Are conspiracy theories destroying democracy?

A democracy of ignorant fools is what has been happening in many countries, brought about by an all-evil and conspiring controlled media. Its like trusting a pack of wolves to guard the sheep. This is not the kind of democracy one wishes for.

In fact we face more opposition from each other than from the ptb who control everything. Turn everyone into a mind slave and make them fight each other. PTB enjoy their life having the best of everything while laughing in your face.

When you start having ridiculous, implausible conspiracy theories overshadowing real conspiracies and influencing how people vote, you have a problem.

Junkheap
When you start having ridiculous, implausible conspiracy theories overshadowing real conspiracies and influencing how people vote, you have a problem.

Well if we had an education system that concentrated on the three r's and critical thinking, then we would be much better off.
But but they dont, thats why we have a problem.

If people were better equipped to separate fact from fiction there would be no problem.

Junkheap

When you start having ridiculous, implausible conspiracy theories overshadowing real conspiracies and influencing how people vote, you have a problem.

9 times out of 10 they go with subtle misinformation rather than concocted disinformation, because it provides them plausible deniability and is more believable. Lies of omission, spinning something to create bias, exaggerating and downplaying one element over another, etc is 100 times more believable than manufactured conspiracy theories.

disinformation is somewhat common with ufos and 9-11.

reply to post by stumason

I think where you and I are getting hung up is in "semantics". From my perspective, pure democracy is majority rule. Which is not the case in the US. Our constitution keeps that from happening, thankfully.

From your perspective...

A Democracy is simply a nation where the populace are given the vote, ie participate equally.

I have done a lot of reading to understand the very nature of democracy. And the definition you give here, while correct, does not reflect the attributes of a true democracy, and what that entails. This is why I say the US is not a democracy. We are governed by laws that purposely keep the majority from usurping the minority's rights(by vote). This allows for democracy, but keeps the law(constitution) as the governing principle.

This site is a good place to analyze conspiracy theories to see if they are true. Most of them are debunked here quickly. The thing I find interesting is that some of the far out unbelievable theories wind up being true. Stuff that the ones in power think noone would ever believe are exploited belong belief. Look at the banks, not many in 2007 would have ever believed the banks were so corrupt at high levels. Not many would have believed that some of the big stock brokerage firms were so corrupt. People believed if it was big that the government was closely watching it which is the opposite in reality.

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.

reply to post by stumason

Hate to burst your bubble, but it is.

The government of the United States of America is the federal government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that constitute the United States

en.wikipedia.org...

As I said the US is not a democracy
My bubble is just fine thank you but you might want to check your own.

I'm quite aware of how the US Constitution came into being.
They don't give themselves credit for the origin of our rights contained in the first 10 amendments.
That is reserved for the creator.

England has a long and complex history of the development of your system of government and laws that I won't pretend to fully understand.
As an Englishman I might suggest you do likewise in regards to your knowledge of the American system of government.

What true colors was I showing by the way?

As for your comments of "piss poor understanding of the English language" and "no wonder your country is such a mess" come across as rude, erudite and demeaning.
We can debate the facts and submit opinions but there's never a reason for adding such personal insults.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss


Personally, I see such debates as simply a means to indoctrinate the masses against thinking outside the box. Conspiracy theory... a rather broad term often applied with a wide brush, is just another way of taking the time to consider all the possibilities and then weighing the evidence, arrive at very unofficial and unapproved possibilities in the form of personal opinion.

It is that personal opinion that many in the marbled halls of power, would love to silence.

That's my opinion.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss


In this day and age if anyone denies there are those who would conspire for their own evil and selfish agenda, well then those people are ignorant and easily fooled. There's nothing we can do for them for they are lost.

boymonkey74
I read this last night, good to see many comments actually supporting conspiracy theories, I think the populace is waking up to all the lies.

Indeed, I totally agree with you. Many conspiracy theories I have seen are just ridiculous lies and fictions, created by people who have a cynical agenda and / or a desire to pray on the weak minded and / or pander to a particular worldview.

Sometimes I just wonder why some people who purport to be intelligent and open minded can believe some of the theories.

Regards

paraphi

boymonkey74
I read this last night, good to see many comments actually supporting conspiracy theories, I think the populace is waking up to all the lies.

Indeed, I totally agree with you. Many conspiracy theories I have seen are just ridiculous lies and fictions, created by people who have a cynical agenda and / or a desire to pray on the weak minded and / or pander to a particular worldview.

Sometimes I just wonder why some people who purport to be intelligent and open minded can believe some of the theories.

Regards

I think there's some truth to this. However, I also think, just because you or I may see a given "theory" as ridiculous, doesn't make it so. We consistently have to stand guard over our own bias and prejudice to keep it from hijacking our objectivity, and our ability to consider an opposing view, without necessarily accepting it. If we can do that, we won't be so quick to turn a deaf ear to possibilities we heretofore, haven't considered.

reply to post by paraphi

Many conspiracy theories I have seen are just ridiculous lies and fictions, created by people who have a cynical agenda and / or a desire to pray on the weak minded and / or pander to a particular worldview.

And therein lies the truth that each of us is different and each of us will read the same things and each will not produce the exact same opinion as the person next to them.

The next thing is whether we begin to judge people because they don't agree with our own positions. If someone finds a certain idea interesting and the next does not, does that make them enemies? In politics, it certainly would but do we spend our entire lives in the shallow end of the pond?

If all 8+ billion of us... human beings, that is, were so identical, we would have likely gone extinct a long, long time ago. And, history does show, time and time again, the outcome when one's personal beliefs are held against them in ways that stereotype them as being something less than worthy of the title, human being. Do we want to walk that path again? Really?

This BBC article is a prime example of a conspiracy. It purports itself to be a simply discussing the issue of whether conspiracy theories and theorist's are "damaging democracy." The article is then peppered with the following statements:

There is a growing assumption that everything we are told by the authorities is wrong, or not quite as it seems. That the truth is being manipulated or obscured by powerful vested interests.

Now why would anyone believe that? Right off the top of my head I'd say - NSA lies to congress and GCHQ desperate attempts at coverup. That's just one off the top. The governments are lying and deceiving us.

It would be wrong to write off all conspiracy theorists as "swivel-eyed loons," with "poor personal hygiene and halitosis,"

They are not all "crazy". The difficult part, for those of us trying to make sense of a complex world, is working out which parts of the conspiracy theory to keep and which to throw away.

So conspiracy theorist are mostly (but not all mind you) "swivel-eyed loons" with "poor personal hygiene and halitosis" and "crazy." Not ALL of them, which infers some or most of them. Certainly no right thinking person would care to be labeled as such or even associate with "crazies" like this.

This article is a disinfo piece put out by the UK official arm of propaganda, the BBC.

reply to post by Bassago


undoubtable written with a huge bias but the comment section seems to imlpy that its not working

stumason
On the one hand, we deride the Government for being useless, incompetent etc but then on the other, we ascribe outlandishly convoluted plots that go almost without a hitch to them - a very odd dichotomy...

Yes, American's love to have it both ways. Sleepy people have the advantage of seeing politicians' gaffs and wrong action, chalk it up to incompetence and buffoonery, but they don't have to consider wether there are strong forces at work guiding them. The select few politicians are safe behind the smokescreen of apparent foolishness on the part of their underling cohorts, and we are left to guess: Are they really that stupid, or are they that much smarter than we are?

Bassago

There is a growing assumption that everything we are told by the authorities is wrong, or not quite as it seems. That the truth is being manipulated or obscured by powerful vested interests.

Now why would anyone believe that? Right off the top of my head I'd say - NSA lies to congress and GCHQ desperate attempts at coverup. That's just one off the top. The governments are lying and deceiving us.

Jesse Ventura, "Every War Starts With A False Flag."

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss


That would be great if the USA was a democracy.

I know the sith lord is trying to convince everyone that we are a democracy and that we are not a constitutional republic that protects individual rights and does not allow majority rule to infringe on the rights of the minority.

But what do i know, civil liberty is the most important thing about the USA and were losing it everyday.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

The more information we have about what governments and corporations are up to the less we seem to trust them.

Well, if put the other way around, if the people would have absolutely not information about "what governments and corporations are up to", what kind of system would we be living in?

I think they have a point and then, they don't. There is conspiracy theory and then there is conspiracy insanity.

The difference? That's simple to my personal thinking on it.

A conspiracy theory is one which, when challenged, can support the concept where a reasonable person can at least see how you got from A to B, even if they think it took some kooky thinking to get there. It's supportable though, and without baffling people with technobabble B.S..

The insanity comes in where "This is what happened just because it's always something, never what it appears and BECAUSE I SAID SO!!".

I think our happy little community here is fortunate to have the vast majority of the first kind ..with some occasional visits from the true lunatic fringe. It's that second kind that keep staff on conspiracy sites all over the net busy enough to feel like it's real work sometimes.

OptimusSubprime
reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss

 

Something needs to destroy democracy... before it democracy destroys us.

One of the biggest conspiracies is the ability of the powers that be to convince the rabble that they live in a democracy.

You don't matter, other than a taxable unit to finance wars, Corporate welfare, and the elite that never pay their fair share.

That's not a democracy...that's an Oligarchy with the super rich calling all the shots.

www.americanthinker.com...