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What is the appeal of conspiracy theories?
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:27 pm
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:27 pm
I work as a contractor with one of the major projects I work on being for NASA with work on the ISS and SLS. After seeing only a fraction of the immense mountain of research and work that has gone into each mechanism of the ISS and working out of one of the old Sat 1 test stands for a while, I am floored when I hear people think things like the moon landing never happened or even more extreme, that the earth is flat.
It doesn't strike me as a coincidence that people that buy into one conspiracy appear to me more likely to believe in others (i.e. Someone that thinks the moon landing was faked would be more likely to think 9/11 was an inside job in my experience), but I don't understand the draw towards thinking the entire world is being lied to.
It doesn't strike me as a coincidence that people that buy into one conspiracy appear to me more likely to believe in others (i.e. Someone that thinks the moon landing was faked would be more likely to think 9/11 was an inside job in my experience), but I don't understand the draw towards thinking the entire world is being lied to.
This post was edited on 11/15/17 at 5:29 pm
24
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:29 pm to Ross
Do you believe the government is 100% honest about everything?
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:30 pm to Ross
Sheep
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:31 pm to Ross
You can believe anything you want and require no proof. That's the appeal
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:31 pm to Ross
People like thinking that they know stuff that they’re not supposed to know.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:32 pm to Brosef Stalin
probably not but the ISS is literally something you can see in the night sky and stream footage from and research from a variety of scientific avenues takes place on it, and you will see people deny that space flight is even possible.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:32 pm to Ross
I think I heard somewhere that psychologically it helps provide comfort of a sort that horrible things don't just happen randomly. That it helps rationalize how things happen so that it's not so overwhelming to think that anything can just turn horrible at a whim.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:32 pm to Ross
It's kind of like religion. A lot of people simply can't handle the fact that sometimes terrible things just happen to good people. So they make up some bullshite to explain it
ETA: this is mostly in reference to conspiracy theories like those surrounding Sandy Hook and the like
ETA: this is mostly in reference to conspiracy theories like those surrounding Sandy Hook and the like
This post was edited on 11/15/17 at 5:34 pm
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:33 pm to Ross
do you even coast to coast am brah
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:34 pm to Ross
The reason they prosper, is simplicity.
A ready made explanation that assigns malice to a cadre or group or business or government is more readily acceptable to a primate brain, than the totality of tens of trillions of events occurring in a specific grouping of random chance mixed with directed intent. Likewise, they hate to be reminded that systems that are supposed to reassure them are not fail-safe.
It is incredibly more comfortable to the typical mind to think that 9/11 was planned by the US government intervening to stop the dissemination of intelligence that could have blocked it, than to understand that human error, the inability to correlate disparate bits of information spread widely over different groups in a timely fashion, and the ill intent of a group of highly motivated individuals combined to create a stew where the responsible hijackers took control because the existing security systems simply failed.
Its why conspiracy theories will exist as long as mankind exists; a state of denial is a natural, and perpetual condition of man.
A ready made explanation that assigns malice to a cadre or group or business or government is more readily acceptable to a primate brain, than the totality of tens of trillions of events occurring in a specific grouping of random chance mixed with directed intent. Likewise, they hate to be reminded that systems that are supposed to reassure them are not fail-safe.
It is incredibly more comfortable to the typical mind to think that 9/11 was planned by the US government intervening to stop the dissemination of intelligence that could have blocked it, than to understand that human error, the inability to correlate disparate bits of information spread widely over different groups in a timely fashion, and the ill intent of a group of highly motivated individuals combined to create a stew where the responsible hijackers took control because the existing security systems simply failed.
Its why conspiracy theories will exist as long as mankind exists; a state of denial is a natural, and perpetual condition of man.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:34 pm to Ross
secret knowledge
being part of a new group ID
using both to reinforce a belief in superior intelligence/creativity
and they're just fun as frick, esp if you get lucky and get one correct
being part of a new group ID
using both to reinforce a belief in superior intelligence/creativity
and they're just fun as frick, esp if you get lucky and get one correct
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:38 pm to Ross
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:38 pm to Ross
People take comfort in the idea that humans can control anything.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:40 pm to Ross
Some people are truly paranoid
Some people are simply contrarians
Some people think it makes them the smartest person in the room
Some people have actually grasped a thread
There is no question we live in a subtle form of the Matrix but you can bet that if it is as deep as some would have you think then the juicy theories are being fed to us by Mr. Smith.
Some people are simply contrarians
Some people think it makes them the smartest person in the room
Some people have actually grasped a thread
There is no question we live in a subtle form of the Matrix but you can bet that if it is as deep as some would have you think then the juicy theories are being fed to us by Mr. Smith.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 5:55 pm to Ross
fake stories made up by the tin foil industry
Posted on 11/15/17 at 6:00 pm to BoardReader
quote:
The reason they prosper, is simplicity.
A ready made explanation that assigns malice to a cadre or group or business or government is more readily acceptable to a primate brain, than the totality of tens of trillions of events occurring in a specific grouping of random chance mixed with directed intent. Likewise, they hate to be reminded that systems that are supposed to reassure them are not fail-safe.
It is incredibly more comfortable to the typical mind to think that 9/11 was planned by the US government intervening to stop the dissemination of intelligence that could have blocked it, than to understand that human error, the inability to correlate disparate bits of information spread widely over different groups in a timely fashion, and the ill intent of a group of highly motivated individuals combined to create a stew where the responsible hijackers took control because the existing security systems simply failed.
Its why conspiracy theories will exist as long as mankind exists; a state of denial is a natural, and perpetual condition of man.
Wow. Lots of words up there. You seem to be saying, in a very uneccessarily complicated way, that it’s “incredibly more comforting” to believe that the government will kill thousands of its own citizens and create an elaborate coverup than to believe it’s the work of rogue band from a fringe group with a plan that won’t likely be repeated. My atypical brain disagrees.
This post was edited on 11/15/17 at 6:06 pm
Posted on 11/15/17 at 6:01 pm to Ross
If we had an honest government, the number of people who believe conspiracy theories would be a fraction of what they are. But we have a government that is secretive to a frightening degree. I mean James Clapper lies to Congress about the world's largest surveillance apparatus and the government wants to imprison Edward Snowden, the very whistleblower who proved we were being lied to. When your government cannot be trusted, you begin to believe the worst about them.
Posted on 11/15/17 at 6:03 pm to Diary Queen
quote:
Truth is not a conspiracy.
Most conspiracy theories have an overarching theory involving some elite group like the illuminati
Posted on 11/15/17 at 6:11 pm to Ross
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