The science of conspiracy - an open discussion

There are several layers, of course.

When in-groups harbor agendas inimical to the welfare of the majority, they will conceal their methodology and goals. Happens all the time.

When a post-Enlightenment population has been stripped of an extra-human higher authority that governs and regulates their world, the onus on the individual to order their own world-view as well as the stress produced by the resultant uncertainty leads a subset to look to CT's for the next best thing to God: the Illuminati, the ET's, the lizards. Looking around at some of the difficulties we face as a species will lend itself to a negative interpretation of those perceived to "run the show".

And finally, feeling like one is in on a secret confers a sense of false empowerment.

We get looped when we consider the idea that those who are involved in actual conspiracies employ the fairy tales as cover, or to take the wind out of the sails of those who might stand a chance of altering the status quo. Why take measures to change your world when you have been convinced that you are powerless? Better to sit back and rant on the internet, all the while supporting the same systems that have you confounded, feeding the Beast with an unexamined complicity that proceeds from every aspect of the 1st World lifestyle.

reply to post by Eidolon23

Nicely analysed. I'd like to focus on this statement.

Why take measures to change your world when you have been convinced that you are powerless?

From what I have seen, people who believe in conspiracy theories are very often people who have experienced loss of control over their own lives, who have wandered off the track they thought they were following, or come to a dead end.

I've watched two people dear to me turn into conspiracy theorists since the rise of the internet. One was a close friend, now estranged. The other is one of my brothers; it is only due to my refusal to discuss conspiratorial matters with him or respond to his provocations that we have maintained reasonably good relations.

Both my friend and my brother are people who had high hopes of making a fortune by 'beating the system'. My friend got himself into debt repeatedly until no-one would lend him any more money. He did this in three different countries and fled two of them a few steps ahead of his creditors. The third country is our own, where his credit is no longer good with anyone. However, he married an older woman with some property and obtained a small income that way. In return he is now, after about ten years of marriage, a full-time nurse to a querulous invalid. His own health is not good (he had a bypass some years ago) and he has become a dissilusioned, bitter man — and a conspiracy theorist. He believes in financial conspiracies, of world elites and evil central bankers and how the whole business of creating money through lending at interest is a scam. An appropriate obsession, you may say, for someone who could never manage his own finances and spent most of his adult life in debt.

My brother used to be a criminal; a drug smuggler and dealer in various parts of the world. Eventually that work became too dangerous; he became an addict himself, and spent some years in gaol. He went straight about 15 years ago and kicked his habit a few years after, but it was too late; by then he was already in his thirties, with no education (he dropped out of school at sixteen and ran away to Australia) and none of the skills you need to be employable. After working for a few years at entry-level jobs and failing at various entrepreneurial schemes he is now in his late forties and unable to properly support himself and his family. He suffers from depression. And he believes in conspiracy theories. All kinds of conspiracy theories, from financial ones to wish-fulfilling New Age fantasies.

One thing both these guys had in common is that they were streetwise. I admired them for it. They had no formal education, either of them, but seemed to know more about the world than I ever did. That was what I thought. But in the end it didn't serve them well.

I have to stop now. I'll be back later with more.

reply to post by Astyanax


Yeah, that sounds about right.

How much of the CT fan base consists of a segment of the chronically disenfranchised who've lopped their feet off through half-baked hustles, only to project their own vices onto the control system they unsuccessfully attempted to game?

And who is to say they aren't on the money in some instances?

Fail game still stands a better chance than the non-players of recognizing game.

Most conspiracy theories are partly real. A quarter of them are all real but most people will deny them because it interferes with their beliefs or their way of life. Some people do not like to acknowledge the truth because others do not accept it.

Many conspiracy theories are because people misinterpret the evidence and many denials of these theories are based on our current knowledge and consensus of the time. A lot of evidence is misapplied. But that is the way it is and I really don't care anyway...You can't fight city hall.

This is a GENERAL question/observation about human psychology - and I admit, I don't have the answer...more often than not I am just speechless what SOME people seriously write or believe in.

There are factors at play such as ignorance, wanting to compensate for fears (9/11 for example)...and I would even go so far that it must involve some psychological "condition" which makes people think "wrong" or that they are wired "differently"...something is off with their ways of thinking.

This is the only conclusion when I look at theories like chemtrails or similar which already AT THEIR BASE lack any logic....I simply cannot mentally/intellectually follow how people can ignore "common sense" and spin theories which just don't make any sense, whatsoever.

Anyway, I said general observation about HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY....and its scary, bizarre depths and my entire inability to even GRASP it. See: Politics , Religion

Let me pick an example:

Someone who is openly very "against Obama" just posted a thread about Obamacare where he stated how the Ocare website didn't receive many hits. So he used this information to bolster his opinion how Obamacare sucks since obviously no-one was interested to even go on the site(s).

Someone came in and told him there were glitches with the sites, that indeed MILLIONS tried to go on the sites but the sites crashed due to the massive demand.

In the next post, the same person changed his mind and "sort of" agreeing that there was maybe indeed a large nr. of people on the sites (in contrast to what he said initially).... HOWEVER that the traffic to the sites was "faked" and probably caused with the intention TO MAKE IT SEEM as if Obamacare has a high popularity.

Do you know what I mean?

Some people are wired differently, they form realities and are unable to see "reality", or what they see is always interpreted in a way so it fits their view, EVEN when the observed things are showing something entirely differently or go against any logic.

I have no explanation for that because I think that NOT ALL people who believe in conspiracies are a) stupid or b) uneducated.

Yesterday I read a relatively lengthy essay of a former BC judge (!) about how gravity is created by the "ether which is absorbed by atoms". That man is certainly not stupid, nor uneducated.

So..there is SOME psychological/physical factor at play....but I don't know what exactly it is.

reply to post by Eidolon23

How much of the CT fan base consists of a segment of the chronically disenfranchised who've lopped their feet off through half-baked hustles, only to project their own vices onto the control system they unsuccessfully attempted to game?

I think they account for quite a number, but the examples I gave were of people who once really thought they were getting somewhere. I suspect there are many others who never even tried. For poor people the real world is a kind of conspiracy against them anyway; many are trapped by a cycle of debt and a lack of viable choices.

The world is not a kind place. Human beings are competitive, dangerous animals. Losers feel hard done by, and blame the winners. But this isn't a conspiracy; just the law of the jungle. We modify it as best we can by superimposing our own laws, but there's only so much we can do without making matters worse. You can't penalise winners for winning without turning them into losers. That's what Communism and Socialism amount to, in theory at least — turning losers into winners and winners into losers. Revolutions are sometimes needed, but they rarely end up equalising outcomes; at best, they simply upend the social pyramid for a short while. Never forget (see my signature) it was the French Revolution that spawned Napoleon, the self-crowned emperor.

Fail game still stands a better chance than the non-players of recognizing game.

You might have phrased that a bit more clearly. There are no non-players. There are only varying degrees of involvement, and different stakes played for.

I like your screen name, by the way. I'm curious as to why you chose it; u2u me if you're willing to part with the secret.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

So..there is SOME psychological/physical factor at play....but I don't know what exactly it is.

• If the real explanation for something is ambiguous and hard to understand, the temptation to grasp for a simpler (though incorrect) explanation may be very strong — especially if you think you're cleverer than you really are.
  
  
• If you have given the world what you think is your best shot and still failed, it may be more comforting to blame a conspiracy of others for your failure.
  
  
• And as the OP says, it's gratifying to feel oneself in possession of a secret others do not know.

It may be as simple as that, although it could be that some brains are more predisposed to confabulation and false belief than others. But in the end, you know, all brains are; self-deception is an essential property for intelligent beings who live with the horrific knowledge that they must, inevitably, suffer misfortune, accident, illness, disease and death.

Astyanax

I like your screen name, by the way. I'm curious as to why you chose it; u2u me if you're willing to part with the secret.

Done and done.