Decoding Our Obsession with Conspiracy Theories

[BradStevens]

More on the minds of conspiracy theorists:

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

A combination of cognitive biases, social influences, emotional maturity, and family dynamics can contribute to an individual's belief in conspiracy theories.

www.psychologytoday.com

People Drawn to Conspiracy Theories Share a Cluster of Psychological Features

Baseless theories threaten our safety and democracy. It turns out that specific emotions make people prone to such thinking

www.scientificamerican.com

If this topic interests you, Shermer is knowledgeable on this subject:

https://michaelshermer.com/conspiracy-why-rational-believe-irrational/

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

If this topic interests you, Shermer is knowledgeable on this subject:

https://michaelshermer.com/conspiracy-why-rational-believe-irrational/

Thanks. This excerpt of the description is dead on:

But the conspiracy theories that have gained popularity of late are markedly different from those in the past, in that they require little to no proof for their adherents. Mere assertion of a conspiracy claim suffices—“fake news” or “rigged” or “people are saying” is all the evidence many people need to be convinced of their veracity.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

More on the minds of conspiracy theorists:

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

A combination of cognitive biases, social influences, emotional maturity, and family dynamics can contribute to an individual's belief in conspiracy theories.

www.psychologytoday.com

People Drawn to Conspiracy Theories Share a Cluster of Psychological Features

Baseless theories threaten our safety and democracy. It turns out that specific emotions make people prone to such thinking

www.scientificamerican.com

The two links indeed explain how conspiracy theories begin. But both show me conspiracy theories are not necessarily unjustified nor are they necessarily wrong.

The first link includes this as a basis for conspiracy theories.

• In an environment with high mistrust in authorities, conspiracy theories can flourish.

On this 5 year anniversary of COVID lockdowns, the lies and deception by those in authority pushed on all of us are clear. The COVID. Experience will in and of itself foster conspiracy theories for years, some will be accurate, but others will be bullshit. Jennifer Sey writes about it here

The 5 year anniversary of lockdowns is here and I'm angry

Despite being right about everything, those of us who pushed back against lockdowns from the outset are not redeemed. Many of us remained "cancelled."

jennifersey.substack.com

I stoped the second link the author said this


“Stephan Lewandowsky was deep in denial. Nearly 10 years ago the cognitive scientist threw himself into a study of why some people refuse to accept the overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming and humans are responsible.”

I don’t intend to start a debate about climate change, but I will state that climate alarmists are themselves largely conspiracy theorists and fit the mold of the first point in link number 1

• Conspiracy theories thrive on cognitive biases, mental shortcuts that allow us to make sense of the world.

In other words, climate alarmists and conspiracy theorists are both lazy thinkers.

Many people claim they are not conspiracy theorists because they are “data driven” or “evidence based” thinkers. They are fooling themselves. Data and evidence can easily be cherry-picked or manipulated to support an opinion.

The only reliable way to avoid conspiratorial thinking is to have a thorough understanding of cause and effect and relavance. And use both to support skepticism.

 

[Bub_rub]

That's the title of an article by a man who has investigated many conspiracy theories and found most are false and a handful are real. The conspiracy theorists here should read it - though, of course, they believe what they believe is real so they're not a conspiracy theorist. So maybe everyone should read it and get some idea how conspiracy theories are formed and spread and maybe, just maybe, recognize that some of what they believe may not actually be true:

"Trust No One"

Decoding Our Obsession with Conspiracy Theories

www.justthefacts.media

Robert Anton Wilson is admittedly out there but he wrote for Playboy back when that was a big deal. His take on conspiracy theories is great.

 

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

Just saw tiger woods is dating trump jr’s ex. Wtf is wrong with tiger. Guy doesn’t know who he is.

Oh, he knows.

Bazillionaire. Single. Taps whatever he wants. Especially girls who wanna try really hard to please, or who have moved up Maslow's list far enough to like experiments.

Now ... if he marries again? Start the worry clock.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

Oh, he knows.

Bazillionaire. Single. Taps whatever he wants. Especially girls who wanna try really hard to please, or who have moved up Maslow's list far enough to like experiments.

Now ... if he marries again? Start the worry clock.

I thought he was pretty serious about his last girlfriend. She seemed like a live wire too.

 

[crazed_hoosier2]

The two links indeed explain how conspiracy theories begin. But both show me conspiracy theories are not necessarily unjustified nor are they necessarily wrong.

The first link includes this as a basis for conspiracy theories.

• In an environment with high mistrust in authorities, conspiracy theories can flourish.

