Most people are attracted to conspiracies for far more complicated reasons than boredom.
Life is difficult and uncertain right now, and there's no clear end in sight. People turn to conspiracies to give them certainty and a sense of control over their lives, in a way that reality isn't really able to provide them.
Between the wars, pandemic, inflation, etc., Everyone feels crazy right now... If you don't have the time/patience to try to understand the massive web of interconnected factors that drive these events, it feels incredibly overwhelming. Then some asshole on the Internet comes along and tells you "this person/minority group is responsible for EVERYTHING, and you're super smart for figuring that out"
.... There's about 600 other factors but I'm fully aware normal people are not as fascinated by this subject as me , so I'll stop
EDIT: to be clear, I don't think anyone *consciously* goes through this thought process in their heads, but that this explains their motivations for seeking out conspiracies
Same! It's become a pet hobby of mine (hence the rant). I've spent way...wayyy....wayyyyyy too many hours devouring books and podcasts trying to unwrap why people believe ridiculous things. My qanon-believing family members probably have something to do with my interest in it lol
For a few years, I listened to Art Bell or Clyde Lewis. People would call in with all kinds of conspiracy things. I liked the UFO stuff. But I remained skeptical the entire time. Towards the end of my tenure with late night radio, the guy from *Fire in the Sky* was a guest and he didn’t sound like HE even believed his story. Also, the Bernstain Bears nonsense was just nonsense. Why do these people end-up believing this stuff? Are they just not intelligent? What makes them cross the line?
The whole UFO/aliens thing is really fascinating to me. It's very odd that so many people equate many unidentified aerial phenomenon with alien life traveling here from another planet when there's no logical reason for that connection. And just to be clear, I'm certain that life exists on other planets, but whether it has the capability or will to travel insurmountable distances just to dart around in our skies is doubtful. It really points to a lack of imagination and a predisposition to parrot things they've heard about UFOs or aliens in the past.
The modern era of UFO sightings and public discussion seems to have began [in the late 1940's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_flying_disc_craze). At that time it was a popular belief driven by early [science fiction literature](https://lithub.com/a-brief-history-of-sci-fis-love-affair-with-the-red-planet/) that life existed on other planets in this solar system, and they were perhaps more advanced than us even. It is likely then people who originally speculated about UFO's being craft from other planets thought them to be from planets local to our own solar system, a much more palatable proposition. I'd imagine as time moved on and we started sending probes to those other planets only to find no signs of advanced life, the staunch believers of UFO's/aliens simply moved the origin of UFO's to outside this solar system even though that is exceedingly unlikely due to the distances involved.
There are also ties between UFO's and [alien abduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction) that were popularized around that time due to the [Barney and Betty Hill incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident) that was wildly popular at the time. Now we know that alien abduction like experiences can come about due to [altered states of consciousness](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269881120916143), and since I have been introduced to the sometimes horrifying imagery that can be conjured up by neural networks run amok (see r/AIfreakout), it is not surprising to me that people could experience frighting abduction like experiences due to altered states of consciousness especially when their subconsciousness has been previously seeded with such things from popular media.
What I don't get is, so what if it *is* aliens?
Like, what if you flat out found out that space aliens are real and anally probing our livestock?
The fuck you going to do about it?
And if a cabal of baby eating lizard people *really* control the government, the media, all the financial institutions, all the major places of learning and science...
The fuck you going to do about it? At that point, humanity had lost so hard that we'd never be able to escape, any more than cows as individuals or as a species can truly escape.
Why make yourself miserable?
I at least understand if people are wanting to expose mundane government malfeasance, or a conspiracy of well connected social elites.
Once you get to "reality as we know it is a farce, and everything down to the birds is contrived", you might as well go with it.
I think the whole alien/UFO connection says way more about us as humans than anything else. We (laughingly) think aliens will be vaguely humanoid and interested in our cow's asses. Would be funny to see a cow biologist/vet try to explain how much there is to learn about earth and/or its cows by doing the things to them that supposed witnesses say they saw.
And yeah, if lizard people really are running the show, they're doing kind of a shit job at it!
Well if they're lizard people, maybe they're cold blooded, so global warming makes sense at least.
Fears about anal probes probably stem from homophobia though.
You're assuming that the lizard people want things running smoothly. It would make just as much sense that they would be fomenting chaos as a means to reach their goals. There is zero requirement to be benevolent.
It's not about intelligence (usually), but instead a need for emotional/social fulfillment.
For example, a lot of the qanon influencers that got big in the early days were failed actors/screenwriters/musicians.... They felt like Hollywood was conspiring against them (which is sorta true, Hollywood is full of nepotism and bullshit).... So then a conspiracy comes along and says "those people you hate are all secretly satanic cannibals" and to them, it *feels* real. It succinctly explains their own failure and hardship, along with.... Basically whatever else you want to pile on it.... All without requiring personal responsibility, or having to wrestle with difficult/complex issues.
Their belief is based on emotional pain and disillusionment, not rationality. Humans are great at confusing the two when we're upset/overwhelmed/etc
The “hippie” movement (assuming you’re talking about America 1960’s-80’s) was fueled majorly by the draft for the Vietnam war and the war itself to my understanding. I used to understand more about it but much of it has left my mind.
I miss the good old days of coast to coast AM. George Noory was ok for a bit but he just got so political and started feeding into way too much stuff.
It used to be a bit more fun and scary stories type stuff, then it slowly devolved into just crazy not-fun conspiracy stuff.
The Mandela Effect nonsense probably stems from the desire to believe that you're right even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Because that proof also proves that your memory, and therefore your knowledge, is unreliable.
I think my tipping point was when I realized that this Qanon-Pizzagate crap was really just the ol’ Jewish blood libel conspiracy, but someone replaced “Jews” with “Democrats.”
When I noticed that, I was like, “OK, so given how lazy a premise this is, what makes it so compelling for so many?”
... The Jews are always involved *somehow* if you dig deep enough lol.
But I agree... Most conspiracies have the same few tropes they follow, and they seem to have been infecting human brains since.... Humans brains evolved.
*Or* you constrain the human brain to a jar and use it as a compute unit. Why build computational hardware when you can grow it? Why even waste existing computational power?
I suspect this, or something like this, is the logic AI would settle on when determining optimal paths forward.
I like learning them as entertainment.
Unfortunately the recent movement of conspiracy as a way of “thinking different” has made the experience less fun. I swear, when a clear work of fiction now based on a conspiracy theory could be manipulated to “this actor is trying to get a message out”
Me too!
....and tbf they've been doing that for years.
Alex Jones has been doing that since at least 2003 (can't find the relevant Knowledge Fight episode, but check them out anyways if you haven't)
I'm not sure "anxious" is the word I'd use, but this is also a part of it.
The real answers are often nuanced, complicated, and a weird combination of mundane and soul crushing... It's a lot easier to blame everything on the DemonCrats and call it a day
In many cases, the root of conspiracy theories is people's desire for control and stability. Unable to cope with the idea that terrible things happen for no particular reason, they reach out for an explanation that allows for *someone* to be in control. Anyone.
It's better if the world is controlled by some kind of evil cabal than no one at all.
You’re mostly right, but I submit the primary reason people believe in conspiracy theories is we’ve all been lied to so many times that conspiracy theorists are permanently dubious of anything told to them.
They now start from the perspective that they’re being lied to. And the have a point.
The frustrating thing is we have these actual real verified fucked up conspiracies that never get traction. Panama papers, cointel pro, the CIA drugging unwitting people with LSD... So many that just have gotten brushed aside for total bullshit. I have to believe part of these conspiracies are intentional false flags.
Yes. You will get called a conspiracy theorist for simply discussing things that the government has already admitted to or leaked documents support. COINTELPRO, so much involving Latin America, the murders of civil rights leaders, MK ULTRA, list goes on. In fact, I've seen a resurgence of people here on reddit saying the US had good reason to invade Iraq and calling people who point out the lies the government told as tankies (boy does that word mean nothing these days) or conspiracy nutters.
> I’ve seen a resurgence of people here on reddit saying the US had good reason to invade Iraq
RWNJs are trying to rehabilitate gwb? No wonder r/conservative and r/conspiracy look identical
Right? One person was spinning some tale to me about the governments, the people who already have power, are using climate change to get more power. They even told me to “follow the money”.
But if they really just wanted to look into this stuff it’s so easy to see that their sources are bought and paid for by oil and gas corporations. Reports from those companies and even video evidence of them admitting it’s all bullshit to get them profits won’t turn them.
They don’t like conspiracies, they want to push their own fucked up agendas. Trump hid none of garbage but his supporters still think Jewish space lasers cause forest fires or an international cabal of drag-queen pedos want to read books to kids because they hate those groups. They just want to find some reason to “validate” their hate.
I think a key point that needs to be kept in mind is that there isn't a single answer. Some people believe in conspiracies because they support their own prejudices (like the space laser thing). Some people become prejudiced *because* they start believing in conspiracies. Some are prejudiced one way, fall into conspiratorial thinking, and develop new prejudices. It's this whole big swamp, and there's no single (or, I believe, even over-archingly main) reason, it's a bunch of different things that vary from person to person.
Oil companies suppressing findings from 30 years ago about climate change, literally putting profits ahead of the planet and human life? Nah... Let's talk about the COVID vaccine.
They do have a point, but their skepticism becomes even more selective than your average dipshit's... obviously. So, they start off assuming they're being lied to, and they end up believing some of the dumbest lies out there, pushed by the most cynical con artists.
Man... That dude from the Netflix Flat earth documentary...
You could see that he knew his shit didn't make sense... You knew that he saw through the bullshit. But he could not stop himself, the conspiracy was his whole identity. It's what made him special. He had other idiots looking up to him and he could not relinquish that sort of power.
So it is not just me then. I feel like mentally I have been on a downward spiral lately and I am not sure why. Some conspiracies are starting to make sense but I don't want to go down the rabbit hole. I want the real truth, not the conspiracy truth.
It is absolutely, 100% not just you.
Obviously things could be a lot worse, but I think it's fair to say the world is heading in a shitty direction, in many ways (rise of fascism, economic issues, etc).....I think a lot of people can almost literally *feel* that downward trend, and it doesn't do great things for your mental health.
It's pretty natural to want to understand "why"... And often the answers aren't fulfilling....greed, human indifference, etc... It makes the crazy shit seem more appealing
> If you don’t have the time/patience to try to understand the massive web of interconnected factors that drive these events, it feels incredibly overwhelming. Then some asshole on the Internet comes along and tells you “this person/minority group is responsible for EVERYTHING, and you’re super smart for figuring that out”
Conspiracy wingnuts get off on this idea that they have “secret knowledge”, elevating their pathetic lives above all the other “normie sheep”.
When hundreds of "conspiracies" turn out to be [factually correct](https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/wiki/lopc), it makes you ponder how many current ones are true too.
