Byron York has a fascinating analysis of Jared Loughner’s obsession with the conspiracy-theory-themed Internet movie Zeitgeist, which friends say the accused shooter watched continually.

The movie is apparently made up of three parts. The first “debunks” organized religion, which is allegedly used as mind-control for the masses. The second claims that the Sept. 11 attacks were staged, in order to create an excuse to wage “constant global warfare.” And the third part alleges that greedy bankers were behind the Sept. 11 attacks:

The third and final part of the documentary is titled “Don’t Mind the Men Behind the Curtain.” Those men are central bankers and currency manipulators, the “invisible government” that controls our lives.

In the early 20th century, according to “Zeitgeist,” “ruthless banking interests” held a secret meeting to create the Federal Reserve system. The goal, beyond enriching themselves, was to debase American currency and reduce the United States to the “slavery” of ever-increasing debt. Anyone who has even sampled kooky speculations about the Fed will recognize this as very old stuff, repackaged with amateurish digital effects.

This is, indeed, repackaged old stuff. The same paranoid ramblings that have been found in anti-Semitic “New World Order” conspiracy theories for over a century.

And while you’d guess that a film like this would be popular only with the fringes of society, it actually seems to have made inroads as a political movement with some fairly mainstream progressives. The “Zeitgeist Movement,” which was created in 2007 and marketed as a progressive “sustainable living” campaign, had reportedly garnered over 300,000 registered followers as of last March. At the time, Travis Walter Donovan, the associate green editor of the Huffington Post, wrote a laudatory article about the movement that made it sound positively utopian.

According to Donovan, the Zeitgeist Movement promotes a “resource-based economy,” which means that “the world’s resources would be considered as the equal inheritance of all the world’s peoples, and would be managed as efficiently and carefully as possible through focusing on the technological potential of sustainable development.”

Donovan concluded his article with this glowing paragraph:

The members of The Zeitgeist Movement seem to face an intimidating wall of those who decree their goals as unattainable. But with 250 international chapters forming in just one year and the membership count rapidly growing, it’s undeniable that many easily identify with the message. The evidence shows that our current system is leading us on a collision course; our present model of society cannot sustain itself. While some deny this, others ignore it, and there are those who still try to profit off of it. The Zeitgeist Movement highlights that there are individuals who believe in a sustainable future where humanity is not united by religious or political ideology, but by the scientific method, venerated as the savior that can develop a system of human equality, thriving from the cooperation and balance of technology and nature.

So, basically, it’s socialism with a couple of “green” words thrown in. And also that New World Order stuff. Sounds like a safe combination to me.

And since this subject has been so hotly politicized, I just want to add that I’m not accusing the Zeitgeist Movement, progressives, the Huffington Post, or any other group of having any sort of influence on the shooting. Despite the misguided and troubling politics of Zeitgeist, it’s clear that the movement is not one that preaches violence, so it would be unfair and erroneous to blame it for the attack.