Et tu, Brute…? Is Thomas Richards finally truly seeing the light or is he just a rat jumping off Tony Alamo’s sinking ship?

I had to think about the title for a while on this posting.  I was very tempted to call it:

Thomas Richards and his incredibly shrinking credibility…

Thomas Richards, the dupe behind SpirituallySmart.com

Thomas Richards of Spiritually Smart, whom I have questioned in past posts as having been intellectually stupid on his support of an idiotic conspiracty theory, has recently changed his tune on our good old neighborhood cult leader Bernie Hoffman, er…, Tony Alamo, who is facing a plethora of federal charges back in Arkansas mostly stemming from issues revolving around child molestation allegations.  Thomas Richards put the “I ain’t the one to blame” back peddaling in his statement when he used an interesting, almost non-committal choice of words:  ”…it seems I was wrong…“

It seems you were wrong…? Only seems that you were wrong?

Well, Thomas, it more than seems that you were wrong.  In fact, you’ve been looking cheesy on this one, and many others, for a while.

Bernard LaZar Hoffman, AKA "Tony Alamo", AKA "The Accused"

Unfortunately, Mr. Richards tends to favor making such errors in logic and common sense when it comes to the fringe of whacky religious groups and conspiracy theories.  Just have a look at his website or YouTube channel and you can see that if there is a pothole full of goofballs in his path he’s sure going to fall in.  The crazier the conspiracies are are the more our boy Thomas tends to gravitate to them.  But Tommy isn’t satisfied to simply hover around like a moth magnetized by a burning light bulb though.  No, Thomas Richards thinks it is somehow his job to bring people closer to the mindsets of these morons like Tony Alamo and Alberto Rivera.  It is sad, to tell the truth, at how whacked out and cuckoo Thomas Richards likes his gurus.

Each to his own I guess.

Alberto Rivera, Religious Fraud

But Thomas Richards tried to appear to do the honorable thing by publicly admitting that it “seems” he made a mistake, you say?  I would love to give Thomas Richards lots of kudos for admitting this mistake, this gross error in judgment, but when I read back over his many web postings and YouTube videos, many with himself being the sole narrator, and am forced to ponder at how Thomas Richards defended these creeps for so long I really get the distinct feeling that the proverbial shit has hit the fan, the inevitable has set in, and our boy is only trying to distance himself from the splattered stench.  When taking into consideration the fact that Thomas Richards whole heartedly supported this goon Tony Alamo for so long and that he has the same steadfast support for the religious fraudster Alberto Rivera who’s main testimony concocting the Vatican Islam Conspiracy is published in a comic book that has been thoroughly and utterly discredited by, you guessed it, research into history, well, ya gotta just wonder where Thomas Richards’ head is.  I for one don’t have to wonder so much about where Thomas Richards’ head is because I have seen the muck he’s been spewing out over and over.

Want a hint?

Okay, here’s a big hint…!

Have you found your head finally, Thomas Richards?

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The Secret of Being a Con Man

“The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he’s getting it.” Ken Kesey

This is one sentence by Ken Kesey is possibly the best quotation I have ever seen regarding con men and how they operate.  This also holds true, I have seen, with the conspiracy theory crowd, whether it be with Alex Jones, David Icke or the likes of the religious conspiracy ilk.

People who are familiar with my any of my blogs or my books will know that I spend considerable effort debunking these bogus myths thrust upon the masses by what I like to call the “Cons-Piracy Mafia“.  My first book even dealt directly with all the points that one religious fraudster, Alberto Rivera, claimed in his Vatican Islam Conspiracy.  But since the book’s publication in 2006 I have had lots of mail from people condemning me for debunking Rivera and the shots over my bow mainly come from the direction of the very dupes who refuse to even open the book.  When I consider who my main critics have been over these years it becomes extremely apparent that Jack Chick and Alberto Rivera are giving their audience what they want to see and hear:  That the Roman Catholic Church schemed to create Islam in order to subjugate true Christians.

I can’t but help see the psychological parallels in those who follow these conspiracy theories and the victims who get caught up in the Nigerian 419 advance fee scams (as I am currently reading McMafia by Misha Glenny.)

In each case the victims were drawn closer and closer into the scam until in many cases they have allowed themselves to be fleeced of all their money and then some.  Of course, in the case of the Nigerian scams people put this crime down to greed but it goes to a level even beyond.  You see, the greed in the 419 scam comes from both sides, from both the perpetrator and the victim as well.  And I find that this is exactly the same when we look into conspiracy theories.  Both the originator of the theory as well as the follower are both “believers” in conspiracy.  The follower, the more they are drawn in, become increasingly self-delusional in their acceptance of the lie.  The followers begin to lose their free will to judge in these matters, much like a hypnotized person, like the proverbial zombie.

This is definitely true in the Vatican Islam Conspiracy, though I believe that the roles of Alberto Rivera and Jack Chick were initially quite different.  Rivera on one hand, I believe was actually a scoundrel.  Rivera found the audience and spun the tales to suit what the audience hungered for.  It could be very possible that he suffered the fate of many habitual liars – that Rivera eventually began to believe his own lies.  Jack Chick on the other hand, in my opinion, was one of the zombies.  Chick was predisposed to the type bullshit that Rivera was selling because it fit in with his theological beliefs that were already in place.  Chick was a willing dupe who has in turn become the vehicle of this lie.

