Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories

[darkmoonlady]

I don't think the article addressed a good reason why some people love CT which is they want to feel they are aware of special knowledge. There is a certain mystique to thinking you know something all the rest of us "suckers" don't know, hence the name "sheeple" used to describe people who supposedly follow what they are told. I look at some of the more well know CT folks like Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura and the like, and for them it's given them an air of celebrity and in Venturas case a continued celebrity probably far past what he would have gotten as a former politician.

I've had a lot of discussions with people who believed in various CT and the one thing that I come back with is quite a few have the same attitude. I usually ask them the same question, if everything you say is true, lets assume that it is for a minute, how does that knowledge change anything? Say we didn't land on the moon and it's a giant lie, but most people believe it. Given that all the chest beating, all the fist pounding and attempting to show people it isn't true, it doesn't really do much to sway those who believe (one way or the other). It's sort of like a religion, it's mostly based on the faith that the "facts" either side are correct. I felt that way about 9/11 truthers whether I believed their ideas or not the outcome (3000+ dead) was still sadly the same.

I've had one guy who was into the whole Rothschild banking/Bilderberg/NWO CT'er nearly go mental on me because I asked him if it's all true what are you doing about that has any effect? I said even if you remove all your money from banks and just rely on cash, in the end it's only your money, the system is still in place, the same people hold power. He became livid like I was implying that we SHOULD do nothing which wasn't what I was asking. If bringing to light conspiracies brought them down or cracked them open I could see his point but railing against something and doing it in a way (Alex Jones Rant as an example) that makes you the person relaying that info look kinda nutty isn't going to change anything either. I have often listened to different shows on Coast to Coast in the old days where calm, rational ex military recounted personal UFO experiences for example, now that I'm more liable to put some belief into simply because the messenger so to speak did it in a way that seemed sane. That special knowledge that people want to hold and sometimes lord over people with is a real turn off. It smacks of "I see it and you can't, aren't you dumb" and I think it is what gives CT a bad reputation. I don't disbelieve every conspiracy theory but if someone refuses to hear the other side, returns with retorts like "you're asleep, you're sheeple" how serious are you supposed to take them?

[DONTEATUS]

yep! Way too much time on there fingers ! Thats the Ticket ! C.T`s are mostly just that too much everything ! Too much time,too much bad Ideas,too much gass.

[Mikko-kun]

Lilithlady, you have a fair point. I never liked the Alex Jones style, and assaulting people (with words) when they disagree.

There at least was a time I held those illuminati conspiracies very likely existing, viable theories, and it's quite frustrating for other people to take it like some kind of a game if you tell anyone about them. As if I was playing around... but gotta keep your cool there as you said.

And unless you're a city-commando rambo and can assassinate all the people involved, talking thousands of people with heavy security and everyone else alerted when a random person kills one, should you even succeed with it one time... there's no quarantee it'll last even if you'd remove them from power one way or another, no quarantee that the new generations would be the wiser. That's why I dont pick up a gun unless they actually start shooting at people here.

My solution is, take control of your life to your own hands as much as possible, live a happy life, and screw their plots in your grassroot level. Dont bother voting if you have a law that states that if less than 50% of people vote there's an emergency government and so on, and propose a direct and more local form of democracy, or a shift towards that. Could use some initiative to make things that'd make it easier for people to work on their own, and it'd be nice if the officials wouldn't make it harder like in some cases, "your garden is illegal because it's on the wrong side of the house or doesn't look nice to mr. police officer"... what? I just feel that money ties people too much to certain occupations, ties them too much to work under certain people and that allows those certain people to dictate what you do. Not saying they wouldn't be useful things but a lot of those things could be done better (not money-wise but all other thing wise, like nature-friendly wise and ethic-wise, with more humane and more free working hours and conditions and so on). It's not easy because I dont think there's one and only solution to all that, but just generally encouraging people to work on their own too if they want to do that, wouldn't hurt.

[White Unicorn]

Conspiracy Theories are usually just entertainment value gone amuck from one thread of fact and someone making money. The bad thing is they can have very bad effects on innocent people and lead others further from the truth behind the matter. But it gets really weird if you find out a conspiracy you didn't believe turns out to be true. It makes you wonder about how many other ones could be partially true.

[Starseed hybrid 1111]

is this even a question???why gee i wonder why??? its one big mystery right people???