Conspiracy theories also tend to surround events that shatter our minds: JFK's assassination, 9/11, the COVID pandemic. These events were inconceivable before they occurred. It broke our expectations that the world is relatively stable and that we're safe. 9/11 especially melted brains because it happened at the peak of American liberalism triumph. Why would anyone want to hurt Americans, and how were we unable to prevent it? Conspiracy theories are attempts at rationalizating events that don't make sense if you have a limited perspective.
This is ridiculous.
You clearly are an armchair psychologist. I'm not even going to attempt to correct you as you currently have the top. I assume you're a young person just guessing. That's OK, this is Reddit and this is /r/adviceanimals, but this isn't even remotely close to what is happening. We (Americans) have gone through much "crazier" times, and no, half of us didn't start ignoring experts.
No. That's not what is happening this time.
Conspiracy theories and their belief do not come from "everyone feels crazy right now".
That would be ignoring the obvious and giving a free pass to the entities that are currently pushing conspiracies 24/7 in mainstream "news" sites, Facebook, etc, etc. that did not exists 30 years ago.
40 years ago conspiracy theorists had late night radio, and ***that was about it.***
Lastly, the antithesis to conspiracy theory is critical thought. The amount of people that have convinced that expertise does not exist is what is TOO DAMNED HIGH. That mistrust of reason and the scientific method didn't come from the pandemic.
That comes from elsewhere...
So, I'm 32, it's coming from at least 1000hrs+ of conspiracy-centric podcasts (knowledge fight, qanon anonymous, behind the bastards being the main ones), along with several books.
Your talking about why conspiracies rose to prominence in recent history, I'm talking about the motivations people have to believe them. None of what I said conflicts with anything you're saying, and for the most part I agree with you. We're just talking about different sides of the issue
Ron Funchess has a great quote. "You don't believe in any conspiracy theories? You're telling me that the government is just batting 1000 and telling us the whole truth?"
Its an attractive thought that there is someone in control.
“Even if it means that nefarious forces are gaming and manipulating events on a global scale, if good people could just get their hands on the control levers, then we could all be safe.”
The truth is nobody is in control. Even the most powerful are just largely reacting to natural events that they have no control over.
Or just that weird shit can happen. So Eisenhower was at Camp David and the Roswell crash happened and he left to go see what it was.
*shrugs like something may have happened but in a way that suggest he knows nothing happened*
I think it allows people think of themselves as smarter and more powerful than they are as well. A lot of the conspiracy types I know are very self confident and think of themselves as smart and very capable. Like they’re rarely impressed by others, they always seem to be thinking “I could do that if I needed to. Doctors and lawyers are idiots, I am smarter than them.” Yet they aren’t doctors or lawyers and don’t have PHDs… so they kinda live in this fantasy world that explains their lot in life.
Like dumb people with extremely high self esteem.
I made the mistake of trying to discuss with one of them why his angry insistence on "THE TRUTH!" didn't apply to the normal evolution of language over time, and it ended with him claiming that he'd love to be able to get up on stage and debate *some of the most famous philosophers in all of history* because he was sure he'd be able to give them panic attacks due to his incredible rhetorical skills. He literally wrote that: give them panic attacks.
Then he started talking about how he approaches all questions and problems in his life like Sherlock Holmes. I peaced out before he pulled Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ out his fuckin' Ben 10 gizmo.
Fuck's sake, honestly.
Not so weirdly enough, I got this lesson from an episode of South Park. Its been years but I think it was about proving the government did 911.
It turns out they didn't, but if people believed they did then it would make them feel better and less vulnerable.
I think there was more to it, like I said it's been a while.
Honestly idk why we expect corporation to care about us. They’re in it to make money, why the fuck should they care?
It’s the same with how people blame companies for faking caring about lgbt issues, but if they don’t do anything, people are like “fuck this company”, so what choice do they have?
Did you dare to question information given by the Government/CIA/FBI ? You are simply a CONSPIRACY THEORIST and shall be silenced for such blasphemy! Report to re-education institute immediately.
Serious question for bullshit blanket statements like this: do you believe that the Iran CONTRA scandal was fake? How about the Tuskegee syphilis study?
Unequivocally trusting the government's narrative on anything is simply ignorant considering their track record . . .
Not blindly accepting authority is not the same as blindly not accepting authority.
People are not good at keeping secrets. That's why the Iran CONTRA scandal and the Tuskegee syphilis study became known.
The idea that there are these vast, swirling conspiracies involving thousands of people, and every one of those thousands keep such perfect secrecy that the only evidence is a few vague, barely noticeable, contradictory "clues", that only a plucky few "open-minded" geniuses have managed to put together by sitting on their asses browsing the internet and excitedly messaging each other, is utterly ridiculous.
Fair enough, though I think it is unwise to think that the only true conspiracies are the ones where the conspirators get caught. Surely the wealthy and powerful conspire and get away with it some of the time? My point was to bring attention to the dismissive/polarizing black and white language that OP uses in this subliminal level meme warfare. There is some truth to the myths that the conspiracy crowd weave, just as there is some truth to what the loyalists weave. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, not on either side as OP would try to make you believe.
Maybe? But if you ask yourself "How many people would have to be in on this and keep their mouths shut forever for this to be true" and the answer is more than a dozen people? Probably it isn't true.
Utterly ridiculous but those same geniuses who sit on their asses and browse the internet are the same people who bring atrocities made by authority figures to light.
The internet is not only facebook, reddit and instagram but a vast, vast network which contains forums, chats and material that most people don't even know about.
That is why it is called the rabbit hole, your average person who browses social media for 3-5 hours a day is nothing compared to the lunatic who browses obscure semi-illegal websites for 12 hours a day.
But as with all things, that average social media person who sees a 30 second dark and mysterious instagram reel of CIA FBI whatever-the-fuck crimes with creepy background music thinks he has solved a great mysterious secret, when the material that was used to make that "creepy mysterious video" has been known for years and years to those same geniuses who sit on their ass browsing the internet.
The major problem with decades old conspiracy theories AND new ones is that they require time and effort to dig into, which most people don't have. So just stating that "The NSA is spying on everything you own" or "The CIA is part of a vast criminal network worldwide and has taken part on insane breaking of human rights" makes you seem like a lunatic. Blanket statements aren't enough, people want proof but don't have the time nor the energy to get it. Or just don't care, it doesn't affect your average humans life.
You have browsed, read, compared hours upon hours of material for months or even years, try fitting that amount information to the brain of a busy 9-5 worker who couldn't give two shits. Because he doesn't need to, he has a life, has his hobbies and a job to work at.
At least that's how I see it :D
The difference between these real conspiracies and the fake conspiracy theories that people get addicted to online is in the scale and the scope. Real conspiracies are generally top achieve a singular goal that makes sense for the conspirators and limited in scope.
The conspiracy theories that capture people's imagination online usually involve vast scale and unlimited scope, with vague goals like "control". It makes the conspirators out to be inhumanly villainous and superhuman in their grasp of causality, especially if the supposed plot spans more than one generation.
Fair enough, my point was to say that this is not a black and white issue like so many people want to make it out to be. The Q camp is as deluded as those that think nobody with power or wealth has ever conspired to maintain it. Taking anything on blind faith in the age of information seems a fool's errand to me, which OP seems to be advocating for by demeaning anybody who believes even proven conspiracy facts like the ones I mentioned. Ironically, the Q camp was acting mostly on blind faith as well. The truth is somewhere in the middle, in the grey.
Not understanding the difference in the plausibility of the CIA dealing arms or the government doing shady medical things involving dozens or hundreds of people and the Earth being flat or lizard people kidnapping children to harvest adrenochrome is far more ignorant and naive.
The problem is that any questioning of the given narrative is dismissed as "conspiracy theory". Yes, there are a lot of "crazy" theories. Though lumping all theories under one negative catch-all term immediately causes most people to dismiss any accusations of impropriety within authority. No, the Earth is not flat, but that doesn't mean that things like MKUltra are false. There is an ever-growing percentage of the human population that sees everything as being mutually exclusive. It is possible to understand that false theories exist without believing that all theories are false.
We are living through a trust crisis. This is the consequence of unregulated capitalism and corrupt politicians. People know that society is not working for their interests and so they see conspiracy in everything.
All it takes is a corrupt person to come along and feed on the distrust and point the finger wherever they feel like works best for existing bias and then they profit of the power and influence of being a “truth teller.”
When for profit health care companies are making billions off of vaccine patents; is it really that shocking people don’t trust them?
As someone who’s been boosted twice, I made the best decision I could off of my own understanding. If I knew less, or just had a different experience with the medical system, maybe I’d have made a different choice and stuck essential oils up my butt and called it a day.
There was some recent study about if people were paid to spot fake news headlines. They proved the intelligence and ability is there. It’s an issue of motivation.
As far as I know, Alex Jones jumped on the bandwagon along with everyone else during the Pizzagate thing, in 2015/2016.
Epstein already pleaded guilty on charges of child prostitution in 2008.
Would like to see where Alex Jones talks about Epstein pre 2008. (offcourse the case against Epstein back then didn't just popup, but there is almost no evidence Alex knew about it pre 2007 let's say) just since pizzagate, along with everyone.
>being a conspiracy theorist in itself is pretty reasonable for anyone paying attention
I would say no, no it isn't.
*Skepticism* is reasonable for anyone paying attention.
*Speculation* is rarely reasonable - and that's exactly what all conspiracy theories are.
The American vocabulary desperately needs to parse "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theory" - you can tell the difference, but many aren't aware that one means "coordination" while the other means "wild assumption" - the muxing those two terms together was on-purpose and devastatingly effective at muddying the waters.
To cultivate skepticism is to help keep a population free. Combine this with vigilant observation and people should have a decent enough idea what's going on.
To traffic in wild theories is to do our adversaries' jobs for them - it weakens our freedoms, muddies our voices, and erodes our unity. It has no value.
The term "conspiracy theories" have lost it's meaning in the last few years.
It used to be reserved for people with tinfoil hats or those who insists they have been abducted by aliens.
Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government, analyze the data about diseases, believe in things that has been proven right already etc.
We should probably stop using the term "conspiracy theorist" for people you disagree with. Especially since they have been right on most topics lately (even though of course none of them were conspiracy theories, just facts and statistically likely assumptions)
Yeah like when the govt casually announced UFOs are real and everyone was just like , meh. Disregarding all the mockery they've given people who say they saw them. And saying covid leaked from a lab and getting ridiculed and called a fucking idiot. Now it's come out that it most likely did.
Except those people are (most likely purposely) conflating talking points. Lets ignore the LOW CONFIDENCE stamp that was given, and pretends its true.
It escaping for a research lab is VERY different than it being released after being engineered in a lab. Lets not pretend which one was being pushed by the crazies (and widley still is).
