Why people need to believe that the truth is hidden out there ?

Would you believe the truth if it was in your face?

There is not so much of a difference between conspiracy theorists and the rest of us. We are drawn to the idea of conspiracy because it resonates with us; we understand the idea of people being self-interested and not having our best interests at heart, and having hidden motives and getting together to do shady stuff. Conspiracy theories extend upon that and tap into these assumptions and fears we have about the world. But we all have them, that’s why conspiracy theories make sense to us all.

Why we need conspiracies

a reply to: rajas

Because we have all (well, most of us anyway) been the victim of a "conspiracy".

That job you were passed over for the younger, less qualified person that happened to be related to the person doing the hiring?

The "cold shoulder" treatment at school/work?

Teachers in school knowing your screw ups 2 or 3 years after they happened?

Countless instances of proven cronyism like "The Bridge To Nowhere"

Not to mention the basic human talent of connecting dots, even when they aren't really connected.

Humans are primed to believe in conspiracies, but that belief is cemented through feedback created in real world events.

How much can we really trust our own rationality and reason?

Not much at all. Most psychological research shows that we are all very much overly confident when it comes to trusting our own reasoning ability, our own perception, our own memory, all kinds of stuff. We live inside this kind of illusion that our brains concoct for us that we are seeing the world objectively and that we are coming to our beliefs because they are just the most sensible beliefs to have, but all the research shows we have a whole host of biases built into our brains that shape and colour our perception and beliefs about the world constantly without us being aware of it.

So who are you going to believe? Church, State, Media or your own lying eyes?

This does explain a lot, though. Many of our world "leaders" have such a warped perception of reality that they concoct these crazy conspiracy theories in which they believe the people of the world want war, poverty, slavery, and death.

a reply to: rajas

I think that there is rather more to it than that.

The reality is that we are living in a post Snowden world now, and his work to expose the misdeeds of the NSA, GCHQ and others, has shown beyond doubt that the agencies which are supposed to protect our liberty are rather fond of removing those liberties in order to provide us with an APPEARANCE of normalcy and safety, to allow us to fool ourselves into thinking that our liberty is being protected by thier actions.

Truth is harder to hide now, and an increase in distrust of government is the inevitable result of government doing things which either threaten, abuse, or mistreat a population or members thereof, in a world where such things are now IMPOSSIBLE to completely hide.

There is something else to recognise. In this country, debtors used to go to specialised prisons, workhouses used to house destitute individuals and force them to produce products for free, until their debts were paid, and due to the structure of the places, and the policies which ran them, those individuals would become slaves, with no hope of escape. Workers had no rights up until relatively recently, historically speaking, in this country anyway. We KNOW that the business of government is not to protect the people, nor to serve their interests, but to serve the fantastically wealthy at the expense of the downtrodden masses, as it has always been.

All of the evidence we have seen since Thatcher was in government, and began to undo all the work which had seen workers gain rights, the welfare state created to protect the needy from the worst effects of the greed of the powerful, and people begin to escape the bonds of destitution, suggests that government is STILL in the business of making it possible for a small number of people to benefit from the efforts of the majority, and that is STILL wrong. As long as this continues, there will always be the feeling, amongst those effected by it, that something is deeply wrong with the way government operates, the way society functions, and the things that keep those systems operating as they do.

The feeling will not go away until there is no reason to distrust what we are told, and those who decide what we are told.

a reply to: TrueBrit

We KNOW that the business of government is not to protect the people, nor to serve their interests, but to serve the fantastically wealthy at the expense of the downtrodden masses, as it has always been.

Government is there to protect you from businesses who will use you as slaves. Maybe a conspiracy

You seem to have presented nothing more than a verbatim copy of the first paragraph from the link.
I think that a much more interesting quote from the link is the second paragraph as quoted by Von Doom above..

How much can we really trust our own rationality and reason?

Not much at all. Most psychological research shows that we are all very much overly confident when it comes to trusting our own reasoning ability, our own perception, our own memory, all kinds of stuff. We live inside this kind of illusion that our brains concoct for us that we are seeing the world objectively and that we are coming to our beliefs because they are just the most sensible beliefs to have, but all the research shows we have a whole host of biases built into our brains that shape and colour our perception and beliefs about the world constantly without us being aware of it.

