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Truth is a state of mind?

Conspiracy Theory (1997)
Director: Richard Donner

In the pre-internet era, Malaysian coffee shops were fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. At a time when all news was coming out in print and the airwaves were tightly controlled, information was a priced commodity. Everyone had their version of what was going on beyond the iron curtain of bureaucracy, of what was reported and what was not. 

Surprisingly, at least in Malaysia, all the coffee shop banter that would initially be denied by the powers that be will turn out to be true. Investigational journalism is better done by the single cup of coffee purchaser sitting in the shop the whole day than by people trained and paid to do the reporting job. 

In the infancy age of the internet, in the early 1990s, internet buffs scrambled to be on the mailing list of MGG Pillai's discussion forum, Sang Kancil. His brand of hard-hitting fire brand exposè journalism excited young minds who were quite fed up with paternalistic information dispersal. Some of his reports were so unbelievably accurate, as if he had peeked into all governmental secret documents. A great vacuum was left after his demise in 2006. It was indeed a sad day for journalism. The hole was soon filled by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), who, probably with his lineage with the royalties, may be privy to much-privileged information. 

RPK did such a good job that he landed on the wrong side of the law several times. Over time, he became so controversial that people wondered whose side he was on. 

Sadly, with so much digital exposure these days, we are still trying to figure out what is real news and what is fake. Those who do not conform to the mainstream narrative are quickly labelled conspiracy theorists. Despite everything being at our disposal, we are still left as confused as ever. Alternative news still turns out to be accurate, as it was before. Nothing has really changed. 

This 1997 obscure film tells the tale of a taxi driver who is termed a lunatic who goes on broadcasting about a grand governmental plan to kill and destroy. In between, he is also apprehended by psychologists or government agents who feed him hallucinogens and try to extract information from him. To a certain extent, we, the viewers, are also confused about what is real and what the cab driver's imagination is. In that city, he is trying to contact a lawyer with the Justice Department. Long story short, the cab driver is correct. He is part of the US mind-control team of the State, which is programmed to carry out secret missions for the government. 

Truth is a state of mind?



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Location: New York, NY, USA

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