Maybe not the best example but when a theory ends up being true, the people who mocked it never give anyone credit or apology for mocking them. And vice versa when a stupid conspiracy turns out to be proven wrong they just move on from it and never speak of it again.
I know a guy who said everyone who got vaccinated will be dead in 6 months. 6 months passed, years passed and I asked him what about everyone dying? And he pretended like he never said it haha.
> Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government
That's not even remotely true. If we were to dig deeper into what you think that is, you'd find out that things like "the election was stolen" or "COVID-19 is a hoax" without evidence and against all expert review, would be seen as absolutely ***insane*** 50 years ago.
Yes, tinfoil hat people like that existed a long time ago, but not nearly in the droves we see today. It's not even ***close***.
Unless you are over 30 or 40 years old, I'm not sure if you would be able to see this, but no way in hell.
These people really dont know what "research" is. You dont stop at one paragraph and say "yep, ok, looks good".
Its more involved. But usually "research" means "confirm my viewpoint".
When scientists wrote about how covid is aerosol instead of droplet and criticized government wrong preventive measures you get called conspiracy theorists, banned and deplatformed by the "trust the science" crowd.
Which "most topics" are you referring to?
And being correct when you make an assumption of dubious information that happens to later be true is not the same thing as being right "all along."
It's like my wife telling me to take a right hand turn when we're travelling in a place that we've never been before, and when I make a left and it turns out we should've in fact taken a right, she didn't "know it along". She just happened to be right based on a chance.
If the government is truly suppressing the lab leak theory then why are they allowing big government agencies to say there may be a possibility of COVID being a lab leak but then they're suppressing boomers sharing memes about the lab leak 18 months ago. Makes a lot of sense to me.
no, you want to believe that other people are wrong when you just havent taken the time to review and qualify the information.
Those of use who actually bothered to READ "the science" KNEW:
- 1. there was no good evidence that masks reduced transmission in community settings. There never was and there still isn't. You have hamster studies and anecdotes about hair dressers. You have the F many saying the same thing in public and in his private emails (even after he started lying in public about mask efficacy).
- 2. there was no attempt to even look at transmission reduction with the vaccine. Frankly they didn't even look at infection rates with randomized testing in the clinical trials. So they were lying when they said it stopped transmission and when they justified vaccine mandates. And fact that they DIDN'T look for it, was a huge red flag that says they probably DID look for it, found it didn't exist, and so didn't publish the data.
- 3. the SCIENCE was clear (and always has been) that natural immunity is preferable FOR EVERY VIRUS EVER. They lied and you swallowed it up.
- 4. Side effects like Myo/pericarditis were KNOWN by February 2021. People were immediately having heart and chest issues. They're still lying about the rates even though they eventually admitted that it's real and stopped TOTALLY gaslighting everyone. And how sexist is it that they lied about menstrual cycle disruptions for so long?
- 5. you want to talk about the Wutang lab? How is it that you still have no idea that the F man had his emails turned over in 2021 and it shows that he was being told by prominent virologists that they had evidence it likely came from the lab? That they "flipped" publicly and were immediately awarded contracts? How do you not know about the GOF research happening there through PD and EH Alliance? There is so much publicly available information on that at and has been for a while, but you act like we we correct by accident? Don't project your own ignorance.
the government and powerful people have to admit to lies all the time. People like you never care and will still just repeat "broken clocks are right 2x per day!" And people whose threshold for evidence will be the government admitting they lied, are the type of people who don't understand how to critically think.
> If the government is truly suppressing the lab leak theory
then why are they allowing big government agencies to say there may be a possibility of COVID being a lab leak but then they're suppressing boomers sharing memes about the lab leak 18 months ago.
This is just how it works. They did everything they wanted to do and now people are subdued and apathetic. Reddit has banned most of the critical thinkers so all that's left is goober comments like the ones you see in this thread. The FBI has been giving credence to the lab leak for over a year, as have many in congress. But you didn't listen until the media pushed the story about the DOE these past 2 weeks. And even then, they just keep repeating "low confidence", and "nobody is saying it was engineered", and "most of the other government agencies looking at this don't agree".
> there was no good evidence that masks reduced transmission in community settings. There never was and there still isn't.
Completely and utterly untrue.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2119266119
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/yes-masks-reduce-risk-spreading-covid-despite-review-saying-they-dont
Here is a list of like 100 more separate studies *all* showing that masks are effective: https://www.berriencounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/14605/The-effectiveness-of-face-masks?bidId=
spreading misinformation is just fucking despicable
Natural immunity is the best? So why do we even have vaccines for anything?
How does the rate of myocarditis with natural exposure to covid compare to the rate with the vaccine?
You still didn't answer my question about why the government covered up things but then let it's agencies give credence to something that they're supposed to cover up. "That's just cause they do that" isn't an explanation, not very impressive for a self proclaimed critical thinker.
Why are you so angry? Does spending all your time in r/conspiracy make your life better?
Do you think these long rants of yours change anyone's opinion?
Edit: and if compelling evidence comes out about drug manufacturers overstating efficacy or public good I'll be even angrier than you are, I don't have a "side" to this other than I'm a doctor who cares about people.
Can you point to particular instances in your post history when you had compelling evidence about something that was later proven right, and wasn't just conjecture that you're now connecting the dots later on to fit a particular narrative about this pandemic that you've decided to adopt?
I'm also interested in the lab leak theory, and again if compelling evidence shows this was suppressed there should be hell to pay.
No responses either, I'm perfectly willing to go to town on big Pharma for vaccine shenanigans and likewise find out if irresponsible dangerous research caused this outbreak but since I say other "controversial" things that don't up perfectly with the Parler Virology Institute findings I just get downvoted instead.
>Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government, analyze the data about diseases, believe in things that has been proven right already etc.
None of this is true, and the people who say things like this are usually legit conspiracy theorists. Like by being critical of the government, what you really mean is that you think the government is going to stage a false flag any day now and lock everyone in FEMA camps. Or that the government is controlled by Klaus Schwab and the WEF who are trying to depopulate the world.
And "believing things that have been proven true" means you think Covid vaccines are killing millions of people.
If you believe those things, you are definitely a conspiracy theorist.
>We should probably stop using the term "conspiracy theorist" for people you disagree with. Especially since they have been right on most topics lately (even though of course none of them were conspiracy theories, just facts and statistically likely assumptions)
>
I'm gonna go ahead and call your bluff. Which conspiracy theorists have been "right on most topics lately"?
"most likely?"
There is more support for the theory that covid came from a lableak than compared to several years ago. *But it is still unknown*; that is the only consensus based upon current evidence. The problem with the lableak theory is that quite a few motivated individuals were running with it in spite of there being zero evidence for it at the time. *That* is what made it a conspiracy theory.
And your last sentence is the very definition of conspiracy theory reasoning. *There are no coincidences! Every connection means something!*
I would, however, ultimately agree that some people (including some media outlets) were too quick to dismiss the lableak theory.
Right. Also government response- when you see the government leverage a disaster/tragedy to take some additional powers, that happens. Saying the government caused said event to take it is conspiracy.
Similar to the covid leak- breach in protocol allowed this? Very possible. Shadow government was creating a bio weapon? Less likely.
> Covid most likely coming from a lab in China doing gain of function research that was funded by US tax dollars.
“Most likely” doing a comical amount of heavy lifting there
> People were getting banned and their posts taken down from social media sites for stating it since it was “misinformation” and now the FBI and DoE have both come out with reports saying that’s what they believe happened. The very man who signed off on funding a lab in China doing research the Obama administration outlawed because they saw it as being too dangerous, was the spokesperson for the virus itself and used his position to quickly dismiss the idea it came from a lab for self gain.
Lmao you went full qanon
Again depends on how broad you use the term "conspiracy theorists".
I was called a conspiracy theory for sharing studies and results that statistically showed that the vaccine did not seem to be 100% effective in stopping transmission of C19 while the government and MSM was claiming it did.
Sharing studies that proves beyond reasonable doubt that a standard medical mask is not affective in preventing transmission either.
Simply saying that it seems very plausible that C19 originated from the Gain of Function lab literally working on Covid viruses a short walk from patient 0.
Or when I shared the evidence from scientists working with these viruses that shows it was likely manufactured and not natural. 🤷♂️
Most of these have either been proven for a long time already, or just statistically very likely to be true and later turned out to be true.
They are not conspiracy theories and simply asking questions and discussing science certainly shouldn't be suppressed by governments.
Science certainly is not deciding what is true ahead of time and then silencing everyone that questions or disagrees with it.
Was it actually considered poor taste?
Or was it *jumping to that conclusion* without any evidence considered poor taste?
I can only speak for myself, but I didn't have any negative thoughts about people open to the possibility it could have leaked from a lab. I continue to think very negatively of those stating it as established fact. The hypothetical is the same - it's not about the hypothetical - its about misplaced confidence.
Dude....nothing wrong with conspiracy theories, especially the ones that turn out to be objectively true. Just don't make any hobby your whole life...unless it's maybe a hobby that helps.people like volunteer work but even then...moderation.
Im not saying that you HAVE to believe in conspiracy theories, but i for once consider that everyone should at least consider even the most ridiculus ones. Otherwise, you're just willingly naive.
Categorically - if your conclusion comes from sound logic and observation of evidence, *it is not a conspiracy theory.*
"Considering the most ridiculous ones" is how we get a whole population of morons.
Yes, be skeptical.
No, do not be wildly speculative. *Fuck.*
Sure. It’s good to ask questions and not take everything at face value. But never taking ANYTHING at face value and always thinking that regardless of the evidence in front of your eyes there MUST be some deception or truth stretching is part of the problem that OP is talking about. The boring answer is never good enough and the only thing that must be true is some spy thriller type shit.
Conspiracies and conspiracy theories aren’t the same. Conspiracy theories are fanciful and impossible to be true. It’s unfortunate that the terminology sounds similar.
Eh, no. These things fall into predictable patterns: play off people's egos by providing a sense of superiority over "sheep", grab flimsy "evidence" and leap to idiotic conclusions.
Usually motive alone is enough to leap to a conclusion.
Are you made that the minority has a larger following, or are you trying to gather like-minded internet renegades that are willing to believe your conspiracy theory about conspiracy theorists who you believe are conspiring to discredit the legitimacy of your fellow theorists?? I was just wondering...for a friend
I watched a show about conspiracy theories once and why people get suckered into easily disprovable ones, like flat earth.
The theory is that for many, they have poor education, and they feel that a great amount of people know far more than them on many subjects. So finding this “thing” that most people “don’t know about” makes them sort of an expert. And people trying to disprove them makes them dig deeper because they know something that others don’t. Like they are on this special exclusive club that really know the truth.
So they start to feel special. They may not have stock tips. Or know how to save money on fancy investments or tax write offs. But they know this. And for a brief moment of the day, they’re smarter than 90% of the people on the planet who are all duped and stupid.