While I agree with Victors assessment of world leaders I think it also applies to many folk who we listen to here on ATS. Myself included. I have found that a lot of what I have believed to be so over the years has not been as I believed. That my own perceptions and assumptions based upon those perceptions and logic have after years of staunch defense have ended up in the trash bin of things I once believed.

Which takes me back to what Victor said. Just 'who' are we going to believe. Church? State? Media?
I suggest none of the above. Rather I suggest questioning the whole idea of 'belief'. Belief insists on something being being held as true. I am coming now to a point where I prefer to consider things rather than believing things. I once thought I could trust myself more than those institutions, now though, I question even myself.

A lot of that reassessment in my own conspiracies has come about after joining ATS. While many of the beliefs espoused on this web site are more outlandish than those to which I held, I found that there are members who hold to them even more staunchly than I did mine. Though even though what we believe varies considerably, the adamance which which those beliefs are defended is on par across the board. Interesting.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Perception and logics is a bad mix

originally posted by: rajas
a reply to: TrueBrit

We KNOW that the business of government is not to protect the people, nor to serve their interests, but to serve the fantastically wealthy at the expense of the downtrodden masses, as it has always been.

Government is there to protect you from businesses who will use you as slaves. Maybe a conspiracy

Until "Government" becomes an illusion to simulate contrast. Like a shadow boxer, feinting blows with an apparition. Fostered by the power, money, corruption, and lies by your friendly neighborhood big business controlled by megalomaniac sociopaths. Not all big business is bad, but typically the truly insidious ones are sit high on the totem pole.

When lobbying, super pacts, gerrymandering, electoral colleges, and propaganda media outlets are put to pasture, maybe normal people will have a semblance of political leverage. Until then, everybody is a suspect.

Conspiracy is not a dirty word. Even though mainstream has twisted its definition and sullied its cadence. Seriously look at the etymology of the word. More than one person secretly collaborating on a mutual objective. Boards rooms are guilty of this, review boards, coop boards, any committee, and the list goes on ad infinitum.

The source in the OP appears to be nothing more than a blatant plug for Rob Bretherton's new book...

He is an assistant editor of 'The Skeptic' magazine and as far as conspiracies go, he is the very LAST person in the world I would look to for any kind of truth.

These types of pseudo-skeptic hitmen only serve the TPTB by pushing the official 'stories' down our throats.

How Pseudoskeptics hijack "Skepticism" to mean its opposite

Pseudoskeptics are not just wrong and fallacious in their reasoning and approach to investigating the paranormal with outright rejection of anything that doesn't fit into a materialist orthodox paradigm. They've also, knowingly or unknowingly, engaged in deceptive mind control by hijacking critical terms to mean their OPPOSITE, including the very term "skeptic" itself. And they've hid what they truly are (suppressors of new ideas) by pretending to the opposite of what they are.

As mentioned earlier, a skeptic doubts, inquires, questions, ponders, etc. But these pseudoskeptics do anything but. They attack, ridicule, discredit and suppress anything and everything that challenges the materialist reductionist paradigm. But don't take my word for it. Just look at any article by James Randi, Michael Shermer, or Skeptical Inquirer, for example, and you will see that there is no questioning of what they are told, doubt or pondering of possibilities at all. All they do is ridicule and attack anything related to paranormal and psychic phenomena, holistic medicine, and conspiracies.

Therefore, in truth and by their actions, these pseudoskeptics (who call themselves "skeptics") are NOT open minded truth seekers who question things and are attuned to possibilities. Rather, they are ridiculers and prosecutors of anything that strays outside the status quo or challenges the official version of things. They are defenders of orthodoxy and materialism. And they will distort, dismiss, obfuscate and play "verbal hopscotch" to get their way.

They've hijacked the term "skeptic" to refer to the one who suppresses the act of questioning, rather than to the questioner himself. In doing so, they've pretended to be the opposite of what they are to hide their true agenda, which is to protect the agenda of the status quo power elite and keep people remaining sheeple.

www.debunkingskeptics.com...