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Conspiracy theories that target specific research can have serious consequences for public health and environmental policies
Conspiracy theorists—some of them scientifically trained—have claimed
that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS,
that global warming is a manipulative hoax
and that vaccines and genetically modified foods are unsafe.
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These claims have already caused serious consequences: misguided public health policies, resistance to energy conservation and alternative energy, and dropping vaccination rates.
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Social scientists have forfeited much of their potential influence because they are too often perceived as advocates for a cause rather than as objective researchers.
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"Conspiracy theories are dangerous when the meme is used to discredit scientific evidence in a public forum or in a legal proceeding."
A WOMAN has walked free from court after deliberately infecting her baby with HIV because she thought it was HARMLESS.
Originally posted by rogerstigers
Um, who are you quoting in these quotes?
For the record, I think conspiracy theories are perfectly normal and essential to human spiritual and psychological development on a species level. If we just accepted everything we were told without question, we would be at an evolutionary dead end.
that global warming is a manipulative hoax and that vaccines and genetically modified foods are unsafe.
Originally posted by zroth
100 calories of crap is worse than 100 calories of sun-infused organics. Why is this a conspiracy? Clean fuel is a corporate marketed product, why not think the same way about your body?
Here is the bottom line. If it makes you healthy it is bad for business.
Originally posted by beebs
Awaiting his response.
To understand this success, it is useful to think of conspiracy theorizing as a ‘meme’, a cultural invention that passes from one mind to another and survives, or dies out, through natural selection (Dawkins, 1976). As rhetorical devices, conspiracy theories compete with memes such as ‘fair debate’, ‘scientific expertise’ and ‘resistance to orthodoxy’.
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Conspiracy theories appeal to people who are discontented with the established institutions of their society and especially with elites in that society. They are likely to believe that conditions are worsening for people like themselves and that the authorities do not care about them. A conspiracy theory gives believers someone tangible to blame for their perceived predicament, instead of blaming it on impersonal or abstract social forces. The meme becomes a habit of thought: the more people believe in one conspiracy, the more likely they are to believe in others.
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The logic of the conspiracy meme is to question everything the ‘establishment’—be it government or scientists—says or does, even on the most hypothetical and speculative grounds, and to demand immediate, comprehensive and definitive answers to all questions. A failure to give convincing answers is then used as proof of conspiratorial deception.
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Other conspiracy theories include claims that a major drug company hid reports that its leading anti-inflammatory drug caused heart attacks and strokes (Specter, 2009); environmental scientists have conspired to keep refereed journals from publishing papers by researchers sceptical that global warming is a crisis (Hayward, 2009; Revkin, 2009); physicians or drug companies have conspired to suppress non-mainstream medical treatments, vitamins and health foods; and that big business and the medical establishment have conspired to obstruct the search for a cure for AIDS so they can continue to sell their ineffective drugs and treatments (Nussbaum, 1990).
Many of these theories are clearly absurd...
Originally posted by darkelf
While medicine has its place, I find it difficult to believe that everyone on medicine actually needs it. I take diabetes medicine to control my insulin. I take a calcium supplement for my bone health. Both were prescribed by my doctor. But I have to wonder if I and others would need all of this if our air, water and food were not saturated with crap we don't need.
Originally posted by zroth
Public health issues are caused by the lies westerners are told. The food pyramid and education specific to diet are funded mostly by the dairy farmers of old and multi-nationals of today. There is no scientific proof that man needs to eat animal products. You can get amino acids from any number of sources to build proteins. You get protein from dark greens. Nutrients are richer in most plants than any animal product. It takes more energy to break down animal flesh than natural fruits, nuts and veggies.
100 calories of crap is worse than 100 calories of sun-infused organics. Why is this a conspiracy? Clean fuel is a corporate marketed product, why not think the same way about your body?