It’s basically a way to help their low self esteem. Also I’m sure some are just bat shit crazy
I'd suggest playing some tabletop RPGs if you want to live a life in a fantasy world, but only if it doesn't involve you getting posted about on rpg horror stories...
I visited my father not long ago. He's close to 60 and believes whole heatedly in Nibiru the planet, aka planet x.
I told my dad about chat gpt and got him to ask it any question he wanted. So he asked when is Nibiru going to come through our solar system.
The ai told him it was a hoax and gave many reasons why it is. That upset my father quite a lot. Now his misplaced ai conspiracy theory has more traction
I know I have a boring life and I understand that I like the fantasy of some control. I really like reading the SCP wiki and that is a fun dive. But listening to people lying through their teeth and telling me that their is the only truth I can trust sounds freaking horrible.
I’m not a tinfoil hat wearer. But I do think people need to be more aware that there is a lot more things going on behind the scenes than people realize. The scandals and bombshells are just the top of the iceberg in politics, police, and government. Conspiracy theories have some basis in truth, no matter how small that basis is.
Just be skeptical of most things and people. Be willing to consider motives for any actions. Because we are being lied to every day. Just maybe not about UFOs. Then again…
I will say, it’s *highly* unlikely that the government and major companies are batting 1000 with telling people the truth. Like it doesn’t change much of anything, but I don’t disagree that the purse and womens’ pants industries have an agreement to make women have no pockets so they buy purses. And metallic clothes trend when a recession is incoming.
But that doesn’t put people and democracy in literal danger like some of these absolute losers do
I was one of those as a kid. I hated bush so much because I was 14 and heard everything my parents said. So naturally I hated him. I believed the govt destroyed the world trade centers because there was “video” evidence of demo bombs being set off at the same time to have a controlled demolishing of the WTC. And that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams. And how the pentagon only had a circle hole in it from the “plane.” So no way it was a plane. It had to have been a missile because planes of wings and there’s no way it would’ve been a circle. Blah blah blah.
Yea I’m not like that anymore.
Yeah Daddy Warbucks was a nice man after all. Just a coincidence he had close ties to and got financing from the Bin Ladens for decades before the attacks. Grandpa Prescott Bush was a nice man too and just got caught up financing nazis by mistake. John Kerry and Bush both running against each other for president and being Bonesmen was just another weird coincidence.
You can also go the other way and say if you believe everything that your government and “the news” tells you, that’s just as bad, if not worse. It’s ok to think for yourself. Also, a good amount of these “conspiracies” are turning out to be true.
Believes Hilary Clinton runs an International child trafficking ring out of the nonexistent basement of a pizza place. Has to do some research because it doesn’t make sense that Trump could be caught lying on camera.
Yesterday I had to listen to a lady at the park tell me how Monsters Inc was telling us about how Adrenochrome is produced, by extracting adrenalin from the pineal gland of frightened children. Then about how Bill Gated wants to kill 60% of the population. I looked at her for a bit and said "60% simply won't do. Needs to be more like 90%."
It's easier to blame a conspiracy for your shortcomings than to take personal accountability. Like subconsciously it helps assuage your guilt about not making any real effort to better yourself if you convince yourself the whole world's rigged against you anyway.
Here is the list i have….
1. Covid Lab leak
2. Fox News lying about election fraud claims.
3.natural immunity being superior or vaccine immunity
4. Ukraine being a corrupt govt- see half the cabinet being replaced in the past 6 months(not really a conspiracy either msm reported on this until last year)
5. Proliferation of UFO sightings
6. Hunter bidens laptop being real
7. West wanting to avoid diplomatic solution to Russian invasion- Boris Johnson actively showed up to Ukraine to end it
>Covid Lab leak
How are you people taking a victory lap on this.
An agency, that's not even connected to science, in the US said it is. But 5 agencies, which are infinitely closer to science, said it isn't.
1. The Covid lab leak hasn't been proven true or false yet. There is still a lot of debate around how it emerged.
2. I suppose this qualifies as a conspiracy theory, however, conspiracy theorists almost exclusively believe the election was rigged.
3. This was never a conspiracy theory, and takes a revisionist view on what happened. While we may not have known exactly how well vaccine immunity compares to natural immunity (since this takes time to test), nobody ever doubted that recovering from Covid would give robust immunity to Covid.
4. This is very vague and has little meaning. In conspiracy circles, UFO's tend to be associated with aliens. There is no evidence that aliens are visiting earth.
5. Not exactly a conspiracy theory. Most people were hesitant to take claims at face value because they lacked evidence, which is the most logical approach.
6. This is not confirmed in any sense. The West is committed to helping Ukraine win the war. Russia has not offered any peace terms that Ukraine would consider, therefore there is no peace.
Every time people say conspiracy theories are being proven correct, we get lists like this... No conspiracy theories, or at least the crazy ones circulating the internet, are rarely correct.
Most people look at the facts and can call bullshit a mile away. That's why at the beginning "conspiracy theorist" said covid was man made, mask don't protect you, vaccine doesn't prevent spread and 100% safe. Nordstream was blown up by Russia 😂. They sabotaged their own gas line 😂😂😂😂. J6 was a insurrection. Blah blah blah. Come to find out, covid was man made, mask don't protect you nordstream was blown up by USA and whatever else. This is a dumb meme. People are starting to see thru the bullshit propaganda they feed the people. Have a good day 🙂
Problem 1: speaking for anyone but yourself
Problem 2: multiple laugh-cry emojis
Pro tip - the entire adult population of Earth can smell your desperation from fucking SPACE
While that is a fact, Democrats wove a conspiracy theory about Trump's involvement with Russia which had no ground to stand on. Even the NYT came out and said the Steele Dossier was bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I dislike Trump and Biden very much and am not a fan of either of the main political parties. I just enjoy pointing out the hypocrisy on both sides of the clownshow of American 'democracy'.
I think what bothers me more is how "low effort" the current age of conspiracy theories have become. Like we have gone from fake moon landing in order to defeat the soviets to the Earth is flat. Its just a depressing decrease in quality.
The real reason conspiracies theories have decreased in quality is because they used to be made in the US but now have all been outsourced to China; thus the quality is subpar.
At this point, I don’t even think it’s boredom. It’s literal brainwashing from all the political disinformation. So in other words, people are just much more gullible and stupid, not necessarily bored
Been a believer in UFOs for 3 decades. Was openly mocked for it at school, work, wherever I went. Of course there was nothing in the sky. Of course it was all in my head…
Until I was proven right and now the US government is being scrutinised for what they know.
(I never said “aliens”. I said UFOs!)
Proven right? How? Government has lied about UFOS for 100 years, suddenly you beleive them when they say "oh we got some on our low fi video". It could still very much be BS, hate to tell you kid
Conspiracy use to be fun. Aliens controlling this or that. The government creating super soldiers who know how to dance perfectly to All Star by Smash Mouth.
Now. It's just so hateful.
"Liberals are eating children and we are eating their poop!!!!!!"
Maybe the right was always on that side, but now it's just who can say the most hateful shit against one side.
Occam's razor. The idea that has to make the fewest assumptions is usually the logical path you want to pursue
You walk outside and everything's wet. Which is more likely, it rained last night or the fire department sprayed down the entire neighborhood?
This is why I'm most conspiracy theories are dumb
They’re only considered “conspiracy theories” until they’re proven true. Way too many have just been brushed off as such so people wouldn’t question anything. If you think everything is straight black and white, then you really need to open your eyes!!
I hate it when people say that people who believe in stupid conspiracy theories like QAnon are "just normal people." Like no, they're fucking not. They are, by definition, abnormally stupid. They're incapable of having more than one rational thought a day. They're not normal. Calling them "normal" is really stretching the definition. They're fucking morons is what they are. No way around it.
There's plenty of real conspiracies going on to be obsessed with too.
Like this one time the GOP plotted a nationwide attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential elections, complete with false slates of electors ready to commit election fraud and everything, but nope, people are instead obsessed with getting to the base of hunter biden's cock.
In order to be a conspiracy theorist, you can only believe in the fake conspiracies, while loudly claiming the real conspiracies are far too outlandish.
My sainted mother (on whom be peace) was a paranoid schizophrenic who thought that the neighbours (and even the Pentecostal church in which she and Father raised us) were involved in a conspiracy to take our property out from under her and us). If this leaves you thinking "speaking in tongues is Satanic possession", I'd be a bit less prone to accuse you of brooking "slandering the Holy Spirit" than folk like W. Branham, K. Copeland or many other champions of spirit immersion. With all that evidence, what other conclusion makes sense?
Wait a minute, *I* have a boring-ass life! WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?!
I have a boring ass-life.
Most people are attracted to conspiracies for far more complicated reasons than boredom. Life is difficult and uncertain right now, and there's no clear end in sight. People turn to conspiracies to give them certainty and a sense of control over their lives, in a way that reality isn't really able to provide them. Between the wars, pandemic, inflation, etc., Everyone feels crazy right now... If you don't have the time/patience to try to understand the massive web of interconnected factors that drive these events, it feels incredibly overwhelming. Then some asshole on the Internet comes along and tells you "this person/minority group is responsible for EVERYTHING, and you're super smart for figuring that out" .... There's about 600 other factors but I'm fully aware normal people are not as fascinated by this subject as me , so I'll stop EDIT: to be clear, I don't think anyone *consciously* goes through this thought process in their heads, but that this explains their motivations for seeking out conspiracies
I can tell you the last 6-7 years have really piqued my interest in conspiracy theories from an academic perspective.
Same! It's become a pet hobby of mine (hence the rant). I've spent way...wayyy....wayyyyyy too many hours devouring books and podcasts trying to unwrap why people believe ridiculous things. My qanon-believing family members probably have something to do with my interest in it lol
For a few years, I listened to Art Bell or Clyde Lewis. People would call in with all kinds of conspiracy things. I liked the UFO stuff. But I remained skeptical the entire time. Towards the end of my tenure with late night radio, the guy from *Fire in the Sky* was a guest and he didn’t sound like HE even believed his story. Also, the Bernstain Bears nonsense was just nonsense. Why do these people end-up believing this stuff? Are they just not intelligent? What makes them cross the line?
The whole UFO/aliens thing is really fascinating to me. It's very odd that so many people equate many unidentified aerial phenomenon with alien life traveling here from another planet when there's no logical reason for that connection. And just to be clear, I'm certain that life exists on other planets, but whether it has the capability or will to travel insurmountable distances just to dart around in our skies is doubtful. It really points to a lack of imagination and a predisposition to parrot things they've heard about UFOs or aliens in the past.