[Left-Field]

When you actually get around to reading the piece, you'll find that the dichotomy isn't between trust and distrust in authority, but between distrust in authority and the scientific approach of going by the evidence.

That may be, but the paragraph quoted by Lilly was all I was addressing regarding the response I gave to what she said.

And the reason I gave my initial response without reading the article is because I don't need an article trying to tell me why it is I believe in certain conspiracies.

I felt it would be more worthwhile to all participating in this thread to listen to the reasoning given by individuals as to why they believe what they believe rather than use some article to provide a skewed view into the minds of everyone that believes in any particular conspiracy theory.

[Left-Field]

I think that somewhere in between those who instinctively gravitate toward conspiracy theory belief and those who blindly follow whatever the mainstream media spits out are a group of people who look at ANY claim and evaluate it with regards to empiricism and what is actually the most likely explanation.

To me this seems like the most balanced approach. The main trick here though is deciding on what gets to pass as "evidence". This is where critical thinking skills really come into play. It is my opinion that people on EITHER extreme - the blind masses who accept and the woo woos on the other side that embrace and adopt every theory that comes down the pike - are lacking in the ability to think critically and evaluate evidence objectively.

Well said. And I agree with you wholeheartedly.

[shrooma]

I don't think the article addressed a good reason why some people love CT which is they want to feel they are aware of special knowledge. There is a certain mystique to thinking you know something all the rest of us "suckers" don't know, hence the name "sheeple" used to describe people who supposedly follow what they are told. I look at some of the more well know CT folks like Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura and the like, and for them it's given them an air of celebrity and in Venturas case a continued celebrity probably far past what he would have gotten as a former politician.

I've had a lot of discussions with people who believed in various CT and the one thing that I come back with is quite a few have the same attitude. I usually ask them the same question, if everything you say is true, lets assume that it is for a minute, how does that knowledge change anything? Say we didn't land on the moon and it's a giant lie, but most people believe it. Given that all the chest beating, all the fist pounding and attempting to show people it isn't true, it doesn't really do much to sway those who believe (one way or the other). It's sort of like a religion, it's mostly based on the faith that the "facts" either side are correct. I felt that way about 9/11 truthers whether I believed their ideas or not the outcome (3000+ dead) was still sadly the same.

I've had one guy who was into the whole Rothschild banking/Bilderberg/NWO CT'er nearly go mental on me because I asked him if it's all true what are you doing about that has any effect? I said even if you remove all your money from banks and just rely on cash, in the end it's only your money, the system is still in place, the same people hold power. He became livid like I was implying that we SHOULD do nothing which wasn't what I was asking. If bringing to light conspiracies brought them down or cracked them open I could see his point but railing against something and doing it in a way (Alex Jones Rant as an example) that makes you the person relaying that info look kinda nutty isn't going to change anything either. I have often listened to different shows on Coast to Coast in the old days where calm, rational ex military recounted personal UFO experiences for example, now that I'm more liable to put some belief into simply because the messenger so to speak did it in a way that seemed sane. That special knowledge that people want to hold and sometimes lord over people with is a real turn off. It smacks of "I see it and you can't, aren't you dumb" and I think it is what gives CT a bad reputation. I don't disbelieve every conspiracy theory but if someone refuses to hear the other side, returns with retorts like "you're asleep, you're sheeple" how serious are you supposed to take them?

.

thanks DML, you just saved me a helluva lot of typing!

:-)

[shrooma]

That may be, but the paragraph quoted by Lilly was all I was addressing regarding the response I gave to what she said.

And the reason I gave my initial response without reading the article is because I don't need an article trying to tell me why it is I believe in certain conspiracies.

I felt it would be more worthwhile to all participating in this thread to listen to the reasoning given by individuals as to why they believe what they believe rather than use some article to provide a skewed view into the minds of everyone that believes in any particular conspiracy theory.

.

a conspiracy theory article conspiracy?!

where does it end.....??

:-)

[shrooma]

I usually apply abe lincoln's razor when it comes to conspiracy theories-

'you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.'

(double-edged razor though it may be.....)

[Kludge808]

It's because they want you to believe it's all in your head. It's another form of mind control. As long as they can manipulate your thoughts one way or the other, they call the shots.

Yes, and those of us who work for the various disinformation agencies are quite good at what we do. Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, we own your minds and are slowly turning you into good little worker bees. We can be patient. We have all the time in the world. Literally.

