \u2013 as a computer tech, sound engineer and, more recently, as an artist and\ntechnician. Luckily for me, I was not as broke as when we last met and I could\nafford to define my own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I first crossed paths with Dave in Dutch squats during the\nmid-90\u2019s. He was a wheeler and a dealer who dressed normally and drove a BMW. A\ncontrast to the techno-crusty dress code and choice of transport. A supplier to\nthe culture of the time. He had continued in a similar role for many years,\nserved time in a foreign jail and come out with a lot more ideas for making a quick\nbuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had skipped on many of these ideas, but eventually he had\nfound an area that was apparently legal, interesting and a potentially useful\nskill \u2013 SEO[3]<\/a>\n(Search Engine Optimisation). Inevitably, it all got murky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a few weeks, I looked into the current state of SEO and\nplayed with some software that Dave sent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the days when I had websites that earned me money, I promoted\nthem through forums, link swapping and generally making sure that they\ncontained plenty of text and keywords that was updated regularly. Still, I\nmostly relied on word-of-mouth for my businesses \u2013 computer repairs and a\nrecording studio. As the 2000s rolled on, I could see SEO becoming more prominent.\nThe internet was getting crowded, the corner-stores were fading and shopping\nmalls were being built. The Social Media revolution was coming and the fight to\nbe noticed was getting heavily-financed and mean. Spam was always a good\nsignifier of how things were going, and I was seeing some interesting things \u2013\nalmost-intelligible emails hawking miracle cures, forums and comments being\noverwhelmed by advertising bots, malware that rerouted websites to high\npressure sales pitches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The software I was looking at was the source of some of this\nnoise \u2013 forum spammers, blog generators, article spinners, etc[4]<\/a>. Fascinated,\nI agreed to look at it, on the condition that it would only be run within my\nown sandbox and against my own servers. After which, I would write Dave a\nmanual and he could do what he wanted with the knowledge. I felt a little\ndirty, but I felt a little clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I digress \u2013 let\u2019s talk about some of the people I met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a few weeks lurking on the support forums, I noticed\nthat a couple of the more active members were also offering online master\nclasses on best practices with the software. Dave suggested that I do a one-week\nwebinar series and I agreed, if he paid. \u20ac250 for 5 classes over a week, with\nemail support. Each class would run for an hour and have between 5 and 10\nattendees. Although the teacher \u2013 who shall be called Travis – was based in the\nUS, these classes were scheduled for a suitable Western European time. Others\nwere scheduled for American, Middle-Eastern and Asian time zones. Off the bat, I\nwas already seeing the execution of a lucrative business model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The classes started off in a very remedial way \u2013 introductions\nand hopes, but I was happy to run with it. I could see from the other five attendees\nthat they were new to the whole internet and e-commerce game. Mostly – almost\nentirely – 30\/40-somethings looking for ways to get out of the recession rat\nrace and claim some of that sweet internet gold they\u2019d been hearing about. Multi-Level\nMarketeers who had boxes of stuff under their beds and wanted to pass their bad\ndecisions onwards. Another was a beginner website designer who wanted to add\nSEO to his skillset. There was a lot of excitement that Travis was happy to\nstoke. I kept my mouth shut and listened, for the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Travis projected the image of a man who had already cracked\nit. He was making money hand-over-fist, doing the minimum of work, had a\nbeautiful wife, a big house and a double garage full of performance cars. He\njust wanted to pass his knowledge on and let some other people share in the\nopportunities available. If we followed his method, there was no reason any of\nus couldn\u2019t be as successful as Travis – if not, even more successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After much talk from Travis about how the internet and\nsearch engines worked, tales of life-transforming business successes, Google AdWords\nand expensive cars, we finally seemed to be moving on to the software and how\nit should be deployed effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up to this point, I had been uninterested in this parallel\npitch of financial success. All I was interested in was the technical knowledge.\nI was there to learn about a piece of software and move on \u2013 I wasn\u2019t\ninterested in the inferred lifestyle. By this time, the other attendees were\ngetting very excited about the future. I could hear the dollar signs in their\nspeech as they encouraged one another. It was turning into a weird little\nself-help group. They all had a product to sell, but the product wasn\u2019t\nimportant. The selling was important. The money was the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day 3 began with Travis regaling us with a tale of a big financial\nwin for him that very morning, and how little he had had to do to get it.