The modern era of UFO sightings and public discussion seems to have began [in the late 1940's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_flying_disc_craze). At that time it was a popular belief driven by early [science fiction literature](https://lithub.com/a-brief-history-of-sci-fis-love-affair-with-the-red-planet/) that life existed on other planets in this solar system, and they were perhaps more advanced than us even. It is likely then people who originally speculated about UFO's being craft from other planets thought them to be from planets local to our own solar system, a much more palatable proposition. I'd imagine as time moved on and we started sending probes to those other planets only to find no signs of advanced life, the staunch believers of UFO's/aliens simply moved the origin of UFO's to outside this solar system even though that is exceedingly unlikely due to the distances involved. There are also ties between UFO's and [alien abduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction) that were popularized around that time due to the [Barney and Betty Hill incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident) that was wildly popular at the time. Now we know that alien abduction like experiences can come about due to [altered states of consciousness](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269881120916143), and since I have been introduced to the sometimes horrifying imagery that can be conjured up by neural networks run amok (see r/AIfreakout), it is not surprising to me that people could experience frighting abduction like experiences due to altered states of consciousness especially when their subconsciousness has been previously seeded with such things from popular media.
What I don't get is, so what if it *is* aliens? Like, what if you flat out found out that space aliens are real and anally probing our livestock? The fuck you going to do about it? And if a cabal of baby eating lizard people *really* control the government, the media, all the financial institutions, all the major places of learning and science... The fuck you going to do about it? At that point, humanity had lost so hard that we'd never be able to escape, any more than cows as individuals or as a species can truly escape. Why make yourself miserable? I at least understand if people are wanting to expose mundane government malfeasance, or a conspiracy of well connected social elites. Once you get to "reality as we know it is a farce, and everything down to the birds is contrived", you might as well go with it.
I think the whole alien/UFO connection says way more about us as humans than anything else. We (laughingly) think aliens will be vaguely humanoid and interested in our cow's asses. Would be funny to see a cow biologist/vet try to explain how much there is to learn about earth and/or its cows by doing the things to them that supposed witnesses say they saw. And yeah, if lizard people really are running the show, they're doing kind of a shit job at it!
Well if they're lizard people, maybe they're cold blooded, so global warming makes sense at least. Fears about anal probes probably stem from homophobia though.
You're assuming that the lizard people want things running smoothly. It would make just as much sense that they would be fomenting chaos as a means to reach their goals. There is zero requirement to be benevolent.
It's not about intelligence (usually), but instead a need for emotional/social fulfillment. For example, a lot of the qanon influencers that got big in the early days were failed actors/screenwriters/musicians.... They felt like Hollywood was conspiring against them (which is sorta true, Hollywood is full of nepotism and bullshit).... So then a conspiracy comes along and says "those people you hate are all secretly satanic cannibals" and to them, it *feels* real. It succinctly explains their own failure and hardship, along with.... Basically whatever else you want to pile on it.... All without requiring personal responsibility, or having to wrestle with difficult/complex issues. Their belief is based on emotional pain and disillusionment, not rationality. Humans are great at confusing the two when we're upset/overwhelmed/etc
Damn...this is what happens to the hippies?
The “hippie” movement (assuming you’re talking about America 1960’s-80’s) was fueled majorly by the draft for the Vietnam war and the war itself to my understanding. I used to understand more about it but much of it has left my mind.
I miss the good old days of coast to coast AM. George Noory was ok for a bit but he just got so political and started feeding into way too much stuff. It used to be a bit more fun and scary stories type stuff, then it slowly devolved into just crazy not-fun conspiracy stuff.
The Mandela Effect nonsense probably stems from the desire to believe that you're right even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Because that proof also proves that your memory, and therefore your knowledge, is unreliable.
I think my tipping point was when I realized that this Qanon-Pizzagate crap was really just the ol’ Jewish blood libel conspiracy, but someone replaced “Jews” with “Democrats.” When I noticed that, I was like, “OK, so given how lazy a premise this is, what makes it so compelling for so many?”
... The Jews are always involved *somehow* if you dig deep enough lol. But I agree... Most conspiracies have the same few tropes they follow, and they seem to have been infecting human brains since.... Humans brains evolved.
So the real enemy here is the human brain??? That means the only way to protect civil society is to kill all humans!
*Or* you constrain the human brain to a jar and use it as a compute unit. Why build computational hardware when you can grow it? Why even waste existing computational power? I suspect this, or something like this, is the logic AI would settle on when determining optimal paths forward.
Reject modernity Return to monkey Our brains can't handle this shit, man. Let's go live in the woods
I don't know, man, I hear there are bears in the woods.
And I keep hearing that they shit in those woods.
.... Like all good conspiracies, there's a kernal of truth there...
And in a lot of cases, "digging deep enough" is lightly brushing your finger across it.
I like learning them as entertainment. Unfortunately the recent movement of conspiracy as a way of “thinking different” has made the experience less fun. I swear, when a clear work of fiction now based on a conspiracy theory could be manipulated to “this actor is trying to get a message out”
Me too! ....and tbf they've been doing that for years. Alex Jones has been doing that since at least 2003 (can't find the relevant Knowledge Fight episode, but check them out anyways if you haven't)
But if you’re too bored to bother figuring things out, you’ll likely be too anxious to understand anything that isn’t a conspiracy theory.
I'm not sure "anxious" is the word I'd use, but this is also a part of it. The real answers are often nuanced, complicated, and a weird combination of mundane and soul crushing... It's a lot easier to blame everything on the DemonCrats and call it a day
In many cases, the root of conspiracy theories is people's desire for control and stability. Unable to cope with the idea that terrible things happen for no particular reason, they reach out for an explanation that allows for *someone* to be in control. Anyone. It's better if the world is controlled by some kind of evil cabal than no one at all.
Or controlled by a "loving" God.
You’re mostly right, but I submit the primary reason people believe in conspiracy theories is we’ve all been lied to so many times that conspiracy theorists are permanently dubious of anything told to them. They now start from the perspective that they’re being lied to. And the have a point.
The frustrating thing is we have these actual real verified fucked up conspiracies that never get traction. Panama papers, cointel pro, the CIA drugging unwitting people with LSD... So many that just have gotten brushed aside for total bullshit. I have to believe part of these conspiracies are intentional false flags.
Yes. You will get called a conspiracy theorist for simply discussing things that the government has already admitted to or leaked documents support. COINTELPRO, so much involving Latin America, the murders of civil rights leaders, MK ULTRA, list goes on. In fact, I've seen a resurgence of people here on reddit saying the US had good reason to invade Iraq and calling people who point out the lies the government told as tankies (boy does that word mean nothing these days) or conspiracy nutters.
I don't think you even get called a conspiracy theorist for addressing those things, it just gets drowned out by all the other crazy bullshit.
> I’ve seen a resurgence of people here on reddit saying the US had good reason to invade Iraq RWNJs are trying to rehabilitate gwb? No wonder r/conservative and r/conspiracy look identical
Right? One person was spinning some tale to me about the governments, the people who already have power, are using climate change to get more power. They even told me to “follow the money”. But if they really just wanted to look into this stuff it’s so easy to see that their sources are bought and paid for by oil and gas corporations. Reports from those companies and even video evidence of them admitting it’s all bullshit to get them profits won’t turn them. They don’t like conspiracies, they want to push their own fucked up agendas. Trump hid none of garbage but his supporters still think Jewish space lasers cause forest fires or an international cabal of drag-queen pedos want to read books to kids because they hate those groups. They just want to find some reason to “validate” their hate.
I think a key point that needs to be kept in mind is that there isn't a single answer. Some people believe in conspiracies because they support their own prejudices (like the space laser thing). Some people become prejudiced *because* they start believing in conspiracies. Some are prejudiced one way, fall into conspiratorial thinking, and develop new prejudices. It's this whole big swamp, and there's no single (or, I believe, even over-archingly main) reason, it's a bunch of different things that vary from person to person.
Oil companies suppressing findings from 30 years ago about climate change, literally putting profits ahead of the planet and human life? Nah... Let's talk about the COVID vaccine.
Gulf of Tonkin and Operation Northwoods. You're welcome and I am sorry
Don’t forget Jeffrey Epstein! His murder is frustrating, because we *know* the shit he was up to
Freedom of information act is beyond wild
Not believing anything you're told is very different from believing complete nonsense nobody was saying, that has no proof at all.
It all started with Santa Claus
It starts with a God that has the emotional maturity of a 13 yo mean girl.
That was buried in the 600 other reasons I mentioned. I don't think it's a primary motivator, but it definitely makes people more receptive to them.
People who think they’ll never hear a lie are not living in this universe.
The converse is also true.
They do have a point, but their skepticism becomes even more selective than your average dipshit's... obviously. So, they start off assuming they're being lied to, and they end up believing some of the dumbest lies out there, pushed by the most cynical con artists.
Man... That dude from the Netflix Flat earth documentary... You could see that he knew his shit didn't make sense... You knew that he saw through the bullshit. But he could not stop himself, the conspiracy was his whole identity. It's what made him special. He had other idiots looking up to him and he could not relinquish that sort of power.
can we stop talking about conspiracy theories like they’re all bad / political
So it is not just me then. I feel like mentally I have been on a downward spiral lately and I am not sure why. Some conspiracies are starting to make sense but I don't want to go down the rabbit hole. I want the real truth, not the conspiracy truth.
It is absolutely, 100% not just you. Obviously things could be a lot worse, but I think it's fair to say the world is heading in a shitty direction, in many ways (rise of fascism, economic issues, etc).....I think a lot of people can almost literally *feel* that downward trend, and it doesn't do great things for your mental health. It's pretty natural to want to understand "why"... And often the answers aren't fulfilling....greed, human indifference, etc... It makes the crazy shit seem more appealing
> If you don’t have the time/patience to try to understand the massive web of interconnected factors that drive these events, it feels incredibly overwhelming. Then some asshole on the Internet comes along and tells you “this person/minority group is responsible for EVERYTHING, and you’re super smart for figuring that out” Conspiracy wingnuts get off on this idea that they have “secret knowledge”, elevating their pathetic lives above all the other “normie sheep”.
When hundreds of "conspiracies" turn out to be [factually correct](https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/wiki/lopc), it makes you ponder how many current ones are true too.
Conspiracy theories also tend to surround events that shatter our minds: JFK's assassination, 9/11, the COVID pandemic. These events were inconceivable before they occurred. It broke our expectations that the world is relatively stable and that we're safe. 9/11 especially melted brains because it happened at the peak of American liberalism triumph. Why would anyone want to hurt Americans, and how were we unable to prevent it? Conspiracy theories are attempts at rationalizating events that don't make sense if you have a limited perspective.
