• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

How Do People Form Conspiracy Theories?

Yahweh

Philosopher
Y
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
Messages
9,006
Heres a few conspiracies I can come up with off the top of my head:
  • We never walked on the moon
  • A missile crashed into the Pentagon, not a plane
  • Oswald was framed as the lone killer
  • There is a worldwide conglomeration of atheist scientists who want to suppress evidence for Creation and fabricate dinosaur bones that "prove" evolution
  • Princess Diana was assassinated
  • A small group called the Illuminati influences [insert any event here] to pursue New World Order
  • Governments inject us with flu shots containing mind controlling substances
  • They also leave chemtrails overhead to infect everybody
  • Governments manufactured AIDS to kill homosexuals
  • Big Pharma is suppressing the cure for AIDS for profit
  • The Holocaust never happened
  • The government has covered up the existence of aliens at Roswell
  • The Japanese mafia has used their weather control device to create Hurricane Katrina (see here for how insane this one gets)
  • Major world leaders are really reptilian aliens in disguise

So, the question is, how and why do people come up with these conspiracies? I think it has something to do with seeing magic in the mundane, but there really has to be more than that.

Comments?
 
Any answer given will be simplistic. But given that: People tend to seek answers and to understand life, this may sound trivial but that is just another oversimplification. Life is, to put it shourt, scary and to control it we need information and understanding.

However, life is also increasingly complex. To understand what is really going on these days in any single subject you need several years of university studies. Either you then accept that many subjects, or indeed events, are too complex for you do understand fully, or you seek to explain them to the best of your abilities. But remember that sceptical thinking, scientific methods, mathematics and the likes are not some innate abilities, it is something we all have to learn. And many of us, frankly, will never get the chance.

There is also something else going on. Having a theory may put you ahead of competition. We all want to feel that we're special. And it is easy enough, I believe, to let that longing for attention and companionship slip into a dangerous self justification. "I know something others don't understand, therefore I'm special". But being special alone isn't really what social animals like us wants. Enter the internet. With the internet you can not only have your special theories, you can share them and very easily find like minded people. Now you're not alone, there's people out there who understands and agrees. Being part of a special group is even better than being special alone. You strengthen each other. And also, of course, the feedback in such a group is not likely rationally constructive, rather destructive. And thus the wheel spins on.

Given the above and a lively fantasy it is not hard to come up with explanations that to your eyes seems just as plausible as the mainstream ideas. However, as most of us know, it isn't that easy. Hence my sig.
 
I think I'll start a thread in Humor where people can make up their own conspiracy theories. Honestly, they are funny in their absurdness.

As to the OP, probably the same reason "magic" or God passes as an explaination for some people. The CT people are more paranoid though.
 
I think it has a lot to do with control. Many people are either unwilling or unable to exert any amount of control over their lives. The poorer and less educated one is, the less control one has over what becomes of one's life.

Some people are able to accept this. For others, however, this isn't very easy to digest. It's hard for a person to say "My life sucks, and it sucks because of the decisions I've made and the person I've decided I'm going to be." It's VERY easy to say "My life sucks because the government is engaged in [insert conspiracy theory here] in order to keep me down."

The more you take responsibility for your life, the less likely you are to buy into crackpot conspiracy theories.
 
Mental Illness.

No, seriously. Believing a conspiracy theory merely requires a modicum of gullibility and a lack of willingness to take responsibility for one's own life and actions. It's easier and more comfortable to accept that someone else, some shadowy force, is manipulating us behind the scenes, than it it to believe that it was our own choices, coupled to some degree with blind chance, that are responsible for our present circumstances. It's not our fault, it's the Man keeping us down. It's all those Liberals/Conseratives/Christians/Queers/Minorities/Illuminatus/Aliens screwing up my life/marriage/country/golf game. It's not pollution and overfarming that's screwing up the soil, it's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay Martians!

But to actually create the sorts of elaborate conspiracy theories that involve secretive international groups and black helicopters requires a level of pathological paranoia only available to those with some sort of schizoid or similar affective mental disorder; or the influence of lots of mind-altering drugs. The logic is simply too convoluted and idiosyncratic for the ordinary, unimaginitive mind to handle.
 
Well, Bobby, when a Mama Conspiracy and a Papa Conspiracy love each other very much, they get together and form a Baby Conspiracy.
 
SkepticJ said:
I think I'll start a thread in Humor where people can make up their own conspiracy theories. Honestly, they are funny in their absurdness.