Part of the art of spinning these conspiratorial tales is the ability of throwing out facts, quasi-facts and disinformation in a way that is either very difficult to check, beyond the education and background knowledge of the audience or preferably both.  The well spun conspiracy yarn is certain to leave their heads in a spin.  A general feeling of doubt is created from which distrust of the truth in general is created and the Cons-Piracy Mafia feeds on this scenario.  For example, think about the last time you watched a movie such as JFK.  For the casual viewer so many facts were thrown out to the viewer as “true” that even a clear headed person would be likely to leave the cinema with no idea of what really happened in the assassination of John Kennedy, but he would be fairly convinced that there was indeed a government cover up.

And the people who went into the movie already expecting a government cover up?  Well, the got what they paid for!

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A Small Project of Mine

I believe in free speech and free self expression.  People have a right to believe in what they want to believe in.  But at the same time, in a libertarian way of looking at things, it is always wrong to try to force your beliefs on someone else.  You don’t have too far to look to see that the world is full of this today.

My first book, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness, was written not to achieve any kind of best seller status and to make me famous.  It was written basically because there are scoundrels out there who create false histories all of the time and try to pass this off as a “hidden” truth.  A truth that the “powers that be” want suppressed.  They decorate their story in so many “facts” that there is no way you can sort through it all unless of course you do what I did and sit down and hash out the story line by line.  Then you see it is all a big lie.  But these window dressing stories tend to be far too big for average people to investigate.  We aren’t all history professors and most of us don’t have the time to go into all of the assertions and assumptions that these scoundrels make.  When the scoundrels are secular figures like David Icke with his reptilian theories then it is easier to brush this off and get on back to work.

But this isn’t always the case.

In many of these cases the purpetrators are non other than the ministers in churches.  Most of these guys pass on this bunk because it’s been passed on to them by people they have trusted.  They are like the rest of the community.  Not social scientists and not history professors.  But where these stories start are almost always in the imaginations of people who’s intent is not so good.  They tend to be megalomaniacal and use these stories to pull their flocks in further.  In the case of Alberto Rivera he was just on to the next gig.  Then you get the likes of the empire builders like Tony Alamo.  And these guys have a lot to answer for with the trash they put out, trying to mix it with religion to lead people off track.  As their tenticles spread out they surround themselves with apologists and dissiminators such as Jack Chick and Thomas Richards who act more like attack dogs and in my opinion are just as dishonest, even though they have been dupted themselves.

I have been working on a report on how to spot these guys.  I may post it on my website or I may make it into and e-book or e-mag.  It won’t be near long enough to be another book project as it doesn’t need to be but it will be an easy enough document to follow so that it will be simple to spot who the crazies are out there.   It will be out soon.  And I promise to make this as informative as possible.

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Open Letter to Thomas Richards: Spiritually Smart or Intellectually Stupid?

Thomas,

How are you?  I hope well!

I just saw the below message from you which his reply to a post from a viewer in Melbourne, Australia:

—–
tlthe5th (1 month ago) Yes, I read through some of it. Some of it’s highlights. It’s trash. And i mean it. i was so happy to see that actually. What sources he used were very weak and most of it wasn’t sourced at all. The man is a total Vatican shill as well.
—–

For your reference, this was from this YouTube page.

I am writing this to you because a friend of mine in the United States just sent me this exchange between you and the viewer that concerned me directly.  I saw the link from her and at first I thought that I would just leave it but then I listened to your diatribe about “lying” in the beginning of this video.  As such I feel compelled to reply.

I am the author of the book in question, “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth about the Vatican and the Birth of Islam”, and after reading your comments I have to say that I really do not believe that you have actually even seen my book.  I personally think that you are lying.  I wrote a reply to the post which I hope will be posted.

Where do I start?

Besides calling the book “trash”, which I could be taken as a qualitative opinion on any aspect of the book (cover, artwork, writing style, etc.), I have problems with a few of your assertions.  You are free to call the book trash if you want.  I certainly don’t share this view but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

What set off alarms in my head was when you said that my sources “were very weak” and “most of it wasn’t sourced at all.”  You went on to say that I am “a total Vatican shill as well.”

First of all, I spent two years on the research of this book and there are multiple sources on almost every page.  I am very adamant that the sources are open and in order.  I hereby request you to point out exactly which sources were weak.  I ask you in the process to point out exactly what segments of the book were not sourced at all.  I think the onus is on you here due to your unwarranted comments though I seriously doubt that you will take up the challenge.  Case in point, in your own video you don’t source your own assertions about Leo Ryan, the CIA, Jim Jones, Gary Metz, etc.

As for me being a “Vatican shill”, I am not a Catholic, have never been a Catholic and on top of that I am highly critical of the Pope and the Catholic Church on almost all of their positions.  I was raised in an Evangelical church.  My book had nothing to do with defending the Catholic Church at all.  It was solely about taking all of Alberto Rivera’s claims regarding the Vatican and the birth of Islam and looking at them one by one and examining them for the historical truth.  If you have indeed seen the book, which I doubt, you will note that include Rivera’s entire testimony word by word broken down by chapter.  In fact the opening of every one of my chapters that discusses Rivera’s testimony in the book are Alberto Rivera’s own words, as published by Jack Chick, laid out for examination by the entire world.

Personally I do not believe from reading your comments about my book that you have even been in the same room with my book.  (If so can you tell me where you saw this book?)  I recommend that you have a look at the book yourself.  Once you have actually seen and examined the book (and hopefully you will even read it as well!), compare it to your comments.  I think then you will see who is a bullshit artist and who has done their homework.

Best regards,

Gary Dale Cearley

This open letter is directed to Thomas Richards.

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