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Discussion » Questions » Emotions » Emotions and Politics.. just what makes otherwise sane people throw sanity into the air and start believing conspiracy theories?
Benedict Arnold

Emotions and Politics.. just what makes otherwise sane people throw sanity into the air and start believing conspiracy theories?

Psychologically it's a fascinating phenomenon.. you see people who just shouldn't be quite that gullible believing utter codswallop.. stuff that you'd have to have taken leave of your senses and half your brain to believe.. but they do... 

I don't get why.. what makes people lose sight of their ability to read and digest sane arguments and believe instead twaddle that has holes so big... 

If it were harmless that would be ok.. but it's not.. it fuels hatred.. indeed, even fosters it.. it keeps people in ignorance...  it's VERY strange!!


I have been looking up the phenomenon... and it's the fact that actual facts are often disregarded in these conspiracy theories.. it's truly as if people have taken leave of their senses and reason... they believe utter twaddle and seem unable to use their brains to be objective and to question.. it's almost like a dogma or indoctrination... 


What was perhaps most telling was that one or two articles suggested that it was the far right/ or the authoritarians who actually MADE UP the conspiracies.. and they did that for obvious reasons.. to stop people questioning.. to stop dissent..  I get that.. but what I don't get is why otherwise sane people fall into such traps.. sure we get why the stupid do.. they have no ability to question, they aren't the sharpest tool in the shed... we feel pity for them.. but the ones who do, or we assume have a brain.. that's harder to take... 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/18/conspiracy-theories-extreme-right-far-left-threaten-democracy

Posted - January 14, 2017
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Responses


  • 7919
    Well, if you think about it this way, people once thought the world was flat. The very first people who started saying it was round were ostracized. It's not easy to tell whether you're believing in a conspiracy theory or if you're following the evidence. Moreover, the "evidence" is often like a child's game of telephone. Remember the game where you'd whisper something into the ear of the person next to you and the person next to him would repeat it to the next person? Nearly every time, something would get lost or messed up. So, you may have a theory with facts interspersed coming from reliable sources that just get messed up along the way as well.

    Odds are, each of us believes in at least one thing someone else would call a conspiracy theory. Rather than calling it a conspiracy theory, which shuts people down, I think we'd do better to examine the facts and see what led to the idea. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of what you and I believe, though we'll never see it if we aren't objectively looking at the data together. 
      January 14, 2017 3:29 PM MST
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  • Thank you for your reasoned thoughts.. that's cool to hear your perspective on this..  erm i have to say though that I can promise you I have never believed a conspiracy theory.. it truly is an American phenomenon.. we tend not to have that here.. we hear some of them.. the elvis one.. I even bought a book about that.. I soooo wanted to believe Elvis wasn't dead... but erm I wasn't actually mad enough to actually believe it.. I think that's the difference.. we can all read these things.. that are supposedly evidence.. sure we can.. but we don't believe it... 

    I totally get what you mean about the whispers.. we call it Chinese whispers.. no idea why.. and we are familiar with the phenomenon where things get changed and convoluted.. however.. we dont believe them.. we stand back and question.. if something seems a bit luny tunes we seem to be able to sense that straight away and no one actually believes it.. I truly don't understand why people do believe utterly insane things.. 

    Key is being objective I think.. looking at what are clearly insane claims by one side or the other.. and standing back and examining where the truth lies.. what I don't get is why people don't seem to do that.. and unfortunately it is an American phenomenon more than anywhere else it seems.
      January 14, 2017 3:51 PM MST
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  • 7919


    It's probably more ingrained in British society than you realize. https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/05/27/conspiracies/ 
      January 14, 2017 4:02 PM MST
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  • http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-are-so-many-americans-in-the-thrall-of-conspiracy-theorists-a6775921.html  not a fan of the independent but... 

    http://time.com/3997033/conspiracy-theories/  conspiracy theories tend to crop up in times of fear and uncertainty well that would explain why the right wing nutjobs are making leftwing conspiracies... fruitcakes the lot of them..  as the article says.. people who tend to have little control over their own lives.. 

