Blame the government for ex-spy turned transvestite Messiah

by clayboy on July 17, 2009 · 4 comments

in Media,News and Comment

People going quite mad is always a sad story, and I wouldn’t normally post on this particular sad case of David Shayler. However, since one journalist is summing this up as “The moral of the story is: don’t mess with the British state” and a former partner likewise.

Miss Machon, 40, who now lives in Dusseldorf, Germany, with her new partner blamed the Government and the intelligence services for causing Mr Shayler’s current condition

I quote the Daily Mail with all due caution, but the basic outline seems to be factual. I can remember at the time of his whistle-blowing allegations (which have remained contested) feeling rather unpersuaded that things were exactly as he claimed. (Does any serious whistle blower leak to the Mail?) Following his appearance on Have I Got News For You, I became even more unconvinced. He came across as a bit of a “look at me” idiot.

A few years after that he tried to parlay his Security Service experience into being an expert on 9/11 conspiracy theories. To run the risk of quoting the Mail again:

‘I know in my heart that I am Christ and I am here to save humanity,’ he began. … The troubled Shayler then revealed how he now often dresses in women’s clothing and claimed it was ‘part of the prophecy’ because ‘Jesus was a transvestite’, adding: ‘It was important to have feminine attributes and the people I live with don’t mind at all.’

The idea that somehow this is the government’s fault belongs more in the kind of fantasy land Shayler inhabits than in the reality he seems to have been becoming increasingly detached from.

The idea that governments are somehow so brilliant at dastardly doings that only a few conspiracy theorists realise what’s going on seems to sit very oddly with our general experience that they can’t run anything efficiently. Might the sad progression of Shayler’s disconnection with reality suggest that his allegations were always less than they appeared in the world of media distortion.

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{ 4 comments }

Rob Kashow July 18, 2009 at 16:02

I think an appropriate tag for this blog would be ‘twilight zone.’

clayboy July 18, 2009 at 16:39

lol. But then think of all those teenage girls who will be googling “Twilight” and ending up here looking for Stephanie Meyer trivia!

Alec Smart July 21, 2009 at 19:15

You were all duped, Shayler is neither a transvestite nor the messiah, and, surprise, he doesn’t think so either..
He’s playing the media’s own stupid game of sensationalism, and presenting himself as a figure of fun in order to communicate his real agenda: idealism.
David strives for a decentralised society with communal living and sharing of resources.
If the media finds this too boring a topic to investigate, he has presented them with a more balmy means to disseminate his ideals.
To hear people discussing whether he’s mad, bad or dangerous shows how gullible you all are.
New topic: how about discussing whether sustainable, environmentally-aware living is possible in large-scale industrialised societies. That’s what David is hoping to promote..

clayboy July 21, 2009 at 20:41

And he clearly has a fanboi. How nice!

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