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I'm not sure if I call these conspiracies.. but I'll refer to them as such for the purpose of this post.
Basically, think of them as when people suspect established institutions (i.e. companies, organizations, schools, governments, etc.) of having a hidden agenda.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll give this one example of a review of the app "YELP". Basically, the reader believes the purpose of this app is to hold businesses hostage and extort huge fees out of them to get rid of bad reviews (rather than the "intended" purpose of regular people reviewing businesses.)
Am I just naiive or is there something psychologically "off" about the people who construct and believe in these sorts of conspiracies?
I wouldn't say people who have those fears are "psychologically off"..maybe just very cautious. Maybe they've been burned before and refuse to let it happen again...maybe it's not a "conspiracy". maybe they're right. Maybe the real conspiracy is to have people believe that it's not.
Considering our government's history, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss conspiracy theories. Forced sterilization of undesirables, illegal human testing without the test subjects' knowledge, and many other historical events are all factual.
How are these necessarily "insane conspiracies" in the sense that the OP meant "insane conspiracies", ie, seeing "bogeymen" behind every apparently benign, inconsequential action of every institution? None of these fit that description IMO.
OH-I do think the wealthy have a hidden agenda,,, to get wealthier... off our backs- and become as a 3rd world country.we just were talking bout the poverty line 18K per family of 4?? are you kidding me, $500 a mo for 4? and the middle income is shrinking faster than the ice in the Iceland. A plot or reality in our noses?
I think that many people like conspirarcies because psychologically it's easier to accept a wild crazy hare-brained plot than it is to wrap their minds around a simple explanation that is just too difficult to accept.
All those JFK conspiracies come to mind: Much easier and pyschologically comfortable for many folks to belive in a massive conspiracy and cover up about his assassination than it is to believe that one crazy guy with a gun shot the president and changed history.
How about those folks convinced that we never landed a man on the moon and that the whole thing was filmed on a television set someplace? A nation with the resources and expertise to put men in space and on the moon -- and do it in 1969 when the nation is in massive social upheaval -- scares the hell of of these folks. If they can do that they can do anything! That's a very scary possibility to some people. It's easier to believe the whole damn thing was faked.
Or how about the conspiracy that AIDS was a man-made virus deliberately spread by the US military (or some other non-accountable agent)? That's a lot less frighteneing than believing a fatal virus could develop spontaneously in monkeys and leap to humankind where it kills indiscriminately. Could nature really be that cruel?
For some people its easier to believe that the Americans or the Jews or whoever else were really behind the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The idea that there are enemies of the West who would deliberately kill thousands of innocents is just too terrifying for them to handle. So they make up some weird conspiracy with people they know 'cause that's easier to live with.
Those are just the example I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others. What they all have in common is that the truth, for the conspiracy theorists, is somehow far more frightening than anything they could make up, no matter how silly or implausible it is in the cold light of day.
Last edited by citylove101; 11-15-2013 at 03:09 PM..
I have a theory that people who believe Conspiracy Theories are actually smart people but who most often did not attend college. This isn't a knock on people who don't go to college, but rather... let me just provide my reasoning.
I think you'll find that the average conspiracy theorist, again is smart, but also has a libertarian/independent streak, who already has a bias against the government/institutions. Who has the faculties to make decisions and connections, but didn't learn how to make these connections though higher level reasoning, from say, academia. Or was so against the institution of academia that they made their own connections, found like conspiracy theorists and went to town.
It is a person who is creative, yet misguided.
Most of the proof of conspiracy is gathered piecemeal from a wide blanket, but like reading tea-leaves, there is a lot of contradictory evidence and examples against.
Personally, this is just what I've seen.
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I personally hate conspiracy theories and theorists, because 1. They just muddle the way to the truth, 2. Most are so adamant that they are right. And equally as adamant that you're a "sheeple" if you disagree. Dogma such as this gets an immediate dismissal in my book. (I may be straw manning, but I'm sure you've met that one guy like this).
The Truth sometimes is unknowable and the fatal flaw of conspiracy theorists is that they NEED to know. It becomes an obsession, and ultimately their demise.
well some are non factual but some have some weight,,, and to beat it all into reality- see - the Preppers!
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