Why Conspiracy Theorists are so prevalent.

[Gnome Chompsky]

Actually Cde. Ferentes - a former urbanite respected by all around here - was a bloke.

Apologies. Pity he's no longer around

 

[Idris2002]

Apologies. Pity he's no longer around

Just ask butchersapron - who was one of DF's biggest fans - to fill you in on the Ferentes glory days.

 

[A380]

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To answer the original question

A big part of the reason is that some people don’t want to believe the world is really just a collection of random events, and that the people nominally ‘in control’ don’t really know what they are doing either.

It would be comforting to believe that there is a group of people (or lizards) who know what they are doing and who’s plans unfold effortlessly; rather than just a bunch of incompetent buffoons just like the rest of us.

 

[Dillinger4]

I think that is a very simplistic interpretation of the paranoid mind. If it was comforting they wouldn't be so agitated.

 

[butchersapron]

It's not a collection of random events, a large part of it is the result of choices being deliberately made with the likely outcomes known in advance.

 

[mojo pixy]

The popular vogue for empiricism and materialism is the most acute symptom of the difficulty in critical thinking under modern conditions.

I disagree.

The current vogue for posting endless rambling YouTube monologues and / or footage-collages with commentary is the most acute symptom of the difficulty in critical thinking under modern conditions.

Additionally, most of the people I know who promote various conspiracies to me seem to have very little respect for empiricism. I'd even call it contempt, at times.

More than once I've been told "open your mind" and "use your imagination!" when i've been doubting the veracity of claims made in some video or other.

 

[CNT36]

It's not a collection of random events, a large part of it is the result of choices being deliberately made with the likely outcomes known in advance.

I responded to a quote a lot like A380's above on Facebook a while back with something similar to this. First I got abuse from conspiracy theorists for listening to left gatekeepers then lectured at length by self declared 'logical positivists' for being a conspiracy theorist. Its the old problem of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The world is out of control and any suggestion that there are powerful people, institutions or class interests that have an influence over world events is viewed by some as the same as a conspiracy theory.

 

[Dillinger4]

'logical positivists' are the real idiots. smug ones as well.

 

[Idris2002]

Umberto Eco has a quote somewhere about people who want to have a life like something out of a horror comic.

 

[Idris2002]

I responded to a quote a lot like A380's above on Facebook a while back with something similar to this. First I got abuse from conspiracy theorists for listening to left gatekeepers then lectured at length by self declared 'logical positivists' for being a conspiracy theorist. Its the old problem of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The world is out of control and any suggestion that there are powerful people, institutions or class interests that have an influence over world events is viewed by some as the same as a conspiracy theory.

I just say to people that I don't believe in conspiracy theories because they're too optimistic.

 

[butchersapron]

I just say to people that I don't believe in conspiracy theories because they're too optimistic.

Always ask a pessimist what it was they were hoping for.

 

[CNT36]

I just say to people that I don't believe in conspiracy theories because they're too optimistic.

I guess aswell they're simple to fight. There's a cabal somewhere running things and without them the dupes and stooges would fall apart. It may not be easy but identify these people then expose and get rid of them and everything will be fine. It could be done on a Thursday afternoon until the time comes all daunting.to do is share youtube videos. Contrast that with making any sort of change in the real world which to any individual is daunting.

 

[Idris2002]

I guess aswell they're simple to fight. There's a cabal somewhere running things and without them the dupes and stooges would fall apart. It may not be easy but identify these people then expose and get rid of them and everything will be fine. It could be done on a Thursday afternoon until the time comes all daunting.to do is share youtube videos. Contrast that with making any sort of change in the real world which to any individual is daunting.

And that's exactly what I mean by "too optimistic".

 

[Tankus]

I gave up worrying about conspiracies , when a person like Gordon Brown got made prime minister....
The reality has got far more weird than anything that the lizards have come up with....or maybe they did ?

Fukit

 

[Idris2002]

Always ask a pessimist what it was they were hoping for.

Unless it's LLETSA, obviously, who is beyond hope.

 

[butchersapron]

In that case it's ask him what he wasn't hoping for.

 

[Idris2002]

In that case it's ask him what he wasn't hoping for.

Or just ask him about the pain in the diodes all down his left side.

 

[phildwyer]

'logical positivists' are the real idiots. smug ones as well.

I don't think there are many of them still about.

 

[Dillinger4]

I don't think there are many of them still about.

Used in reference to the post above it. I agree with your post about the vogue for empiricism

 

[Poo Flakes]

The current vogue for posting endless rambling YouTube monologues and / or footage-collages with commentary is the most acute symptom of the difficulty in critical thinking under modern conditions.

Additionally, most of the people I know who promote various conspiracies to me seem to have very little respect for empiricism. I'd even call it contempt, at times.

So it is indiviauls' fault for speculating? The problem is not that powerful governments,companies and individuals are never transparent with anything that is remotely important? Presumably all this is justified in order to uphold my freedoms.

