Research suggests, on a psychological level, conspiracist ideation—belief in conspiracy theories—can be harmful or pathological, and is highly correlated with psychological projection, as well as with paranoia, which is predicted by the degree of a person’s Machiavellianism.
I think it’s a bit dangerous to label all conspiracy theorists as nuts.
Epstein didn’t kill himself is a conspiracy theory and so was an elite pedo ring before he was arrested. Trump taking money from the Russian and Saudies is a conspiracy theory.
This current one is silly but not because all conspiracies are.
Of course there are conspiracies. People in power want to stay in power, and they’ll do shady things to get what they want.
That’s not the same as conspiracist ideation, which is a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Even as the article I quoted said, it can be harmful or pathological, but isn’t necessarily. It’s just when it happens to an extreme level. There’s a difference between rational fears and phobias; intrusive thoughts are normal, but can be frequent, uncontrollable, and distressing; conspiracies can be true, but then there’s buck wild nonsense like Q, “Cultural Marxism,” and this shit about the Superbowl. It’s not recognizing conspiracies when presented with evidence, it’s spinning conspiracy theories out of nothing, and viewing everything as part of a master plot, even if it doesn’t make any goddamn sense.
It used to be a laugh, it was fun to play what-if and talk about aliens and Bilderberg meetings. Obviously the rich and powerful are plotting to run the world right? Art Bell, the X-Files, it was all so much fun. At some point, and I’m not really sure when, it went completely off the rails though. It’s not fun anymore.
The term “conspiracy theory” is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule.[55] In his 2013 book Conspiracy Theory in America, political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith wrote that the term entered everyday language in the United States after 1964, the year in which the Warren Commission published its findings on the Kennedy assassination, with The New York Times running five stories that year using the term.[56]
wiki
I think it’s a bit dangerous to label all conspiracy theorists as nuts.
Epstein didn’t kill himself is a conspiracy theory and so was an elite pedo ring before he was arrested. Trump taking money from the Russian and Saudies is a conspiracy theory.
This current one is silly but not because all conspiracies are.
I never said that, to be fair.
Of course there are conspiracies. People in power want to stay in power, and they’ll do shady things to get what they want.
That’s not the same as conspiracist ideation, which is a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Even as the article I quoted said, it can be harmful or pathological, but isn’t necessarily. It’s just when it happens to an extreme level. There’s a difference between rational fears and phobias; intrusive thoughts are normal, but can be frequent, uncontrollable, and distressing; conspiracies can be true, but then there’s buck wild nonsense like Q, “Cultural Marxism,” and this shit about the Superbowl. It’s not recognizing conspiracies when presented with evidence, it’s spinning conspiracy theories out of nothing, and viewing everything as part of a master plot, even if it doesn’t make any goddamn sense.
It used to be a laugh, it was fun to play what-if and talk about aliens and Bilderberg meetings. Obviously the rich and powerful are plotting to run the world right? Art Bell, the X-Files, it was all so much fun. At some point, and I’m not really sure when, it went completely off the rails though. It’s not fun anymore.
The term “conspiracy theory” is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule.[55] In his 2013 book Conspiracy Theory in America, political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith wrote that the term entered everyday language in the United States after 1964, the year in which the Warren Commission published its findings on the Kennedy assassination, with The New York Times running five stories that year using the term.[56]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory