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George Monbiot I met my local conspiracy theorist

jimbob

Uncritical "thinker"
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jimbob
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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...ce-to-face-with-his-local-conspiracy-theorist

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset … Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? There’s only one way to find out: ask a believer
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He comes to the conclusion it's comforting.

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Conspiracy fictions also tell us we don’t have to act. If the problem is a remote and highly unlikely Other – rather than a system in which we’re deeply embedded, which demands a democratic campaign of resistance and reconstruction – you can wash your hands of it and get on with your life. They free us from civic responsibility. This may be why those who take an interest in conspiracy fictions are so seldom interested in genuine conspiracies.
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I can accept the conclusion that it's comforting. Psychology comes to a similar conclusion: it's self-actuating and ego-reinforcing. Neuroscience comes to a similar conclusion: a measurable neurological payoff occurs when one contemplates to have discovered something hidden.

I don't think George will have much luck getting "conspiracy fantasists" to stick, and restoring "conspiracy theorist" to a less burdened definition. So I'll stick with the definitions we've been using all along.

Conspiracy theorists don't care about real conspiracies largely because someone else discovered them, and they have been normalized to a certain degree. The conspiracy theory is not the focus of attention. The conspiracy theorist is. Conspiracy theories are shortcuts to an illusion of erudition; they make the people who entertain them feel smart. Conspiracy theories are believed by only the "favored few;" they make people who entertain them feel special. None of that is satisfied by adopting mainstream conspiracies.

I think it doesn't matter that the conspiracy theories themselves might spell doom and despair. The purpose it serves for the conspiracy theorists is to reassure them that they are on the right side of history, and that they have the tools necessary to not be fooled by the Powers That Be. This is comforting, in a strange way.
 
JayUtah said:
Conspiracy theorists don't care about real conspiracies largely because someone else discovered them, and they have been normalized to a certain degree. The conspiracy theory is not the focus of attention. The conspiracy theorist is. Conspiracy theories are shortcuts to an illusion of erudition; they make the people who entertain them feel smart. Conspiracy theories are believed by only the "favored few;" they make people who entertain them feel special.
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed a pattern of conspiracy theorists going out of their way to tell us how smart they are. What their IQ is, how their teachers were always telling them how super smart they were, how they outsmarted college professors, etc.

If you have to go out of your way to remind people how clever you are, then you probably aren't that clever, because the way to show you're clever is by being clever, not by talking about being clever.
 
Well, in my university days, I scored very high in the self-administered preliminary Mensa entry IQ test.

But that may just have been part of a conspiracy to get me to pay a chunk of my grant to take the Mensa administered test... :cool:
 
How do we differentiate between "true believers" and those perpetuating nonsense for attention or more malign intent? I believe this forum is far more likely to attract the latter these days, though I may be in breach of the rules if I quote examples.
 
I did think there was an element from Monbiot of ‘your conspiracy craziness is conspiracy fiction, my conspiracy theories are of course correct’, which seems to be what most conspiracy theorists would say (and indeed anyone who strays from critical thinking in whatever sphere, so most of us).
 
I went to Douai, George went to Elstree (when he was a young kid!). Hurrah. We both didn't much like our schools.

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gypsyjackson said:
I did think there was an element from Monbiot of ‘your conspiracy craziness is conspiracy fiction, my conspiracy theories are of course correct’, which seems to be what most conspiracy theorists would say (and indeed anyone who strays from critical thinking in whatever sphere, so most of us).
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Well, that would be the case were it not the case that most of his written pieces contain links to the research that he is referencing.
 
JayUtah said:
I can accept the conclusion that it's comforting.
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Massively SNIPPED

I'm not too worried about the conclusions of CTs. The reasoning that leads them to their conclusions, on the other hand, makes me worry - worry that these people are allowed to serve on juries.

I'd recommend comprehension tests for jurors. On that, my English teacher 'married' Greg Rusedski! So, it's Fr Oliver's fault. Ollie did take us to see both AC/DC and Duran Duran, mind you! 40+ years' ago.
 
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bknight said:
Well stated Jay. Those individuals do feel that they are special "knowing" something that others don't
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I debate Holocaust deniers, a lot, on RODOH.

That is certainly true, they are convinced they have reached a special level of understanding and the rest of a sheeple and fools. Pointing out that they cannot evidence what really happened and millions of Jews still alive in 1945, their heavy reliance on arguments using logical fallacies in lieu of evidence and that their claims about witness lying are best explained by normal witness failures of memory and recollection, has little to no effect.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
How do we differentiate between "true believers" and those perpetuating nonsense for attention or more malign intent? I believe this forum is far more likely to attract the latter these days, though I may be in breach of the rules if I quote examples.
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I think that conspiracies such as flat earth are more likely to be attention seekers. Holocaust denial is certainly malign.
 
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