On this 5 year anniversary of COVID lockdowns, the lies and deception by those in authority pushed on all of us are clear. The COVID. Experience will in and of itself foster conspiracy theories for years, some will be accurate, but others will be bullshit. Jennifer Sey writes about it here

The 5 year anniversary of lockdowns is here and I'm angry

Despite being right about everything, those of us who pushed back against lockdowns from the outset are not redeemed. Many of us remained "cancelled."

jennifersey.substack.com

I stoped the second link the author said this


“Stephan Lewandowsky was deep in denial. Nearly 10 years ago the cognitive scientist threw himself into a study of why some people refuse to accept the overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming and humans are responsible.”

I don’t intend to start a debate about climate change, but I will state that climate alarmists are themselves largely conspiracy theorists and fit the mold of the first point in link number 1

• Conspiracy theories thrive on cognitive biases, mental shortcuts that allow us to make sense of the world.

In other words, climate alarmists and conspiracy theorists are both lazy thinkers.

Many people claim they are not conspiracy theorists because they are “data driven” or “evidence based” thinkers. They are fooling themselves. Data and evidence can easily be cherry-picked or manipulated to support an opinion.

The only reliable way to avoid conspiratorial thinking is to have a thorough understanding of cause and effect and relavance. And use both to support skepticism.

Speaking of COVID conspiracy theories, have we discussed the recent revelation that German intelligence determined a confidence level between 80-95% that COVID leaked from WIV?

Story can be found here.

They shared their findings with us back in December - which is curious timing in and of itself.

This prompted a remarkable, almost sensationalist opinion piece by Princeton prof Zeynep Tufecki in which she decries the institutional deceit around this subject, the involvement of EcoHealth, etc.. And, in it, she somehow finds cause to take a gratuitous slap at those who were onto all this years before she was.

We should be guarded against falling too easily into the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories. We should also be guarded against falling into the equal but opposite rabbit hole of assuming that everything is always as it’s presented to us.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

The two links indeed explain how conspiracy theories begin. But both show me conspiracy theories are not necessarily unjustified nor are they necessarily wrong.

The first link includes this as a basis for conspiracy theories.

• In an environment with high mistrust in authorities, conspiracy theories can flourish.

On this 5 year anniversary of COVID lockdowns, the lies and deception by those in authority pushed on all of us are clear. The COVID. Experience will in and of itself foster conspiracy theories for years, some will be accurate, but others will be bullshit. Jennifer Sey writes about it here

The 5 year anniversary of lockdowns is here and I'm angry

Despite being right about everything, those of us who pushed back against lockdowns from the outset are not redeemed. Many of us remained "cancelled."

jennifersey.substack.com

I stoped the second link the author said this


“Stephan Lewandowsky was deep in denial. Nearly 10 years ago the cognitive scientist threw himself into a study of why some people refuse to accept the overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming and humans are responsible.”

I don’t intend to start a debate about climate change, but I will state that climate alarmists are themselves largely conspiracy theorists and fit the mold of the first point in link number 1

• Conspiracy theories thrive on cognitive biases, mental shortcuts that allow us to make sense of the world.

In other words, climate alarmists and conspiracy theorists are both lazy thinkers.

Many people claim they are not conspiracy theorists because they are “data driven” or “evidence based” thinkers. They are fooling themselves. Data and evidence can easily be cherry-picked or manipulated to support an opinion.

The only reliable way to avoid conspiratorial thinking is to have a thorough understanding of cause and effect and relavance. And use both to support skepticism.

Conspiracy thinking would be that NASA just made up the numbers below Or that NASA is part of a Chinese hoax.

NASA Analysis Confirms a Year of Monthly Temperature Records - NASA

May 2024 was the warmest May on the books, marking a full year of record-high monthly temperatures, NASA scientists found. Average global temperatures for the

www.nasa.gov

 

[Mark Milton]

There isn’t a chick on the planet I would hook up with if Don jr was in her history. Guy is the Fing worst

I really want to see a power couple of Don Jr and Megan Markle. Megan is also the drizzling shits

 

[CO. Hoosier]

Speaking of COVID conspiracy theories, have we discussed the recent revelation that German intelligence determined a confidence level between 80-95% that COVID leaked from WIV?

Story can be found here.

They shared their findings with us back in December - which is curious timing in and of itself.

This prompted a remarkable, almost sensationalist opinion piece by Princeton prof Zeynep Tufecki in which she decries the institutional deceit around this subject, the involvement of EcoHealth, etc.. And, in it, she somehow finds cause to take a gratuitous slap at those who were onto all this years before she was.

