What events generate conspiracy theories?

[gfunkusarelius]

each CT comes about for different reasons, i think, but it seems there are at least a couple of general categories.

one, i'll call it the Fantasy CT, is based on people's desire to believe something fantastic. the man on mars, area 51, etc, are usually grabbed by people who want to believe in the paranormal, and gov't paranoia, CTs and such come about more as a means to an ends for their desired reality. all the people i know who believe in these things also believe (to some extent) in psychic powers, etc.

two, i would call the belief-based CT, is when people believe so strongly in something, they use CTs to support their beliefs....or destroy the opponents of their beliefs. more simply put, it is typically political weaponry, but religion is basically the same. i think the 9/11 and katrina CTs are flourishing almost completely because of peoples intense distrust and disgust with the GOP here in the states. all the people i work with that believe in these CTs hate Bush and devour anything that demonizes him. i am certain if you laid down some of the clinton CTs, they would say they were ridiculous, so it's got something to do with the bias clouding judgement.

i've also found people who believe in type one often dont believe in type two and vice versa.

 

[valis]

An excellent question.
Why do Princess Di car crash CTs become popular while JFK, jr airplane crash CTs do not?

I think a lot of it depends on how good a story can be made out of it. For instance with Princess Di you have her raising the next King of England while sleeping with a wealthy Moslem. That makes for a great CT.

Why do Kennedy-being-shot CTs become popular while Reagan-being-shot CTs do not?

Again you have an ex Marine, self proclaimed Communist who lived in the USSR shooting the President then he gets killed live on televison a day or two later. C'mon how can you resist a story like that.

What the CT folks forget is a good story is nice but if you can never find any facts to go with you should probably not belive it just because it sounds good.

 

[kookbreaker]

Why do Kennedy-being-shot CTs become popular while Reagan-being-shot CTs do not?

Survival of the perpetrator does a lot to aid in preventing conspiracy theories.

Examples: RFK. A few folks have tried to break out some conspiracy theories on this one, but they tend to fall flat. The motives and actions of Sirhan Sirhan have been spelled out, especially since he was not allowed to plead guilty and the DA forced the issue to trial.

MLK. Again the perpetrator survived. Here some conspiracy theories have risen, but they tend to fall flat as James Earl Ray was the guy who fed them. Ray had confessed, pled guilty, and so a lot of details were never brought out until later. Ray's attempt to paint himself as a patsy in front of the HSCA fell flat as he was exposed as making lie after lie. The fact that the King family bought into his nonsense shows that the King family traded in their father's legacy for some cheap ghetto paranoia.

Reagan. Ronnie lived, which helped, and so did his would-be assasin. The trail that resulted led to more outrage over the insanity verdict rather than revealing anything deep and conspiratorial, and resulted in a change in the US legal system.

Ford. Two attempts on his life, both failed to even injure him. Both assasins caught. Both at trial. No excitement. No hidden details.

 

[Overman]

Easy

Why do some events generate conspiracy theories, but others don't?

Why conspiracy theories about JFK, Lincoln, 9/11, etc... but not for Oklahoma City, Unabomber, James Garfield, shuttle disasters?

Popularity.

For the most part, if it is a popular event it will have a conspiricy theory with a pretty standard ratio of popularity to the popularity to the event.

Unabomber didn't need one because that was intense enough!
Sidenote: The manifesto is a real good read. Check it out. The conclusions that it comes to (killing people) are gross but he brings up some interesting points.

The shuttle disasters....I don't know why there are none...mabye there are!
It would certinly fit in line as a premise to the "We never landed on the moon" CT.

James who?