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It seems there are a lot of people now that have all manner of bizarre beliefs about things being faked by a government conspiracy or a private one. The beliefs about widespread voter fraud, the beliefs about vaccine scientists hiding data, the beliefs about fake climate science, etc. This list goes on and on. Is it fair to consider these beliefs to be a subclinical form of paranoia - the belief that the government is somehow "out to get you" in some way?
While there are a lot of crazy beliefs now, I'm definitely wary of pathologizing those we disagree with. Like homosexuality before the DSM was changed.
At its heart, people want to believe that they're special. That they have the inside scoop that the rest of society is too dumb to see.
This. I think conspiracy theorists consider themselves to be "independent thinkers", while others are sheep. But I also think that in some cases, it's subclinical paranoia, as you put it.
I read somewhere recently that people who believe in conspiracy theories are more apt than others to be narcissistic, impulsive, and anxious or depressed and to be prone to "magical thinking."
I don't think that this is the article that I saw, but it draws from the same study:
The personality features that were solidly linked to conspiracy beliefs included some usual suspects: entitlement, self-centered impulsivity, cold-heartedness (the confident injustice collector), elevated levels of depressive moods and anxiousness (the moody figure, confined by age or circumstance). Another one emerged from the questionnaire that aimed to assess personality disorders — a pattern of thinking called “psychoticism.â€
Psychoticism is a core feature of so-called schizo-typal personality disorder, characterized in part by “odd beliefs and magical thinking†and “paranoid ideation.†In the language of psychiatry, it is a milder form of full-blown psychosis, the recurrent delusional state that characterizes schizophrenia. It’s a pattern of magical thinking that goes well beyond garden variety superstition and usually comes across socially as disjointed, uncanny or “off.â€
This. I think conspiracy theorists consider themselves to be "independent thinkers", while others are sheep. But I also think that in some cases, it's subclinical paranoia, as you put it.
I think sometimes it can be mental illness, but most of the time, it's as fleetiebelle said and just the desire to believe that you know something that others don't. It's amusing to me that sometimes the conspiracy theorists claim that everyone else believes everything the government tells them (but have you ever met anyone in real life who does?) and yet they swallow whole what they just read on some Internet site without questioning whether it could be true or not.
I have a brother who believes just about every conspiracy theory he comes across on the Internet, and I do believe he is mentally ill. Not in a way that is harmful to anyone else, but just that he sees everything through an alternate reality.
I am a person who was inside One World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and he tells me that I did not see, smell, hear, or feel the things that happened that day. I am brainwashed into believing I experienced what I experienced. He knows this because he read about it on the Internet. This is a 51-year-old man, by the way.
I'm an atheist, so to me, all religious beliefs are on the same level as conspiracy theories - fantastical and absurd. I'll think, "Who could possibly really believe in that?" Yet, many do, so I just have to chalk it up to there's something in the human psychology.
The irony behind conspiracy theories is that they are akin to a cult. While many adherents of various theories think of themselves as free thinkers, they fall into the rabbit hole of backing beliefs that are driven by specific individuals, who push these narratives, while backing their own agenda. That being said, it would be a mistake to label all conspiracies under a single umbrella, as they are not all of equal footing. Some of them are inherently rooted in logic, even if more often then not, they end up being wrong.
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