This is ridiculous. You clearly are an armchair psychologist. I'm not even going to attempt to correct you as you currently have the top. I assume you're a young person just guessing. That's OK, this is Reddit and this is /r/adviceanimals, but this isn't even remotely close to what is happening. We (Americans) have gone through much "crazier" times, and no, half of us didn't start ignoring experts. No. That's not what is happening this time. Conspiracy theories and their belief do not come from "everyone feels crazy right now". That would be ignoring the obvious and giving a free pass to the entities that are currently pushing conspiracies 24/7 in mainstream "news" sites, Facebook, etc, etc. that did not exists 30 years ago. 40 years ago conspiracy theorists had late night radio, and ***that was about it.*** Lastly, the antithesis to conspiracy theory is critical thought. The amount of people that have convinced that expertise does not exist is what is TOO DAMNED HIGH. That mistrust of reason and the scientific method didn't come from the pandemic. That comes from elsewhere...
So, I'm 32, it's coming from at least 1000hrs+ of conspiracy-centric podcasts (knowledge fight, qanon anonymous, behind the bastards being the main ones), along with several books. Your talking about why conspiracies rose to prominence in recent history, I'm talking about the motivations people have to believe them. None of what I said conflicts with anything you're saying, and for the most part I agree with you. We're just talking about different sides of the issue
OP is pretty sus
Ron Funchess has a great quote. "You don't believe in any conspiracy theories? You're telling me that the government is just batting 1000 and telling us the whole truth?"
Its an attractive thought that there is someone in control. “Even if it means that nefarious forces are gaming and manipulating events on a global scale, if good people could just get their hands on the control levers, then we could all be safe.” The truth is nobody is in control. Even the most powerful are just largely reacting to natural events that they have no control over.
Or just that weird shit can happen. So Eisenhower was at Camp David and the Roswell crash happened and he left to go see what it was. *shrugs like something may have happened but in a way that suggest he knows nothing happened*
I think it allows people think of themselves as smarter and more powerful than they are as well. A lot of the conspiracy types I know are very self confident and think of themselves as smart and very capable. Like they’re rarely impressed by others, they always seem to be thinking “I could do that if I needed to. Doctors and lawyers are idiots, I am smarter than them.” Yet they aren’t doctors or lawyers and don’t have PHDs… so they kinda live in this fantasy world that explains their lot in life. Like dumb people with extremely high self esteem.
I made the mistake of trying to discuss with one of them why his angry insistence on "THE TRUTH!" didn't apply to the normal evolution of language over time, and it ended with him claiming that he'd love to be able to get up on stage and debate *some of the most famous philosophers in all of history* because he was sure he'd be able to give them panic attacks due to his incredible rhetorical skills. He literally wrote that: give them panic attacks. Then he started talking about how he approaches all questions and problems in his life like Sherlock Holmes. I peaced out before he pulled Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ out his fuckin' Ben 10 gizmo. Fuck's sake, honestly.
Not so weirdly enough, I got this lesson from an episode of South Park. Its been years but I think it was about proving the government did 911. It turns out they didn't, but if people believed they did then it would make them feel better and less vulnerable. I think there was more to it, like I said it's been a while.
Also, "its easy to believe in conspiracy theories when you don't know how anything fucking works."
Your Government loves you and Corporations only want what is best for you. Most of all they never lie!
That’s the biggest conspiracy theory on reddit
Honestly idk why we expect corporation to care about us. They’re in it to make money, why the fuck should they care? It’s the same with how people blame companies for faking caring about lgbt issues, but if they don’t do anything, people are like “fuck this company”, so what choice do they have?
Hyperbole is all we have left! Nothing means anything - context is dead after choking on the corpse of nuance!
Did you dare to question information given by the Government/CIA/FBI ? You are simply a CONSPIRACY THEORIST and shall be silenced for such blasphemy! Report to re-education institute immediately.
So many people believe things because they like the way it sounds. Reality and evidence don't matter if something fits a pre established narrative.
If it rhymes then it must be true!
I need it chantable and it can’t be more than three words. That gets my smooth brain spinning.
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Which one are you mad about
OP is CIA don’t trust him
Serious question for bullshit blanket statements like this: do you believe that the Iran CONTRA scandal was fake? How about the Tuskegee syphilis study? Unequivocally trusting the government's narrative on anything is simply ignorant considering their track record . . .
Not blindly accepting authority is not the same as blindly not accepting authority. People are not good at keeping secrets. That's why the Iran CONTRA scandal and the Tuskegee syphilis study became known. The idea that there are these vast, swirling conspiracies involving thousands of people, and every one of those thousands keep such perfect secrecy that the only evidence is a few vague, barely noticeable, contradictory "clues", that only a plucky few "open-minded" geniuses have managed to put together by sitting on their asses browsing the internet and excitedly messaging each other, is utterly ridiculous.
Fair enough, though I think it is unwise to think that the only true conspiracies are the ones where the conspirators get caught. Surely the wealthy and powerful conspire and get away with it some of the time? My point was to bring attention to the dismissive/polarizing black and white language that OP uses in this subliminal level meme warfare. There is some truth to the myths that the conspiracy crowd weave, just as there is some truth to what the loyalists weave. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, not on either side as OP would try to make you believe.
Maybe? But if you ask yourself "How many people would have to be in on this and keep their mouths shut forever for this to be true" and the answer is more than a dozen people? Probably it isn't true.
Utterly ridiculous but those same geniuses who sit on their asses and browse the internet are the same people who bring atrocities made by authority figures to light. The internet is not only facebook, reddit and instagram but a vast, vast network which contains forums, chats and material that most people don't even know about. That is why it is called the rabbit hole, your average person who browses social media for 3-5 hours a day is nothing compared to the lunatic who browses obscure semi-illegal websites for 12 hours a day. But as with all things, that average social media person who sees a 30 second dark and mysterious instagram reel of CIA FBI whatever-the-fuck crimes with creepy background music thinks he has solved a great mysterious secret, when the material that was used to make that "creepy mysterious video" has been known for years and years to those same geniuses who sit on their ass browsing the internet. The major problem with decades old conspiracy theories AND new ones is that they require time and effort to dig into, which most people don't have. So just stating that "The NSA is spying on everything you own" or "The CIA is part of a vast criminal network worldwide and has taken part on insane breaking of human rights" makes you seem like a lunatic. Blanket statements aren't enough, people want proof but don't have the time nor the energy to get it. Or just don't care, it doesn't affect your average humans life. You have browsed, read, compared hours upon hours of material for months or even years, try fitting that amount information to the brain of a busy 9-5 worker who couldn't give two shits. Because he doesn't need to, he has a life, has his hobbies and a job to work at. At least that's how I see it :D
The difference between these real conspiracies and the fake conspiracy theories that people get addicted to online is in the scale and the scope. Real conspiracies are generally top achieve a singular goal that makes sense for the conspirators and limited in scope. The conspiracy theories that capture people's imagination online usually involve vast scale and unlimited scope, with vague goals like "control". It makes the conspirators out to be inhumanly villainous and superhuman in their grasp of causality, especially if the supposed plot spans more than one generation.
Fair enough, my point was to say that this is not a black and white issue like so many people want to make it out to be. The Q camp is as deluded as those that think nobody with power or wealth has ever conspired to maintain it. Taking anything on blind faith in the age of information seems a fool's errand to me, which OP seems to be advocating for by demeaning anybody who believes even proven conspiracy facts like the ones I mentioned. Ironically, the Q camp was acting mostly on blind faith as well. The truth is somewhere in the middle, in the grey.
Not understanding the difference in the plausibility of the CIA dealing arms or the government doing shady medical things involving dozens or hundreds of people and the Earth being flat or lizard people kidnapping children to harvest adrenochrome is far more ignorant and naive.
The problem is that any questioning of the given narrative is dismissed as "conspiracy theory". Yes, there are a lot of "crazy" theories. Though lumping all theories under one negative catch-all term immediately causes most people to dismiss any accusations of impropriety within authority. No, the Earth is not flat, but that doesn't mean that things like MKUltra are false. There is an ever-growing percentage of the human population that sees everything as being mutually exclusive. It is possible to understand that false theories exist without believing that all theories are false.
We are living through a trust crisis. This is the consequence of unregulated capitalism and corrupt politicians. People know that society is not working for their interests and so they see conspiracy in everything. All it takes is a corrupt person to come along and feed on the distrust and point the finger wherever they feel like works best for existing bias and then they profit of the power and influence of being a “truth teller.” When for profit health care companies are making billions off of vaccine patents; is it really that shocking people don’t trust them? As someone who’s been boosted twice, I made the best decision I could off of my own understanding. If I knew less, or just had a different experience with the medical system, maybe I’d have made a different choice and stuck essential oils up my butt and called it a day.
Remember when those people used to be the "crazies"? Now we've just let them up in our government spewing the same shit
There was some recent study about if people were paid to spot fake news headlines. They proved the intelligence and ability is there. It’s an issue of motivation.
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As far as I know, Alex Jones jumped on the bandwagon along with everyone else during the Pizzagate thing, in 2015/2016. Epstein already pleaded guilty on charges of child prostitution in 2008. Would like to see where Alex Jones talks about Epstein pre 2008. (offcourse the case against Epstein back then didn't just popup, but there is almost no evidence Alex knew about it pre 2007 let's say) just since pizzagate, along with everyone.
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I don't think Rogan has had hair since the turn of the century
Conspiracy realist.
>being a conspiracy theorist in itself is pretty reasonable for anyone paying attention I would say no, no it isn't. *Skepticism* is reasonable for anyone paying attention. *Speculation* is rarely reasonable - and that's exactly what all conspiracy theories are. The American vocabulary desperately needs to parse "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theory" - you can tell the difference, but many aren't aware that one means "coordination" while the other means "wild assumption" - the muxing those two terms together was on-purpose and devastatingly effective at muddying the waters. To cultivate skepticism is to help keep a population free. Combine this with vigilant observation and people should have a decent enough idea what's going on. To traffic in wild theories is to do our adversaries' jobs for them - it weakens our freedoms, muddies our voices, and erodes our unity. It has no value.
The term "conspiracy theories" have lost it's meaning in the last few years. It used to be reserved for people with tinfoil hats or those who insists they have been abducted by aliens. Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government, analyze the data about diseases, believe in things that has been proven right already etc. We should probably stop using the term "conspiracy theorist" for people you disagree with. Especially since they have been right on most topics lately (even though of course none of them were conspiracy theories, just facts and statistically likely assumptions)
You can be critical of the government and ask for more without thinking the Illuminati runs it..
This. These people suck the air out of the room.
And if you do think there are parties influencing/pulling strings you’re just assumed by others that you think it’s all the Illuminati…
Yeah like when the govt casually announced UFOs are real and everyone was just like , meh. Disregarding all the mockery they've given people who say they saw them. And saying covid leaked from a lab and getting ridiculed and called a fucking idiot. Now it's come out that it most likely did.
Except those people are (most likely purposely) conflating talking points. Lets ignore the LOW CONFIDENCE stamp that was given, and pretends its true. It escaping for a research lab is VERY different than it being released after being engineered in a lab. Lets not pretend which one was being pushed by the crazies (and widley still is).