We should be guarded against falling too easily into the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories. We should also be guarded against falling into the equal but opposite rabbit hole of assuming that everything is always as it’s presented to us.

The rabbit holes are by no means equal. Assuming everything those in authority or with a pedigree say is true is much more seductive than a counter “conspiracy theory”.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

Conspiracy thinking would be that NASA just made up the numbers below Or that NASA is part of a Chinese hoax.

NASA Analysis Confirms a Year of Monthly Temperature Records - NASA

May 2024 was the warmest May on the books, marking a full year of record-high monthly temperatures, NASA scientists found. Average global temperatures for the

www.nasa.gov

Believing the notion of “average global temperature” is an objective fact is the same as believing Epstein didn’t kill himself.

 

[BradStevens]

Speaking of COVID conspiracy theories, have we discussed the recent revelation that German intelligence determined a confidence level between 80-95% that COVID leaked from WIV?

Story can be found here.

They shared their findings with us back in December - which is curious timing in and of itself.

This prompted a remarkable, almost sensationalist opinion piece by Princeton prof Zeynep Tufecki in which she decries the institutional deceit around this subject, the involvement of EcoHealth, etc.. And, in it, she somehow finds cause to take a gratuitous slap at those who were onto all this years before she was.

We should be guarded against falling too easily into the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories. We should also be guarded against falling into the equal but opposite rabbit hole of assuming that everything is always as it’s presented to us.

Minus what happened, which we might never know, I think it's been established that certain elements of the institutional medical community banded together to discredit discussion of a lab leak theory, partly so as not to offend the CCP. They have emails and the original submission to Nature. It's also undeniably true that certain mainstream media and politicians vilified those who were skeptical and thought the lab leak theory worthy of investigation. And they all acted as if theirs was the "scientific" position.

 

[mcmurtry66]

Speaking of COVID conspiracy theories, have we discussed the recent revelation that German intelligence determined a confidence level between 80-95% that COVID leaked from WIV?

Story can be found here.

They shared their findings with us back in December - which is curious timing in and of itself.

This prompted a remarkable, almost sensationalist opinion piece by Princeton prof Zeynep Tufecki in which she decries the institutional deceit around this subject, the involvement of EcoHealth, etc.. And, in it, she somehow finds cause to take a gratuitous slap at those who were onto all this years before she was.

We should be guarded against falling too easily into the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories. We should also be guarded against falling into the equal but opposite rabbit hole of assuming that everything is always as it’s presented to us.

🙏

 

[CO. Hoosier]

There isn’t a chick on the planet I would hook up with if Don jr was in her history. Guy is the Fing worst

Now you are showing your age. The Cooler persona you’ve cultivated over the years is you lead with impulses that don’t include junior.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

Minus what happened, which we might never know, I think it's been established that certain elements of the institutional medical community banded together to discredit discussion of a lab leak theory, partly so as not to offend the CCP. They have emails and the original submission to Nature. It's also undeniably true that certain mainstream media and politicians vilified those who were skeptical and thought the lab leak theory worthy of investigation. And they all acted as if theirs was the "scientific" position.

The mainstream media and politicians also were boxed into that position because Trump already said the opposite.

My personal conspiracy theory is that the moment Fauci saw this virus through a microscope, he said “Oh shit!” He knew it was engineered, he knew it was a product of gain of function manipulation, and he knew the U.S. was involved because gain of function was illegal in the U.S. Prove me wrong.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Believing the notion of “average global temperature” is an objective fact is the same as believing Epstein didn’t kill himself.

God knows I have to just take your word for it as there is no way in hell you have researched this "fact".

"NASA is part of the Chinese hoax, says CO." See how easy it is to post unsourced information?

 

[VanPastorMan]

They just scream gold digger. Just like daddy's wives.

Was Ivanka a gold digger? I don't know Trump's history with finances as much. Was he extremely rich when they got married?

 

[BradStevens]

The mainstream media and politicians also were boxed into that position because Trump already said the opposite.

My personal conspiracy theory is that the moment Fauci saw this virus through a microscope, he said “Oh shit!” He knew it was engineered, he knew it was a product of gain of function manipulation, and he knew the U.S. was involved because gain of function was illegal in the U.S. Prove me wrong.

There are no deductive proofs here. It's all probabilities at this point. You'll have to go back and read the stuff where OS and I were discussing this. It's complicated and not that easy to tell, so I don't think either side can be very confident in their assessment.

 

[BradStevens]

Believing the notion of “average global temperature” is an objective fact is the same as believing Epstein didn’t kill himself.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

It's all probabilities at this point.