I do find it interesting that, in Britain, the amount of evidence I would need to implicate a foreign government in some horrible atrocity (e.g. the Russian apartment bombings) is far less than I would need to implicate an english-speaking one for another horrible atrocity (e.g. the Basra prison incident).

 

[Kid_Eternity]

An interesting article on the increasing prevalence of conspiracy theorists:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...-faked-why-people-believe-conspiracy-theories

Good article, this closer really nails it for me:

Since a number of studies have shown that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with feelings of powerlessness, uncertainty and a general lack of agency and control, a likely purpose of this bias is to help people “make sense of the world” by providing simple explanations for complex societal events — restoring a sense of control and predictability.

Couple that with the evolutionary fact that we're hard wired to impose meaning or see patterns in seemingly random events and you can see the power this bullshit has over some people. It's far more comforting to think there's a directed course to events, often mostly horrifying ones, than all this crap happens out of sheer greedy, idiocy or simple randomness...a world of chaos and uncertainty is harder to cope with for some people than one that is really bad but happening for a reason.

 

[yield]

Umberto Eco has a quote somewhere about people who want to have a life like something out of a horror comic.

Was it? Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio. Things were better when they were worse.

 

[Casually Red]

Those things are at least scientifically possible, unlike many of the CT claims. Do you really believe it is just as daft to believe that Saddam might have had WMDs as it is to believe that there is a secret cabal of Jews (many pretending not to be Jews) who are clandestinely controlling the world? The former requires some ignorance about the world, and human psychology, the latter requires all that twohundred fold. The former can be rationally based (using false inputs), the latter cant be.

You're basically saying that there is no difference between CTs and the mainstream media, but there is. The two are not flip sides of the same coin, they are not thesis and antithesis. Which isnt to say the MSM is 'right,' but its usually wrong in a very different way.

i can distinctly remember in the immediate aftermath of 9 11 watching the mainstream media report claims by senior US officials that a passport belonging to one of the alleged hijackers had been recovered by investigators from the still smouldering rubble .
It was a scientific impossibility to the nth degree, yet the MSM relayed the absurd government claims without so much as a raised eyebrow .

 

[8ball]

i can distinctly remember in the immediate aftermath of 9 11 watching the mainstream media report claims by senior US officials that a passport belonging to one of the alleged hijackers had been recovered by investigators from the still smouldering rubble .
It was a scientific impossibility to the nth degree, yet the MSM relayed the absurd government claims without so much as a raised eyebrow .

Ok, I'll bite.

Why would that be a scientific impossiblity?

 

[Casually Red]

because it would have been burned. The plane went on fire and saudi arabia doesnt issue asbestos passports

 

[8ball]

because it would have been burned. The plane went on fire and saudi arabia doesnt issue asbestos passports

The planes hit at high speed with a lot of force. Maybe a more remote possibility for a passport, being on the person of one of the bombers, but I think either way we're just dealing with speculation as to whether a passport might survive relatively intact. Unless you know different and some credible body has concluded that such a thing would not have been possible.

 

[Poo Flakes]

i can distinctly remember in the immediate aftermath of 9 11 watching the mainstream media report claims by senior US officials that a passport belonging to one of the alleged hijackers had been recovered by investigators from the still smouldering rubble .
It was a scientific impossibility to the nth degree, yet the MSM relayed the absurd government claims without so much as a raised eyebrow .

That reminds of the case of those two muslim students whose house was raided, one was shot. After it was pretty apparent they were not terrorists the police appeared to start breifing the press as unnamed sources. At one point the students were accused of peadophilia in the national press. Heather Brooke has written/talked about this kind of thing quite often.

 

[Idris2002]

That reminds of the case of those two muslim students whose house was raided, one was shot. After it was pretty apparent they were not terrorists the police appeared to start breifing the press as unnamed sources. At one point the students were accused of peadophilia in the national press. Heather Brooke has written/talked about this kind of thing quite often.

Then there was the claim that Jean Charles Menendez was a rapist - a claim that proved to have no evidential basis whatsoever.

I remember the passport thing as well. It's not impossible, though, that in the heat of the moment wrong information got passed around.

 

[laptop]

I'll bite too, since I'm leaving the country and avoiding the fallout.

because it would have been burned. The plane went on fire and saudi arabia doesnt issue asbestos passports

The plane caught fire after the front end - containing the hijacker and the passport - was scattered far and wide on impact with the tower.

Maybe only a second or two after - but enough time to throw lots of stuff clear.

So yours is just another example of the "I cannot imagine how..." argument; to which the answer is always "imagine harder".

 

[Poo Flakes]

So yours is just another example of the "I cannot imagine how..." argument; to which the answer is always "imagine harder".

And yours is what? Some guy told a journalist in a pub that they found a passport in the Trade Centre. There is probably a remote possibility this could be true thus only David Icke would challenge it?

It's not impossible, though, that in the heat of the moment wrong information got passed around.

A good journalist should corroborate their story and not publish gossip. If they do not, there is a perfectly legitimate question as to whether they are participating in a deliberate misinformation campaign or if they are just incompetent (admittedly, I generally assume incompetence).