\nEveryone cheered him on. I asked – a little curtly – about the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, I was starting to strain at the leash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Travis told me to relax, that we would be getting into it\ntoday, but that it was also important to share these success stories, so that\nwe would know what we wanted and to help form goals to aim for. I held up my\nhands and congratulated him. He talked about the benefits of Vision Boards[5]<\/a>\nfor a few minutes, before moving on. My red-flag senses were tingling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The software training began. Travis talked through the\ninterface like a person who had just seen it for the first time. He clicked on\nevery menu and read out the items within with the vaguest of explanations. He\nwas padding out the time. Whenever I asked about any deeper technical details,\nI was brushed aside with the practiced ease of a grifter who had the crowd on\nhis side. I was learning nothing new and was relieved that my own money wasn\u2019t\ninvolved. The others seemed to be fully engrossed, taking copious notes and getting\nslightly exasperated with my interruptions. If the other attendees were getting\nsomething out of this \u2013 great \u2013 but this wasn\u2019t the place for me. I bided my\ntime and pushed on with getting my main questions answered at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From initial impressions of the software, and others like\nit, I recognised that two prerequisites would need to be resolved to allow it\nto run completely automatically \u2013 after the initial set up. One was anonymity \u2013\nusing anonymous proxies that would change regularly to avoid leaving footprints\non servers that could be banned \u2013 and the other was CAPTCHA-solving. If these\ntools were to generate email and forum accounts, the user could not be spending\ntheir time manually solving every CAPTCHA that came up \u2013 there had to be\nanother way[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surprisingly, Travis practically lit up at this question.\nThis was a great question, and one that he planned to fully address in the\nfinal day. I was top of the class for the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final webinar was a whirlwind. Travis gave us a live\nshow of exactly how he would set up and run a successful SEO campaign. After a\nflash quiz to generate some potential products, he hit AdWords to find some\neffective keywords. He then dug up a list of relevant forums and fired up an\narticle spinner to generate varied texts with inline URLs back to the product.\nWe all watched, eagle-eyed, up to the point where he hit the \u2018Go\u2019 button and\ntold us that now we could just sit back and wait for the clicks to start coming\nin. It was that easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAbout the proxies and CAPTCHA\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Travis could hook us up with all that very necessary\nstuff. He shared a link to one of his websites that specialised in providing\nboth of these services for a competitive fee. No problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a final note, Travis said that he also had a great\nbusiness opportunity, just for the people who attended this webinar. A product\nthat would sell like hot cakes and would work perfectly with our new SEO\nskills. Just stay on the call and he\u2019d be back in a few minutes with a\npresentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thanked Travis and logged off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where am I going with this? It\u2019s a stepping stone \u2013 Con(fidence)\nCapitalism or maybe Hope Capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of those people we just met are in the same circle, just\nat different levels. The product doesn\u2019t really matter, the people don\u2019t even\nreally matter \u2013 just the personality types and the potential money that might\nbe made. I don\u2019t know if Travis was good at SEO \u2013 if he was, he wasn\u2019t giving\naway any of his secrets. I don\u2019t know if he was rich, but he certainly liked\nmoney. He was selling an idea \u2013 an idea he may have been sold at an earlier\ntime, and when he realised that it was just an idea, he knew that he\u2019d do well\nto sell it on to those who hadn\u2019t fully bought it yet. Like the multi-level\nmarketers with boxes full of vitamin gel supplements taking up space in their\ngarages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s important to talk about is that separation. Follow the money. The product is just the vehicle. People are clicks. Clicks are money. What do you need to do to get the clicks, and where will it take you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s take a look in Part II…<\/a> [1]<\/a> Event 201: https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/articles\/global-pandemic-preparedness-plan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.naturalnews.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [3]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Search_engine_optimization<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [4]<\/a> https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/legacy\/events\/leet11\/tech\/full_papers\/Shin.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [5]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dream_board<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/legacy\/events\/sec10\/tech\/full_papers\/Motoyama.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sitting here on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Perpignan, during the Coronavirus lockdown, I\u2019ve been reminded about some thoughts I\u2019d been having about Conspiracy Capitalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,6],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-conspiracycapitalism","category-noise","tag-conspiracy-capitalism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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