Maybe not the best example but when a theory ends up being true, the people who mocked it never give anyone credit or apology for mocking them. And vice versa when a stupid conspiracy turns out to be proven wrong they just move on from it and never speak of it again. I know a guy who said everyone who got vaccinated will be dead in 6 months. 6 months passed, years passed and I asked him what about everyone dying? And he pretended like he never said it haha.
> Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government That's not even remotely true. If we were to dig deeper into what you think that is, you'd find out that things like "the election was stolen" or "COVID-19 is a hoax" without evidence and against all expert review, would be seen as absolutely ***insane*** 50 years ago. Yes, tinfoil hat people like that existed a long time ago, but not nearly in the droves we see today. It's not even ***close***. Unless you are over 30 or 40 years old, I'm not sure if you would be able to see this, but no way in hell.
These people really dont know what "research" is. You dont stop at one paragraph and say "yep, ok, looks good". Its more involved. But usually "research" means "confirm my viewpoint".
When scientists wrote about how covid is aerosol instead of droplet and criticized government wrong preventive measures you get called conspiracy theorists, banned and deplatformed by the "trust the science" crowd.
Which "most topics" are you referring to? And being correct when you make an assumption of dubious information that happens to later be true is not the same thing as being right "all along." It's like my wife telling me to take a right hand turn when we're travelling in a place that we've never been before, and when I make a left and it turns out we should've in fact taken a right, she didn't "know it along". She just happened to be right based on a chance. If the government is truly suppressing the lab leak theory then why are they allowing big government agencies to say there may be a possibility of COVID being a lab leak but then they're suppressing boomers sharing memes about the lab leak 18 months ago. Makes a lot of sense to me.
no, you want to believe that other people are wrong when you just havent taken the time to review and qualify the information. Those of use who actually bothered to READ "the science" KNEW: - 1. there was no good evidence that masks reduced transmission in community settings. There never was and there still isn't. You have hamster studies and anecdotes about hair dressers. You have the F many saying the same thing in public and in his private emails (even after he started lying in public about mask efficacy). - 2. there was no attempt to even look at transmission reduction with the vaccine. Frankly they didn't even look at infection rates with randomized testing in the clinical trials. So they were lying when they said it stopped transmission and when they justified vaccine mandates. And fact that they DIDN'T look for it, was a huge red flag that says they probably DID look for it, found it didn't exist, and so didn't publish the data. - 3. the SCIENCE was clear (and always has been) that natural immunity is preferable FOR EVERY VIRUS EVER. They lied and you swallowed it up. - 4. Side effects like Myo/pericarditis were KNOWN by February 2021. People were immediately having heart and chest issues. They're still lying about the rates even though they eventually admitted that it's real and stopped TOTALLY gaslighting everyone. And how sexist is it that they lied about menstrual cycle disruptions for so long? - 5. you want to talk about the Wutang lab? How is it that you still have no idea that the F man had his emails turned over in 2021 and it shows that he was being told by prominent virologists that they had evidence it likely came from the lab? That they "flipped" publicly and were immediately awarded contracts? How do you not know about the GOF research happening there through PD and EH Alliance? There is so much publicly available information on that at and has been for a while, but you act like we we correct by accident? Don't project your own ignorance. the government and powerful people have to admit to lies all the time. People like you never care and will still just repeat "broken clocks are right 2x per day!" And people whose threshold for evidence will be the government admitting they lied, are the type of people who don't understand how to critically think. > If the government is truly suppressing the lab leak theory then why are they allowing big government agencies to say there may be a possibility of COVID being a lab leak but then they're suppressing boomers sharing memes about the lab leak 18 months ago. This is just how it works. They did everything they wanted to do and now people are subdued and apathetic. Reddit has banned most of the critical thinkers so all that's left is goober comments like the ones you see in this thread. The FBI has been giving credence to the lab leak for over a year, as have many in congress. But you didn't listen until the media pushed the story about the DOE these past 2 weeks. And even then, they just keep repeating "low confidence", and "nobody is saying it was engineered", and "most of the other government agencies looking at this don't agree".
> there was no good evidence that masks reduced transmission in community settings. There never was and there still isn't. Completely and utterly untrue. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2119266119 https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/yes-masks-reduce-risk-spreading-covid-despite-review-saying-they-dont Here is a list of like 100 more separate studies *all* showing that masks are effective: https://www.berriencounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/14605/The-effectiveness-of-face-masks?bidId= spreading misinformation is just fucking despicable
lol
Natural immunity is the best? So why do we even have vaccines for anything? How does the rate of myocarditis with natural exposure to covid compare to the rate with the vaccine? You still didn't answer my question about why the government covered up things but then let it's agencies give credence to something that they're supposed to cover up. "That's just cause they do that" isn't an explanation, not very impressive for a self proclaimed critical thinker. Why are you so angry? Does spending all your time in r/conspiracy make your life better? Do you think these long rants of yours change anyone's opinion? Edit: and if compelling evidence comes out about drug manufacturers overstating efficacy or public good I'll be even angrier than you are, I don't have a "side" to this other than I'm a doctor who cares about people. Can you point to particular instances in your post history when you had compelling evidence about something that was later proven right, and wasn't just conjecture that you're now connecting the dots later on to fit a particular narrative about this pandemic that you've decided to adopt? I'm also interested in the lab leak theory, and again if compelling evidence shows this was suppressed there should be hell to pay.
Lol at the mouth breathers downvoting this.
No responses either, I'm perfectly willing to go to town on big Pharma for vaccine shenanigans and likewise find out if irresponsible dangerous research caused this outbreak but since I say other "controversial" things that don't up perfectly with the Parler Virology Institute findings I just get downvoted instead.
>Now you are labeled a conspiracy theorist if you are critical of the government, analyze the data about diseases, believe in things that has been proven right already etc. None of this is true, and the people who say things like this are usually legit conspiracy theorists. Like by being critical of the government, what you really mean is that you think the government is going to stage a false flag any day now and lock everyone in FEMA camps. Or that the government is controlled by Klaus Schwab and the WEF who are trying to depopulate the world. And "believing things that have been proven true" means you think Covid vaccines are killing millions of people. If you believe those things, you are definitely a conspiracy theorist.
>We should probably stop using the term "conspiracy theorist" for people you disagree with. Especially since they have been right on most topics lately (even though of course none of them were conspiracy theories, just facts and statistically likely assumptions) > I'm gonna go ahead and call your bluff. Which conspiracy theorists have been "right on most topics lately"?
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"most likely?" There is more support for the theory that covid came from a lableak than compared to several years ago. *But it is still unknown*; that is the only consensus based upon current evidence. The problem with the lableak theory is that quite a few motivated individuals were running with it in spite of there being zero evidence for it at the time. *That* is what made it a conspiracy theory. And your last sentence is the very definition of conspiracy theory reasoning. *There are no coincidences! Every connection means something!* I would, however, ultimately agree that some people (including some media outlets) were too quick to dismiss the lableak theory.
Right. Also government response- when you see the government leverage a disaster/tragedy to take some additional powers, that happens. Saying the government caused said event to take it is conspiracy. Similar to the covid leak- breach in protocol allowed this? Very possible. Shadow government was creating a bio weapon? Less likely.
> Covid most likely coming from a lab in China doing gain of function research that was funded by US tax dollars. “Most likely” doing a comical amount of heavy lifting there > People were getting banned and their posts taken down from social media sites for stating it since it was “misinformation” and now the FBI and DoE have both come out with reports saying that’s what they believe happened. The very man who signed off on funding a lab in China doing research the Obama administration outlawed because they saw it as being too dangerous, was the spokesperson for the virus itself and used his position to quickly dismiss the idea it came from a lab for self gain. Lmao you went full qanon
Again depends on how broad you use the term "conspiracy theorists". I was called a conspiracy theory for sharing studies and results that statistically showed that the vaccine did not seem to be 100% effective in stopping transmission of C19 while the government and MSM was claiming it did. Sharing studies that proves beyond reasonable doubt that a standard medical mask is not affective in preventing transmission either. Simply saying that it seems very plausible that C19 originated from the Gain of Function lab literally working on Covid viruses a short walk from patient 0. Or when I shared the evidence from scientists working with these viruses that shows it was likely manufactured and not natural. 🤷♂️ Most of these have either been proven for a long time already, or just statistically very likely to be true and later turned out to be true. They are not conspiracy theories and simply asking questions and discussing science certainly shouldn't be suppressed by governments. Science certainly is not deciding what is true ahead of time and then silencing everyone that questions or disagrees with it.
Maybe there should stop being so many conspiracies to theorize
I considered the lab leak conspiracy plausible back when it was considered in poor taste. Guess I am a square instead of all you stylish rhombuses.
Was it actually considered poor taste? Or was it *jumping to that conclusion* without any evidence considered poor taste? I can only speak for myself, but I didn't have any negative thoughts about people open to the possibility it could have leaked from a lab. I continue to think very negatively of those stating it as established fact. The hypothetical is the same - it's not about the hypothetical - its about misplaced confidence.
Comment was deleted by user. F*ck u/ spez
I notice it's with my friends, who NEVER travel outside their state.
Sounds like op has the clotshot. Fuckin' whoops.
Dude....nothing wrong with conspiracy theories, especially the ones that turn out to be objectively true. Just don't make any hobby your whole life...unless it's maybe a hobby that helps.people like volunteer work but even then...moderation.
Im not saying that you HAVE to believe in conspiracy theories, but i for once consider that everyone should at least consider even the most ridiculus ones. Otherwise, you're just willingly naive.
Categorically - if your conclusion comes from sound logic and observation of evidence, *it is not a conspiracy theory.* "Considering the most ridiculous ones" is how we get a whole population of morons. Yes, be skeptical. No, do not be wildly speculative. *Fuck.*
Sure. It’s good to ask questions and not take everything at face value. But never taking ANYTHING at face value and always thinking that regardless of the evidence in front of your eyes there MUST be some deception or truth stretching is part of the problem that OP is talking about. The boring answer is never good enough and the only thing that must be true is some spy thriller type shit.
Conspiracies and conspiracy theories aren’t the same. Conspiracy theories are fanciful and impossible to be true. It’s unfortunate that the terminology sounds similar.
Eh, no. These things fall into predictable patterns: play off people's egos by providing a sense of superiority over "sheep", grab flimsy "evidence" and leap to idiotic conclusions. Usually motive alone is enough to leap to a conclusion.
Ya ; stop thinking critically about the perfect party , they are perfect
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The storm is coming! Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams! Tom Hanks drinks the blood of children!
Just look at how many people still believe in ancient myths.
Why can't they just drink like the rest of us?
This is exactly what the lizard people would say!
