Michael C. Ruppert - fact or fiction?

June 25, 2012 9:31 PM

What is the opinion of Michael C. Ruppert, doomsday prophet and author of books about the future? Is he considered knowledgeable or full of baloney? I saw a couple of books by him that look interesting but if he is just a nut with a platform, I'm not inclined to read them.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér to Religion & Philosophy (8 answers total)

Currently, he is president of Collapse Network, Inc, and hosts The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network.

It seems that as the operator of a company with a name like that, he has a vested interest in spouting baloney.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:37 PM on June 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nut with a platform who's selling something. His Wikipedia article makes for interesting reading.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:17 PM on June 25, 2012

He's a whacked-out conspiracy theorist. Save your time, he's chaff, not wheat.
posted by spitbull at 5:36 AM on June 26, 2012

I recommend you spend 1 1/2 hrs watching Ruppert's 2010 filmed interview in "Collapse"; it will give you a concise summary of his experiences, viewpoint, theories, and predictions. Ruppert has strikingly interesting ideas, but he and his ideas should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism as well.
posted by Ardea alba at 6:23 AM on June 26, 2012

As a rule of thumb, any 'doomsday prophet' is at least a little bit of a nut.
posted by box at 7:37 AM on June 26, 2012

I think you've asked the question in a way that is destined to get "nut" responses ("doomsday prophet," "author of books about the future").

After reading a bit, I happen to think he's a nut, but he's a much more interesting nut than I would have thought given your question.
posted by Betelgeuse at 9:37 AM on June 26, 2012

I think some of his ideas and predictions could have merit and deserve consideration, but he's unfortunately prone to ridiculously wild extrapolations. The signal-to-noise ratio is too high for him to be a reliable source of information.

I used to read his blog faithfully in '09 and '10 (before he switched to CollapseNet) and spent several months secretly convinced the collapse of society was just a year or two away. I got kind of a smug, satisfied feeling knowing that I had the Hard Truth and could brace myself for the inevitable catastrophes around the corner. Ever since I stopped, I've become much more of an optimist.
posted by castlebravo at 12:38 PM on June 26, 2012

On advice posted here, I just watched Collapse. He's mostly not crazy. In fact, I've come to many of the same conclusions. I can't say I agree with his predictions because I don't think anyone can see into the future that accurately. Never the less, we will exhaust our supply of oil slowly but surely. Nothing can really replace it and without it transportation and food become as valuable as they were in the pre-industrialization era.

If we don't exhaust oil, then it will be fresh water or copper or something else. He's right that modern economics is based on geometric growth and we only have finite resources. Something will break and it won't be physics.

What that looks like, when it will happen, and how long it will take is terribly hard to guess.

I can't say if he's right about the CIA assassinations or the idea there are people who run the world. That seems pretty nutty. He strikes me as an astute guy with a few very crazy theories. Most crazies are 90% crazy and only a few random facts. He's the opposite.
posted by chairface at 5:11 PM on June 26, 2012