Conspiracy Theory, is not the absence of proof but the proof of absence.

And isn't it ironic you can't prove a negative.

That's when you wake up and realize that you are a child of the illuminati.

They're only part of the overall structure, you know. The top of the power pyramid is the alien shadow government that which some call the New World Order. Only it isn't new but rather quite ancient. The only new part is that that aliens have come to assist by creating human-alien hybrids. Only we know who they are. They could be your friends, your neighbors, the checkout clerk at the supermarket ... they could be anyone and everyone. You really can't trust anyone ... including yourself.

[rustygh]

This entire article was put together simply so the author could label the disbelief that humans cause global warming a hoax. Then later brings up the known quack and BS artist al gore. Global warming is not a hoax yet they claim their poling to show 37 percent think it is. This isn't even a valid pole. What many people think a hoax of global warming is that we humans have caused it. That 37% is most likely the people who believe this warming would be happening with or without humans.

Notice the author also bangs away at the idea we should all leave less footprint. I pull the BS flag on this man made global warming agenda

This author can kiss my ass! This isn't about conspiracy theories at all.

[Frank Merton]

Well, now, there's an idea -- is man-caused global warming a conspiracy theory? I have a rule of thumb of going with the scientific community on these questions, so I think it is really happening and is scary. However, there are competent scientists who still have serious questions, and it is plain that the political left is trying and usually succeeding here with scare tactics that I find unsavory.

Let me say maybe we have to "conspiracies" here -- one that wants to exaggerated it and scare us to do what --?-- nationalize the oil industry and ban private automobiles? More likely just win elections but not with any real agenda to do anything.

Then there is another "conspiracy," to deny that anything is happening. This one of course is, to hear the left tell it, in the pocket of the big bad oil and chemical industries.

This all goes to show the sterility of this sort of approach to politics. The oil industry like to make money, and they have a significant capital investment, so they have a natural tendency to doubt that what they do causes harm, and climatologists are genuinely seeing signs of change that could cause harm -- especially rising sea levels. But instead of seeing it as conflicting interests that need to be sorted out by reasonable people for the best possible outcome, shrill voices shout conspiracy.

[shrooma]

global warming isn't ENTIRELY caused by man frank, but we're sure as hell contributing to it!

(but so do cows & sheep, and you don't hear many of them crying 'conspiracy!' on baaadmoos.com)

:-)

Edited May 6, 2013 by shrooma

[spartan max2]

Question: Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

Answer: Because humans lie

[Frank Merton]

Well cows and sheep that wouldn't be out there except for our taste for beef and mutton and our use of wool and leather.

The climate is such a complicated business that I wouldn't be the least surprised if maybe ten years from now it will turn out that they had it all wrong -- that all the signs and the increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses was real enough but that the planet has self-correcting mechanisms and thinks we should have an ice age so we will have one (I anthropomorphize mercilessly). What egg on faces that sort of thing would be.

Or it may happen that technology will save us. This natural gas technology seems headed that way, and I read a bit (which may have been hype but is the sort of thing one sees more and more often) that a CO2 neutral way of getting natural gas from industrial waste is spreading and could result in unending supplies with no net greenhouse gases at all.

Or we may go as we are going and have to expend billions moving populations and adjusting, but still work through it and do fine.

Or we may go extinct.

[shrooma]

Well cows and sheep that wouldn't be out there except for our taste for beef and mutton

.

not so strange when you think that the domestication of cattle coincided with our ability to brew beer frank, after all, we all love a donner kebab or a greasy burger when we're drunk.....

:-)

[seeder]

hehe Im enjoying this one. Anyone remember the April Fools Fairy? Some guy builds a model Fairy, sells it on-line on APRIL 1ST, and some still believe its real and being covered up?

quote:

"Magicians' prop maker Dan Baines, 31, from London, was flooded with e-mails on 1 April when he published pictures of his creation online".

He claimed a dog walker had found the tiny corpse at Firestone Hill in Duffield, Derbyshire. Mr Baines, formerly of Derby, later admitted it was a hoax, but sold the fairy on an internet site for £280. There are still a lot of people who believe it's real

An account on his website read: "The 8in remains, complete with wings, skin, teeth and flowing red hair, have been examined by anthropologists and forensic experts who can confirm the body is genuine."

Conspiracy theorists did not believe him when he admitted the convincing model was a hoax, he said.

