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What Makes Conspiracy Theories Popular?
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 (April 10, 2015 at 10:27 am)professor Wrote: The answer to why people believe is simple. Tin foil hats increase the intensity of signals that your brain emits. http://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/tinfoil...plify.html Just thought I'd put that out there. Hail Hydra. You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid. Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.  (April 10, 2015 at 10:40 am)Jenny A Wrote: When I think of conspiracy theorists, I'm thinking of people who believe in impossible theories, not plausible ones, like the actual conspiracy between a number of men to fly planes into buildings. Conspiracy theorists suggest conspiracies that make little sense, and require superhuman powers of secrecy on the part of vast numbers of people. It not that what they believe is necessarily impossible. It is they believe the absence of high quality evidence for their belief is part of the conspiracy and therefore in itself evidence for their belief. The wronger it is logically, the righter it is conspiratorially. That is the hallmark of conspiracy theorists.  RE: What Makes Conspiracy Theories Popular?
April 10, 2015 at 11:12 am
(This post was last modified: April 10, 2015 at 11:12 am by Alex K.)
(April 10, 2015 at 11:04 am)Chuck Wrote: The wronger it is logically, the righter it is conspiratorially. That is the hallmark of conspiracy theorists. Exactly! And on top of the logic, evidence to the contrary is systematically interpreted as evidence in favour. I think that's really one of the defining characteristics. There's no proof that the government was behind 9/11? Well, doesn't that tell you all you need to know about how they destroyed all the evidence and silenced the whistle blowers?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
 (April 10, 2015 at 9:13 am)Iroscato Wrote: So what do we call people who believe that Nibiru is coming to eat the Earth, or that the Moon or the entire sky is just a hologram? They go beyond simple conspiracy theorists who are already synonymous with crazy, and 'nutcases' hardly does justice to their beautiful insanity... Kooks. We call them kooks. Or crackpots. Yeah, crackpots. 
They also justify their outlandish theories, as prof. did, by pointing out that real conspiracies do exist.
It's appealing to be one of the chosen few that can see how everyone else is having the wool pulled over their eyes, so they use outside evidence to justify their beliefs.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
Actually, we have some of these people on board off and on. Posting the newest from lala land and then dissappearing again.
I guess people believing in conspiracy theories are borderline paranoid. Everything has to have a deeper meaning and that deeper meaning is in itself threatening. They also don't bother with facts. The earlier mentioned anti jewish sentiment is a pretty good example. There are 13 million jews spread across the whole wide world. But the crazier the theories are the more damaging they are to some real issues. The 9/11 truthers did a real disservice to everyone being opposed to their civil liberties chipped away in the name of fighting terrorism. It's easy to say, if one concern is crazy then the other one has to be crazy too. ![[Image: Bumper+Sticker+-+Asheville+-+Praise+Dog3.JPG]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-d-3rfdI7nG0%2FTerwtFyFXoI%2FAAAAAAAACak%2F7kFSmHeVrng%2Fs320%2FBumper%2BSticker%2B-%2BAsheville%2B-%2BPraise%2BDog3.JPG)
Lack of control in one's own life, I think, plays a role, on top of everthing mentioned above. It definitely helps to be paranoid. But I don't think this is the case for everyone, seeing how pervasive some of these looney tune ideas are. For some reason, we've all read into them at some point in our lives, and I think that comes down to availability. And its not just the internet; conspiracy theories sell a bit better than science (not that they are a dichotomy, but the nuts seem to think so.), so we have shows like Ancient Aliens and that Brad dude's Decoded.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:
"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay." For context, this is the previous verse: "Hi Jesus" -robvalue 
This may be a generalisation, but from the ones I've met:
1. Conspiracy Theories are fun: History lessons would have been more interesting if Aliens were involved. It would be really interesting if there were mass conspiracies. 2. Conspiracy Theories make subjects easy: You don't have to understand anything about the boring difficult parts of a subject, you get to just make up what you want. It also gives easy to understand explanations for things, just like religion does. 3. You get to feel like you know more than experts in the subject, this leads onto: 4. I've found that conspiracy theorists tend to be quite insecure people.  
Bad Wolf
Compulsive procrastinator  Religious Views: Agnostic atheist, anti-theist, whovian, misanthrope?
BAZINGA!
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain
'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House “Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom "If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech |
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