A reasonable degree of probability is sufficient proof. More likely than not.

 

[HurryingHoosiers]

Was Ivanka a gold digger? I don't know Trump's history with finances as much. Was he extremely rich when they got married?

He got his wealth from inheritance. So yes, he was rich.

 

[crazed_hoosier2]

Minus what happened, which we might never know, I think it's been established that certain elements of the institutional medical community banded together to discredit discussion of a lab leak theory, partly so as not to offend the CCP. They have emails and the original submission to Nature. It's also undeniably true that certain mainstream media and politicians vilified those who were skeptical and thought the lab leak theory worthy of investigation. And they all acted as if theirs was the "scientific" position.

Correct.

And then they complain about the degradation of institutional trust - and the myriad ways that has manifested…including, and probably especially, twice electing Donald Trump.

Of course grifters, demagogues, and charlatans are going to capitalize on this distrust to serve their own interests.

But anybody who cares about our core institutions (which we all should) needs to spend less time and energy defending them and more time and energy insisting that they operate in ways that don’t require so much defense.

 

[crazed_hoosier2]

The mainstream media and politicians also were boxed into that position because Trump already said the opposite.

My personal conspiracy theory is that the moment Fauci saw this virus through a microscope, he said “Oh shit!” He knew it was engineered, he knew it was a product of gain of function manipulation, and he knew the U.S. was involved because gain of function was illegal in the U.S. Prove me wrong.

What first got my eyebrows raised was when Luc Montagnier, the virologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering HIV, said that he was confident that the virus was engineered. I don’t remember all the details. But it was something like a spike protein being 100% identical to other known SVs - which he said doesn’t occur naturally.

He was pilloried within his profession, of course. He was nearly 90 years old, long retired, and had limited access to data on the novel virus, etc.

But this was no barroom, know-nothing crank saying this. It was one of the legends in that field saying it.

My mind was always open. Still is, really. There is no smoking gun and I’d guess we’ll never see one.

But I do think that the Lab Leak proponents have been more persuasive than the Zoonotic proponents have been. And it’s the latter ones who demand to be viewed as officially authoritative.

 

[BradStevens]

What first got my eyebrows raised was when Luc Montagnier, the virologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering HIV, said that he was confident that the virus was engineered. I don’t remember all the details. But it was something like a spike protein being 100% identical to other known SVs - which he said doesn’t occur naturally.

He was pilloried within his profession, of course. He was nearly 90 years old, long retired, and had limited access to data on the novel virus, etc.

But this was no barroom, know-nothing crank saying this. It was one of the legends in that field saying it.

My mind was always open. Still is, really. There is no smoking gun and I’d guess we’ll never see one.

But I do think that the Lab Leak proponents have been more persuasive than the Zoonotic proponents have been. And it’s the latter ones who demand to be viewed as officially authoritative.

Re the last part, it is true that 99.9999% of all pandemics and viruses that have circulated in human history have zoonotic origins. That's a strong fact. But technology has advanced and we have had issues in the past.

Rather than blame a political party or a nation for Covid, though, we, as a species, should be concerned with containing and safely dealing with this tech. Otherwise, even if Covid wasn't the result of lab leak, one is bound to occur in the future and kill a lot of people. I think the scientific community that spent so much time denigrating the lab leak proponents bear a lot of the responsibility for these conversations not taking place.

Virology: A timeline of lab accidents, biological attacks and increasingly dangerous experiments

A series of laboratory leaks and risky experiments have taken place since the 1970s.

www.lemonde.fr

 

[CO. Hoosier]

Rather than blame a political party or a nation

The problem is that the Chinese government itself showed guilty knowledge through its conduct in late 2019 and early 2020. There were many stories about this that never gained traction. Some of that was due to Fauci deceptions.

 

[iuwclurker]

The problem is that the Chinese government itself showed guilty knowledge through its conduct in late 2019 and early 2020. There were many stories about this that never gained traction. Some of that was due to Fauci deceptions.

What information have you gleaned about creating and/or spreading conspiracies?

 

[HurryingHoosiers]

The problem is that the Chinese government itself showed guilty knowledge through its conduct in late 2019 and early 2020. There were many stories about this that never gained traction. Some of that was due to Fauci deceptions.

you definitely provide details on many unfounded conspiracies. Thanks for the examples.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

What first got my eyebrows raised was when Luc Montagnier, the virologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering HIV, said that he was confident that the virus was engineered. I don’t remember all the details. But it was something like a spike protein being 100% identical to other known SVs - which he said doesn’t occur naturally.