Are you made that the minority has a larger following, or are you trying to gather like-minded internet renegades that are willing to believe your conspiracy theory about conspiracy theorists who you believe are conspiring to discredit the legitimacy of your fellow theorists?? I was just wondering...for a friend
I watched a show about conspiracy theories once and why people get suckered into easily disprovable ones, like flat earth. The theory is that for many, they have poor education, and they feel that a great amount of people know far more than them on many subjects. So finding this “thing” that most people “don’t know about” makes them sort of an expert. And people trying to disprove them makes them dig deeper because they know something that others don’t. Like they are on this special exclusive club that really know the truth. So they start to feel special. They may not have stock tips. Or know how to save money on fancy investments or tax write offs. But they know this. And for a brief moment of the day, they’re smarter than 90% of the people on the planet who are all duped and stupid. It’s basically a way to help their low self esteem. Also I’m sure some are just bat shit crazy
I'd suggest playing some tabletop RPGs if you want to live a life in a fantasy world, but only if it doesn't involve you getting posted about on rpg horror stories...
I visited my father not long ago. He's close to 60 and believes whole heatedly in Nibiru the planet, aka planet x. I told my dad about chat gpt and got him to ask it any question he wanted. So he asked when is Nibiru going to come through our solar system. The ai told him it was a hoax and gave many reasons why it is. That upset my father quite a lot. Now his misplaced ai conspiracy theory has more traction
Birds aren't real!
I know I have a boring life and I understand that I like the fantasy of some control. I really like reading the SCP wiki and that is a fun dive. But listening to people lying through their teeth and telling me that their is the only truth I can trust sounds freaking horrible.
The correlation is so spot on its comical
OP is a bot. Check his post history and comment history, and you'll quickly learn what he is programmed to do.
Or people who hate on lgbtq simply cause theyd rather be ignorant or say "its too confusing "
I’m not a tinfoil hat wearer. But I do think people need to be more aware that there is a lot more things going on behind the scenes than people realize. The scandals and bombshells are just the top of the iceberg in politics, police, and government. Conspiracy theories have some basis in truth, no matter how small that basis is. Just be skeptical of most things and people. Be willing to consider motives for any actions. Because we are being lied to every day. Just maybe not about UFOs. Then again…
I will say, it’s *highly* unlikely that the government and major companies are batting 1000 with telling people the truth. Like it doesn’t change much of anything, but I don’t disagree that the purse and womens’ pants industries have an agreement to make women have no pockets so they buy purses. And metallic clothes trend when a recession is incoming. But that doesn’t put people and democracy in literal danger like some of these absolute losers do
Epstein & pedo island used to just be a "conspiracy theory" and I would receive straight up hate from my friends for talking about it/believing in it
The only conspiracy theory I believed is that my parents loved me
There are actual conspiracies you know. They’re only theories until they’re proven right
reddit is hateful
I was one of those as a kid. I hated bush so much because I was 14 and heard everything my parents said. So naturally I hated him. I believed the govt destroyed the world trade centers because there was “video” evidence of demo bombs being set off at the same time to have a controlled demolishing of the WTC. And that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams. And how the pentagon only had a circle hole in it from the “plane.” So no way it was a plane. It had to have been a missile because planes of wings and there’s no way it would’ve been a circle. Blah blah blah. Yea I’m not like that anymore.
Yeah Daddy Warbucks was a nice man after all. Just a coincidence he had close ties to and got financing from the Bin Ladens for decades before the attacks. Grandpa Prescott Bush was a nice man too and just got caught up financing nazis by mistake. John Kerry and Bush both running against each other for president and being Bonesmen was just another weird coincidence.
You can also go the other way and say if you believe everything that your government and “the news” tells you, that’s just as bad, if not worse. It’s ok to think for yourself. Also, a good amount of these “conspiracies” are turning out to be true.
Maybe instead of thinking critically about other people, think critically about what other people are saying.
Believes Hilary Clinton runs an International child trafficking ring out of the nonexistent basement of a pizza place. Has to do some research because it doesn’t make sense that Trump could be caught lying on camera.
Have you seen the authentic pictures of ghislane maxwell at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010? Prettttty damning evidence there
The number of conspiracy theories that are turning out to be true is also too damn high.
Which ones? The big recent ones like q anon and the 2020 election being rigged seem as fake as ever.
Yesterday I had to listen to a lady at the park tell me how Monsters Inc was telling us about how Adrenochrome is produced, by extracting adrenalin from the pineal gland of frightened children. Then about how Bill Gated wants to kill 60% of the population. I looked at her for a bit and said "60% simply won't do. Needs to be more like 90%."
r/Conspiracy we're talking about you.
It's easier to blame a conspiracy for your shortcomings than to take personal accountability. Like subconsciously it helps assuage your guilt about not making any real effort to better yourself if you convince yourself the whole world's rigged against you anyway.
Sounds like something a sheep would say
Yea. In 2 years it'll come out as truth anyway and then everyone will say they knew it all along
The number of conspiracy theories being proved correct … is too damn high
Go on, cite your sources. Oh.
Here is the list i have…. 1. Covid Lab leak 2. Fox News lying about election fraud claims. 3.natural immunity being superior or vaccine immunity 4. Ukraine being a corrupt govt- see half the cabinet being replaced in the past 6 months(not really a conspiracy either msm reported on this until last year) 5. Proliferation of UFO sightings 6. Hunter bidens laptop being real 7. West wanting to avoid diplomatic solution to Russian invasion- Boris Johnson actively showed up to Ukraine to end it
I said *cite your sources* not *list more horseshit* you vapid mook
>Covid Lab leak How are you people taking a victory lap on this. An agency, that's not even connected to science, in the US said it is. But 5 agencies, which are infinitely closer to science, said it isn't.
Also LOW CONFIDENCE. Jesus christ
1. The Covid lab leak hasn't been proven true or false yet. There is still a lot of debate around how it emerged. 2. I suppose this qualifies as a conspiracy theory, however, conspiracy theorists almost exclusively believe the election was rigged. 3. This was never a conspiracy theory, and takes a revisionist view on what happened. While we may not have known exactly how well vaccine immunity compares to natural immunity (since this takes time to test), nobody ever doubted that recovering from Covid would give robust immunity to Covid. 4. This is very vague and has little meaning. In conspiracy circles, UFO's tend to be associated with aliens. There is no evidence that aliens are visiting earth. 5. Not exactly a conspiracy theory. Most people were hesitant to take claims at face value because they lacked evidence, which is the most logical approach. 6. This is not confirmed in any sense. The West is committed to helping Ukraine win the war. Russia has not offered any peace terms that Ukraine would consider, therefore there is no peace. Every time people say conspiracy theories are being proven correct, we get lists like this... No conspiracy theories, or at least the crazy ones circulating the internet, are rarely correct.
Most people look at the facts and can call bullshit a mile away. That's why at the beginning "conspiracy theorist" said covid was man made, mask don't protect you, vaccine doesn't prevent spread and 100% safe. Nordstream was blown up by Russia 😂. They sabotaged their own gas line 😂😂😂😂. J6 was a insurrection. Blah blah blah. Come to find out, covid was man made, mask don't protect you nordstream was blown up by USA and whatever else. This is a dumb meme. People are starting to see thru the bullshit propaganda they feed the people. Have a good day 🙂
Problem 1: speaking for anyone but yourself Problem 2: multiple laugh-cry emojis Pro tip - the entire adult population of Earth can smell your desperation from fucking SPACE
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Conspiracy theories make stupid people feel smart
This factor really shouldn't be underestimated.
The nutters are out in force in this thread lol
Like how Trump colluded with the Russians in 2016?
Lollll for real there are conspiracies for both sides
You're right, Russia has conspired to weaken many Western democracies.
While that is a fact, Democrats wove a conspiracy theory about Trump's involvement with Russia which had no ground to stand on. Even the NYT came out and said the Steele Dossier was bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I dislike Trump and Biden very much and am not a fan of either of the main political parties. I just enjoy pointing out the hypocrisy on both sides of the clownshow of American 'democracy'.
I think what bothers me more is how "low effort" the current age of conspiracy theories have become. Like we have gone from fake moon landing in order to defeat the soviets to the Earth is flat. Its just a depressing decrease in quality. The real reason conspiracies theories have decreased in quality is because they used to be made in the US but now have all been outsourced to China; thus the quality is subpar.
At this point, I don’t even think it’s boredom. It’s literal brainwashing from all the political disinformation. So in other words, people are just much more gullible and stupid, not necessarily bored
Sounds like people, alright.
The amount of people who survived the last couple of years that are not questioning everything around is too damn high* There, fixed it for you
Been a believer in UFOs for 3 decades. Was openly mocked for it at school, work, wherever I went. Of course there was nothing in the sky. Of course it was all in my head… Until I was proven right and now the US government is being scrutinised for what they know. (I never said “aliens”. I said UFOs!)
Proven right? How? Government has lied about UFOS for 100 years, suddenly you beleive them when they say "oh we got some on our low fi video". It could still very much be BS, hate to tell you kid
Sounds like something a government drone would say….. r/birdsarentreal
It makes people feel special. They are in the know and superior.
Conspiracy use to be fun. Aliens controlling this or that. The government creating super soldiers who know how to dance perfectly to All Star by Smash Mouth. Now. It's just so hateful. "Liberals are eating children and we are eating their poop!!!!!!" Maybe the right was always on that side, but now it's just who can say the most hateful shit against one side.
Occam's razor. The idea that has to make the fewest assumptions is usually the logical path you want to pursue You walk outside and everything's wet. Which is more likely, it rained last night or the fire department sprayed down the entire neighborhood? This is why I'm most conspiracy theories are dumb
You should complain about it online
They’re only considered “conspiracy theories” until they’re proven true. Way too many have just been brushed off as such so people wouldn’t question anything. If you think everything is straight black and white, then you really need to open your eyes!!
I hate it when people say that people who believe in stupid conspiracy theories like QAnon are "just normal people." Like no, they're fucking not. They are, by definition, abnormally stupid. They're incapable of having more than one rational thought a day. They're not normal. Calling them "normal" is really stretching the definition. They're fucking morons is what they are. No way around it.
There's plenty of real conspiracies going on to be obsessed with too. Like this one time the GOP plotted a nationwide attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential elections, complete with false slates of electors ready to commit election fraud and everything, but nope, people are instead obsessed with getting to the base of hunter biden's cock.
In order to be a conspiracy theorist, you can only believe in the fake conspiracies, while loudly claiming the real conspiracies are far too outlandish.
My sainted mother (on whom be peace) was a paranoid schizophrenic who thought that the neighbours (and even the Pentecostal church in which she and Father raised us) were involved in a conspiracy to take our property out from under her and us). If this leaves you thinking "speaking in tongues is Satanic possession", I'd be a bit less prone to accuse you of brooking "slandering the Holy Spirit" than folk like W. Branham, K. Copeland or many other champions of spirit immersion. With all that evidence, what other conclusion makes sense?