Sunstein's Crackpot Theories

Michael Collins

I’ve been trying to understand Cass Sunstein’s 2008 paper called, Conspiracy Theories. I intend to comment on it shortly since it’s the foundation for his proposed domestic spying program.   He wants wage a “cognitive” war on conspiracy theories that clutter up the public thought space.  Sunstein in an Obama appointee as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a part of the Office of Management and Budget. (Image)

In the process of doing that, I came across this condensed version of his legal philosophy in Wikipedia. It’s a decent summary and reveals that Sunstein’s legal theories are somewhere on the border between crackpot and conspiracy theories.

Legal philosophy

Sunstein is a proponent of judicial minimalism, arguing that judges should focus primarily on deciding the case at hand, and avoid making sweeping changes to the law or decisions that have broad-reaching effects. Some view him as liberal^{[George W. Bush‘s judicial nominees, including Michael W. McConnell and John G. Roberts, as well as supporting rights under the Second Amendment [10] and providing strong theoretical support for the death penalty[11]. Much of his work also brings behavioral economics to bear on law, suggesting that the “rational actor” model will sometimes produce an inadequate understanding of how people will respond to legal intervention.  Wikipedia}

Judicial minimalism is a legal philosophy that preserves the status quo.   Sunstein’s legal system abjures  precedents in favor of one at a time decisions that have little or  no impact on other cases.  That sounds  like  lawyers  and judges collaborating to preserve the wealth of those who paid for and wrote the laws they like.   Since they’re shilling for entrenched wealth in the guise of performing the function of lawyers and judges, this  should count a conspiracy to deceive and defraud the public

The behavioral economics and law theories of Sunstein are straight from the University of Chicago wealth preservation program.  This political  philosophy is referred to as law and economics (L&E).  This L&E movement “influenced a generation of jurists, including Robert Bork, Richard Posner, Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist” (see Mr. Anonymous & the libertarian Movement).   There’s a real conspiracy here since the the Department of Economics at Chicago was largely put in place by ultra right wing charities that imported marginal academics with radical free market philosophies and enshrined them at Chicago as though they were distinguished scholars.

Then there are Sunstein’s ambitions to have government operatives clean up the thinking of citizens who argue for conspiracy theories that Susstein and his patrons deem false.  He’s conspiring in the open so we’ll label this a crackpot theory.

There are two truly disturbing thing about Sunstein.  First, his name is in the mix as the next appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.  Second, he’s considered a close friend and confidante of the president.   The more that we find out about Obama, the more hopeless he seems.  Seriously, Tim Geithner and Larry Summers were in your face atrocious appointments.  This one is just weird and he’s Obama’s pal.

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