As to the OP, probably the same reason "magic" or God passes as an explaination for some people. The CT people are more paranoid though.
Click to expand...

Becareful on that one. I read a few interviews with Robert Anton Wilson concerning his and Shea's Illuniatus! Trilogy. He said that even thought he and Shea had fueled the ConTheories that they "made up" with acid and pot, they STILL got letters asking how they knew that information.

I've never been sure if I should laugh because of that info, or cry.....
 
Paranoia, delusional disorder.

Delusional disorder (grandiose) shows up as: an exaggerated idea of identity; knowledge; power; self-worth and importance; a special relationship to God or someone famous; the belief in having a special mission.

 Having dealt with a few hard-core PCTs in my time, I find this quite accurate for many of them. They really believe in their delusion (aliens/Illuminati etc.) and see themselves on a special mission to educate everyone to see "the truth".

So yes, for many of them, I do think that mental illness is quite likely. The hard-core element that is; not the casual doubters about, say, the moon landings.
 
Well, to be fair to the conspiracists, the U.S. government has engaged in conspiracies as far ranging as Iran-Contra which would have sounded pretty far-fetched if you had read it all in a blog instead of reading it all in congressional hearing transcripts.

Also, from 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service deliberately withheld treatment from nearly 400 black men suffering from syphilis in order to document the advancement of the disease. [goggle Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment for more information]

So suspecting that "the man" is not playing by the rules is not as irrational a position as some suggest.

Look at Princess Di's death. If one begins by asking who would benefit, then the resulting list includes arms dealers and military contractors because Princess Di was heading up a global campaign to eliminate land mines. Arms dealers have been known to to some pretty bad things in the past, so suggesting that they might want to kill her and make it look like an accident is not ultra-wacky, but just a little wacky.
 
How about the US government being responsible for millions of dead Americans (because of unapproved drugs)?

An American Genocide, right in your back alley!! Eagerly distributed here on this board... :eek:
 
Fungrim said:
There is also something else going on. Having a theory may put you ahead of competition. We all want to feel that we're special. And it is easy enough, I believe, to let that longing for attention and companionship slip into a dangerous self justification. "I know something others don't understand, therefore I'm special".
Click to expand...

That makes sense. People on those crazy websites always point out "evidence" (like JFK's head arching backwards on that last shot) that's plain and obvious to everyone and making it appear as though they're the only ones who either know it exists, or understand its "true" meaning.
 
John Jackson said:
Paranoia, delusional disorder.

Delusional disorder (grandiose) shows up as: an exaggerated idea of identity; knowledge; power; self-worth and importance; a special relationship to God or someone famous; the belief in having a special mission.

 Having dealt with a few hard-core PCTs in my time, I find this quite accurate for many of them. They really believe in their delusion (aliens/Illuminati etc.) and see themselves on a special mission to educate everyone to see "the truth".

So yes, for many of them, I do think that mental illness is quite likely. The hard-core element that is; not the casual doubters about, say, the moon landings.
Click to expand...
Useless. The label is a descriptive one - it's like asking "Why does person X believe that he's the center of a vast conspiracy, and everyone he encounters is watching him secretly?" and receiving the answer "He's paranoid, that's why."

The word describes the condition. Saying that people convinced they're part of a conspiracy are mentally ill is tautological, given the definition of mentally ill. But that doesn't actually convey any information.
 
Ladewig said:
So suspecting that "the man" is not playing by the rules is not as irrational a position as some suggest.

Look at Princess Di's death. If one begins by asking who would benefit, then the resulting list includes arms dealers and military contractors because Princess Di was heading up a global campaign to eliminate land mines. Arms dealers have been known to to some pretty bad things in the past, so suggesting that they might want to kill her and make it look like an accident is not ultra-wacky, but just a little wacky.
Click to expand...

But thats the difference between a theory about a conspiracy, and a Conspiracy Theory.
It is perfectly rational to believe in conspiracies that you have at l;east some credible evidence for. However the the distinguishing feature of a Conspiracy Theory, is that not only do they need no observable evidence, the lack of that evidence (or massive amounts of evidence against the conspiracy) are treated as evidence for the conspiracy.

"well, if they" are big enough, powerful enough , and smart enough to arrange XX XX, then they must be are big enough, powerful enough , and smart enough to cover it up".

However whenever I hear of a big government Conspiracy Theory I always tell people.

"hey, I work for the government, and we're not competent to even pull that off, let alone cover it up." :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom