Are conspiracy theories destroying democracy?

Conspiracy theories are the symptom, not the cause of a crumbling democracy in my opinion. Grumblings of discontent and distrust in the form of openly questioning the system, which is increasingly perceived as corrupted and broken by growing numbers of citizens. What the theories are about are hardly as important as the fact that they are directed at the structures of power and control, and are gaining wider acceptance among the populace.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss


I don't think so. Conspiracy theories have existed as long as people thought about anything.

There is no truly democratic society, there will always be an anarchy mentality. The human is strange.

Children are also conspiracy theorists, why do you think they come up with strange reasons for explaining their world? There are monsters under the bed and in the closet, and just because mom and dad don't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist to the child.

Aren't the majority of US politics based on conspiracy?

It's all about categorising your opponents actions to be of false intent and wrong doing. Misspending, inappropriate, alleged etc ... What you are turning the country into, what you're trying or not trying to do. It's funny how when a politician conspires it's an allegedly high brow topic but when the government as a whole conspires it's tin foil hat and fluoride time.

WarminIndy
reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

 

I don't think so. Conspiracy theories have existed as long as people thought about anything.

There is no truly democratic society, there will always be an anarchy mentality. The human is strange.

Children are also conspiracy theorists, why do you think they come up with strange reasons for explaining their world? There are monsters under the bed and in the closet, and just because mom and dad don't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist to the child.

Very well said. Much like children, governments from the despotic to the democratic are also conspiracy theorists that come up with strange reasons to explain their world, and even stranger reasons to support their agendas. There are monsters under the bed and in the closet, and just because the citizenry didn't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist to the government.

Conspiracy theorists take a lot of credit when they get something right (which is pretty rare) and explain away the dozens of unproven and outlandish theories by reference to the power of the agency that apparently perpetrates them - "of course no proof exists for the 9/11 inside job - all the whistleblowers have been silenced". Yet the conspirators are apparently unable to silence Snowden, or the Daily Telegraph.

Have a look at the proven scandals of the last few years and think back to what CTers had to say about them before they broke.

Banking crisis - I can't recall a cogent conspiracy theory that anticipated it, or that explained how it came about. The crisis ironically showed that the problem with banks was that they didn't conspire enough

Wikileaks - nothing in them for CTers, so much so that Assange often routinely described as a shill

In the UK, politicians expenses - not anticipated in any form. Broken by a major national paper

Snowden - Again, the character of the surveillance that he's revealed doesn't really support a CT view of the world. And again, not a strong CT trope before revelation

Here is a conspiracy theory that I haven't heard before, but I'm a firm believer in "nothing new under the sun" so it might well have been discussed already on ATS.

I find it extremely suspicious that no international task force has been formed to clean up the mess at Fukushima and when the obvious, forming such a task force, is not done, it begs the question "why?"

Can it be that people who are planning an atomic war on this planet would prefer to let Fukushima fester so that it might be studied?

Perhaps certain interests would also like to see Japan's status as an industrial power reduced and the overall strength of the country sapped and are willing to risk the potential hazards to the planet as a whole to see those aims achieved.

In both cases, "the greater good of the greater number" would not seem to be a factor in determining the international response to the problem in question.

This kind of conspiracy thinking could well undermine confidence in governments around the world and cause people to think, "What the hell are they up to?"

stumason

Klassified
I hope so. Democracy is a horrid form of governance. Glad I don't live in a democracy. Although government and media have done a damn fine job of convincing everyone we do.

If you're alluding to the fact the US is a republic, it is still a democracy. I am still totally baffled why this is such a difficult concept for some Yanks to understand. Being a Republic does not preclude being a Democracy.

But a democratic republic is not a democracy. By that I mean there are many things that are protected from a majority vote such as those things included in the bill of rights.

rickymouse


Even the fresh orance juice scam was unreal. Now long forgotten and some people think that it was probably fixed because of all the exposure. I doubt if any changes were made at all except to closely watch the employees of the companies so they don't blab. People assume that things that are wrong get fixed, there is just a diversion usually to draw our attention away and people forget and when someone says something they say that is old news. They don't realize that it was never fixed. That has been that way for a long time and the policy has not changed yet.

When 'lite beer" first came out it was widely held that the stuff was simply watered down beer. Most of the talk about this happened wherever the beer was being served and didn't go past a few comments. None the less most beer drinkers felt this way and that there was a conspiracy to rip them off and bamboozled the beer drinking public with advertising about health and weight concerns.

In the end it was true. Light beer got outed for being simply more water in an effort to make more money with less of a product. One guy here in town that worked for a national brand in the vat area, a mixer, let the cat officially out of the bag and was fired with loss of benefits. He fought in court but the court backed the company, which is another thing that happens, stating that the guy was bound somehow to not disclose the "recipe".

The point is, what beer drinkers at large held as being a conspiracy ended up being one. That being that the large beer makers were trying to direct beer enthusiasts to light beer for profit reasons not health reasons.

reply to post by Logarock


People forgot about it and it is business as usual for the breweries. They sell more beer now and make more profit.

It's like the complaints of kids getting sick from eating laundry soap. The governments response was to put a super bitter and highly toxic chemical in the soap so that if a kid did eat the soap it would spit it out or die. That chemical is very strong, a little laundry soap became toxic. There must have been a safer way to deter kids from eating the soap but I suppose we challenged the system and those on top slammed us. That is life, make sure the kids don't eat the laundry detergent and if your wife is pissed at you, don't eat or drink anything that smells or tastes like soap. Also do not use laundry detergent to wash dishes.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

I think majority of "conspiracy theories" are not theories but facts the main stream media likes to call theories to downplay and ridicule anyone who seeks after the truth.

The BBC article is nothing more than propaganda used to influence minds before governments start pushing for laws to restrict/ban these conspiracy "theories," which more often than not have turned out to be conspiracy facts.

We've seen this in the United States with the criminal Feinstein pushing for laws to subvert Constitutional protections for "unapproved" (read: alternative, read: not state-controlled) journalists.

Now, sadly, the UK appears to be hopping on the anti-truth bandwagon.

Because, you know, if alternative journalists keep exposing government lies and corruption, the solution OBVIOUSLY isn't to stop lying and stop being corrupt. The natural answer is to just demonize the journalists who're actually interested in truth. (This public service announcement has been brought to you by the Saul Alinsky Institute).

ArchAngel_X
Conspiracy theories are the symptom, not the cause of a crumbling democracy in my opinion. Grumblings of discontent and distrust in the form of openly questioning the system, which is increasingly perceived as corrupted and broken by growing numbers of citizens. What the theories are about are hardly as important as the fact that they are directed at the structures of power and control, and are gaining wider acceptance among the populace.

EXACTLY, it isnt the theories that are destroying freedom.
It is the conspiracies themselves that are undermining the "democratic" process.
In fact the "democratic" process is a corrupt "mob rule" method of achieving "freedom" and far from the best method at all. It is just one of the best methods we have achieved so far.
The crimes of our representatives are what is causing the apathy and non-participation of the voters whose ancestors paid in blood for their right to do so. The people are waking up to the fact that both sides in a 2 party system are working together and voting for 1 of 2 evils isnt democracy at all.

JuniorDisco
Conspiracy theorists take a lot of credit when they get something right (which is pretty rare)

It isnt that rare at all. I have found that a LOT of the theories I learned about 10-15 years ago have either come to pass or have been "admitted".

WMD's, global financial meltdown, paedophile politicians, co-intel pro, Iran Contra, MK Ultra, police corruption, government corruption, the rise of the police state. I could go on.

JuniorDisco
Banking crisis - I can't recall a cogent conspiracy theory that anticipated it, or that explained how it came about. The crisis ironically showed that the problem with banks was that they didn't conspire enough

Alex Jones was very vocal about the global financial meltdown AND why it happened. It was being forecast since at least 2003.

rickymouse
Also do not use laundry detergent to wash dishes.

When I was at college my tutor taught me that even dish washing liquid was highly carcinogenic and to make sure I always rinsed the dishes properly.

AlphaHawk
reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

 

Just because one conspiracy is true, doesn't make them all true.

Many deserve the ridicule they get, only after they are proven to be wrong of course.

We all enjoy a laugh at the expense of Billy Meier believers even to this day, don't we?

I agree. The conspiracy theories aren't destroying democracy, the conspiracies are ! Especially if we don't do anything about them. Maybe that's their plan. Just flood us with so many conspiracies, we won't know where to start. That seems to be where we're at.

No conspiracy theories are not destroying America, conspiracies are!

The BBC is a conspiracy itself a state controlled propaganda machine the very organization upon which 1984s ministry of truth was based the BBC is the governments brainwashing department funded by mandatory payments from the brainwashed themselves a conspiracy indeed.

"IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"
"FREEDOM IS SLAVERY"
"WAR IS PEACE"

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

Democracy? Where have you been? We have no democracy. We have Kleptocracy. Rampant thievery rues the day upon a morally bankrupt landscape.

Like everything in this world there needs to be a balance kept, at the moment I think we are not in balance and we are seeing devils in every corner. Governments need the trust of the people, or at least most of the people, I think we are losing something very important and we need to find a balance again

imod02
I think we are losing something very important and we need to find a balance again

Our souls?

Yes we need to get our souls back.