He was pilloried within his profession, of course. He was nearly 90 years old, long retired, and had limited access to data on the novel virus, etc.

But this was no barroom, know-nothing crank saying this. It was one of the legends in that field saying it.

My mind was always open. Still is, really. There is no smoking gun and I’d guess we’ll never see one.

But I do think that the Lab Leak proponents have been more persuasive than the Zoonotic proponents have been. And it’s the latter ones who demand to be viewed as officially authoritative.

It’s not that complicated. The circumstantial evidence about lab creation and leak is overwhelming.. That evidence is supported by the Chinese government conduct which conduct is entirely consistent with covering up important evidence.

Jon Stewart gets it.

 

[VanPastorMan]

He got his wealth from inheritance. So yes, he was rich.

That is not completely accurate. I am not sure when he got his inheritance. But he didn't inherit billions. Also I am not sure if he married Ivanka before or after he got the money he got from his father.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

What information have you gleaned about creating and/or spreading conspiracies?

Because of more than half a century in my profession, I’ve developed a pretty good bullshit detector. The first point to know is that those in authority and those with pedigrees are capable and well- positioned to spread bullshit and have people buy it.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

That is not completely accurate. I am not sure when he got his inheritance. But he didn't inherit billions. Also I am not sure if he married Ivanka before or after he got the money he got from his father.

For a Trump fan you know surprisingly little about him.

 

[HurryingHoosiers]

That is not completely accurate. I am not sure when he got his inheritance. But he didn't inherit billions. Also I am not sure if he married Ivanka before or after he got the money he got from his father.

He inherited his fortune from his daddy. You can debate how much those assets were worth but he didn't build himself up from scratch. Doubt any of his wives married him for his good looks or awesome personality.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

But anybody who cares about our core institutions (which we all should) needs to spend less time and energy defending them and more time and energy insisting that they operate in ways that don’t require so much defense.

The core institutions need to be more open and honest. This point has nothing to do with whether their actions are overly politicized, as some most certainly are.

A case in point.

Director Wray was unnecessarily vague and evasive about the question of the presence of FBI CI’s or undercover agents during the J6 capitol riot. In response to committee questions about that he should have said “yes we had CI’s present because we had grounds to believe a crime was involved. The CI identities will not be provided unless ordered by a court in a criminal prosecution “. Instead he fooled around with non-answer answers which only fueled conspiracy fires.

 

[76-1]

The core institutions need to be more open and honest. This point has nothing to do with whether their actions are overly politicized, as some most certainly are.

A case in point.

Director Wray was unnecessarily vague and evasive about the question of the presence of FBI CI’s or undercover agents during the J6 capitol riot. In response to committee questions about that he should have said “yes we had CI’s present because we had grounds to believe a crime was involved. The CI identities will not be provided unless ordered by a court in a criminal prosecution “. Instead he fooled around with non-answer answers which only fueled conspiracy fires.

Not to mention Wray's purposely attempting to cast doubt on whether the President had actually been shot...

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

The core institutions need to be more open and honest. This point has nothing to do with whether their actions are overly politicized, as some most certainly are.

A case in point.

Director Wray was unnecessarily vague and evasive about the question of the presence of FBI CI’s or undercover agents during the J6 capitol riot. In response to committee questions about that he should have said “yes we had CI’s present because we had grounds to believe a crime was involved. The CI identities will not be provided unless ordered by a court in a criminal prosecution “. Instead he fooled around with non-answer answers which only fueled conspiracy fires.

I agree with you about Wray being to vague. It was unnecessary. Of course the would and should have some CIs there.

One of the all-time dumbest conspiracy theories surrounding J6 was Ray Epps being a Fed or CI. There was no support for that and he was convicted and sentenced appropriately for his crime. President Trump pardoned him.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

Not to mention Wray's purposely attempting to cast doubt on whether the President had actually been shot...

What? I do not recall that at all. Got a link?

 

[Lucy01]

What? I do not recall that at all. Got a link?

You know it’s true! Quit acting like an 🫏.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

You know it’s true! Quit acting like an 🫏.

Shut up Lucy.

 

[VanPastorMan]

He inherited his fortune from his daddy. You can debate how much those assets were worth but he didn't build himself up from scratch. Doubt any of his wives married him for his good looks or awesome personality.

But my question is did he marry Ivanka before he got the inheritance. I it was before perhaps they married for love even though he messed it up with Marla.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

But my question is did he marry Ivanka before he got the inheritance. I it was before perhaps they married for love even though he messed it up with Marla.

You must be kidding. You can’t be that ignorant about Trump. He’s been a “celebrity” for about 50 years.