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/  do people really believe in conspiracy theories? they do and in huge numbers... well more fool them.. they are clearly unintelligent creatures who are to be pitied.. thank goodness there ARE sane sentient AMericans and thankfully, even tho the king of conspiracy theorists Trump won, most Americans didn't vote for him...  there's hope but how the heck they deal with a large part of their population who seem so intent on believing twaddle is beyond me.. I am an optimist so I have to hope. 
      January 14, 2017 3:32 PM MST
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  • AND another one... it seems that Americans ARE more prone or predisposed to believe utter hogwash.. odd.. baffling to us.. I am genuinely mystified.. I find it odd.. as not all are utterly uneducated.. most are but not all.. it's genuinely baffling.. 

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643770/Why-Americans-suckers-conspiracy-theories-The-country-founded-says-British-academic.html
      January 14, 2017 3:44 PM MST
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  • Conspiracy doesn't mean false or fringe thinking..  Just sayin'.
      January 14, 2017 4:28 PM MST
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  • 6126
    Hi Daydream.  

    We can all find things online that will back up our beliefs.  THAT is the real problem IMO.  All the time we see people referencing blogs as if they are credible sources rather than opinion pieces.   Why do they believe in that "twaddle"? I think it's because we all have that basic need to feel our beliefs & ideas are right and someone who disagrees is wrong.  It's an ego thing.  It's not a very good feeling to be proven wrong.  So, we look for and grab onto anything that will justify & prove that we are right.  And we convince ourselves that that we ARE right.  

    Please don't interpret this as me being intentionally rude.  I'm not.  I am just pointing out what I have observed. Based upon certain interactions here with Americans, you did a search and found some articles that you were able to jump upon.  JustAsking was able to find something about the British.  I bet if I looked hard enough, I will find some sites that will confirm the French or Russians believe in conspiracy theories more than any other country.  

    As far as Trump is concerned, in my opinion, he is a by-product of how fed up we are here with our government.  We were lied to and became involved in a war that shouldn't have started.  The economy collapsed.  Obama was a junior Senator, he was a fresh face & he promised change.  That is why he was voted into office twice.  The people running in this last election were all career politicians except Trump.  That is why he was able to gain the following he did.  Many people did not vote because they were disgusted by the choices.  Many people voted for Trump because their hatred for Hillary was greater than their dislike of him.  Most of us recognize our two party system is broken. Did I mention how much we hate our career politicians?  LOL!

    When people are unhappy here in the U.S.  they become very vocal.  Freedom of Speech is VERY important to us as you have seen.  For some of us, the best way for people to get their ideas and opinions across to more than our friends, families, & neighbors is to go online and talk about it.  As far as the conspiracy theorists go, how many people do you think want to listen to that day in and day out from someone they are around all the time? They are told to keep it to themselves.  So, out of frustration, people go online and "speak" their minds.

    Is now a good time to tell you that one of my closest friends is married to a Brit?  They live here and he has become an American Citizen.  I love the guy BUT guess what?  He LOVES Trump.  He is a FOX News junky and during the election process was regurgitating everything they said as if it were the gospel and Trump was the new messiah. His wife was fed up with the conspiracy stuff & refuses to discuss politics with him.  She has warned him to keep it out of social interactions.  But he can't.  He is very vocal about his beliefs and is trying very hard to convince us that he is right.  As I said I love the guy, I think he is a very smart man, but for the life of me, I surely don't understand why he believes everything on that news channel and doesn't go do some research on his own.  Maybe it's just too much work for him or the others that feel as he does.  I really don't know.

      January 14, 2017 4:56 PM MST
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  • I looked up the definition, which said, "a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators."

    If that's the working definition, I can easily (although it would take me some time now) construct an argument that many of the accepted backstories and explanations we have in the US and UK of, say, WW2 are false and that the Allied narrative of reasons given for some of the most important events during the conflict do not stand up to scrutiny.  Two among these events are the bombing of civilian targets in Germany and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The official - and generally accepted - line for both these events in both countries is neither honest nor complete I'm afraid.

    In other words, the authorities in the US and the UK have lied to cover up a reality they were not comfortable with and/or did not think would play well with the general population.  I think that qualifies as a conspiracy theory, but it's very much based in fact and the 'reality' that has been taught in schools at government insistence for decades is little more than a convenient fiction.  :)
      January 14, 2017 6:06 PM MST
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  • 19942
    An over-abundance of tin foil.
      January 15, 2017 10:45 AM MST
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