He said: "There are still a lot of people who believe it's real. It's started quite a lot of conspiracy theories. One claims that the fact I revealed it was a hoax was because of government pressure to stop people digging the ground up."

Ct's believing in Fairies too eh? I dunno....I say get a proper hobby

edit to add source and full story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/6545667.stm

.

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Edited May 6, 2013 by seeder

[rustygh]

Shrooma that's what gets me. We do NOT have fact of this, you said "but we're sure as hell contributing to it!"

We have knowledge that the earth thrived with much more co2 then we have now and that both caps have ccompletely melted before. We do not know that man contributes to this "global warming" we don't even know its not the norm.

[shrooma]

Shrooma that's what gets me. We do NOT have fact of this, you said "but we're sure as hell contributing to it!"

.

so you're saying that mankind isn't CONTRIBUTING towards global warming??

that the millions of tons of gasses we're releasing into the atmosphere are HAVING NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER?!

I know this is a conspiracy theory page rusty, but come on?

seriously??

[seeder]

Well cows and sheep that wouldn't be out there except for our taste for beef and mutton and our use of wool and leather.

The climate is such a complicated business that I wouldn't be the least surprised if maybe ten years from now it will turn out that they had it all wrong -- that all the signs and the increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses was real enough but that the planet has self-correcting mechanisms and thinks we should have an ice age so we will have one (I anthropomorphize mercilessly). What egg on faces that sort of thing would be.

Or it may happen that technology will save us. This natural gas technology seems headed that way, and I read a bit (which may have been hype but is the sort of thing one sees more and more often) that a CO2 neutral way of getting natural gas from industrial waste is spreading and could result in unending supplies with no net greenhouse gases at all.

Or we may go as we are going and have to expend billions moving populations and adjusting, but still work through it and do fine.

Or we may go extinct.

Whether or not one believes Global Warming is real or a conspiracy or whatever, one things for sure, the seas are changing due to all the emissions - and my view is, we really dont want to poision our waters and mess with ANY parts of the foodchain:

some snippets from the following article

"Climate change is affecting the Arctic Ocean in ways that may deal a severe blow to marine life and people. The world’s oceans are becoming more acid, says a new report from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme"

As a result, marine ecosystems in the Arctic are “very likely to experience significant changes due to ocean acidification,” states the AMAP report, being discussed at a conference in Bergen, Norway April 6 to April 8.

Over the past 200 years, the average acidity of the surface of the world’s oceans has increased by about 30 per cent, scientists involved in the report said.

Ocean acidification occurs because some of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels dissolves in the ocean. There, carbon dioxide reacts with water to produce an acid, called carbonic acid, which causes the oceans to become more acidic.

Scientists have already determined that the surface waters of Arctic Ocean are corrosively acidic during the ice-free season

The problem? This acid eats away at the shells of clam and other tiny marine life. Increased acidity is already affecting the size and weight of shells and skeletons of urchins, sea snails and other sea creatures.

As seawater becomes more corrosive, the impact will ripple through the food chain, making it hard for fish to find food or for whales to navigate by sound.

The AMAP report says that since the marine food chain in the Arctic is relatively simple, these marine ecosystems are vulnerable to changes when external factors affect key species.

So everything, from plankton to fish, is at risk of being affected by ocean acidification directly or indirectly, its authors say.

At the same time, Arctic marine organisms are also experiencing “other large, simultaneous changes,” including climate change, harvesting, habitat degradation and pollution.

“When marine ecosystems are affected, this will also have implications for humans,” scientists say.

http://www.nunatsiaq...ion_new_report/

So conspiracies aside, some things are measurable

.

Edited May 6, 2013 by seeder

[rustygh]

You're assuming that global warming is a thing. That this, what we see now isn't normal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtevF4B4RtQ

[shrooma]

NNNOOOOO!!

my member title is now 'conspiracy theorist'!

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!

*sound of uncontrollable sobbing*

:-(

[seeder]

NNNOOOOO!!

my member title is now 'conspiracy theorist'!

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!

*sound of uncontrollable sobbing*

:-(

Now thats a conspiracy indeed, the secret govt army silencers have got it in for you, and they always begin with denting your credibility!!

[Frank Merton]

Whether what is going on now is "normal" or not is moot; if we are inconvienced or harmed or even rendered extinct, it can be as normal as blueberry pie and we still won't like it one bit.