[Cog]

I think we understand what conspiracy theories are, although we might disagree with what is a conspiracy theory and what is government, business, or an individual hiding truth from the average Joe. But from observation, whether you consider yourself conservative right or liberal left, it apparently doesn't make a difference where a person is politically left or right on whether a person embraces conspiracy theories or doesn't. In other words, the difference in political philosophy makes no difference if you believe in the weird stuff.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

[MD]

What are your thoughts on this matter?

That it's not worth the thought energy

[jedrider]

What are your thoughts on this matter?

That it's not worth the thought energy

I said EQUAL: The biggest conspiracy is the belief that there IS NO conspiracy

[Ibon]

We need a little suffering and hard time physical reality consequences to get the fools on the right and left out of their self devised prisons inventing conspiracies around every corner. A bored society without vision, passion, direction.

Believing in conspiracies is creating drama and theater in your mind because you can't get it up enough in your real life to be in charge of your own destiny.

[evilgenius]

Once the territory of loner white males reading too many self-published books conspiracy theory seems to have developed a broader base. I've listened to too many friends of mine tell me how the queen is behind everything, or the Fed. It's always someone or something you can't go and verify for yourself, nor find out about through the usual information channels. If those refute it, they call them fake. These things that would mean that thousands of people would have to know about them are somehow not discoverable to the average man. Hmmm, right in the face of human nature, which doesn't necessarily keep secrets when you aren't one of the main perpetrators, let alone that the actual inner circle never seems to battle it out for control in such a way that it would expose them.

I said that conspiracy theorists tend to be conservative because that's my personal experience, and I'm not going to lie about it in order to satisfy some sense of fair play. Yes, there are many liberal conspiracy theorists, but I don't personally know any. People who believe in the existing and verifiable institutions, and who point their fingers at obvious or reasonably suspicious corruption are not conspiracy theorists in my book. Those who attribute patently false assertions toward those same institutions and people may very well be. It's very fashionable these days to lay out a whole bunch of accusations without proof simply because our minds want to believe in such stuff.

I believe the loss of privilege felt by a person or group is the largest cause of conspiracy theory. You hear a lot of talk about rights coming out of the mouths of conspiracy theorists. They are very good about citing their rights. They are not so good at citing the rights of others. They seem to have no understanding of how the world should be divided when everybody has rights. They don't know anything about right-of-way, as opposed to rights. Right-of-way is not a respecter of persons, so its not a good fit to solve the anxiety experienced by the selfish. Instead, they tend to hearken back to an easier day when only the privileged group, which they, of course, belong to, had rights and the other groups didn't. This can lead to charges of racism and sexism that your average conspiracy theorist, who thinks themselves quite enlightened, finds outrageous. What it really comes down to is how back then the question was far more easily answered.

[Plantagenet]

Psychologists have shown that conspiracy theorists can't believe that major historical events occur for the most petty of reasons.

JFK gets shot by a single fanatic communist who is angry about JFK's Cuba policies? Some people just can't believe it. They think that is impossible--it must be a giant conspiracy.

The World Trade Center is brought down by handful of fanatical Jihadis? Some people just can't believe it. It seems impossible--- it must be a giant conspiracy.

Its not a left or right thing----its an aspect of human nature that people think major events must have major forces behind them.

Cheers!

[Outcast_Searcher]

I say equal. The subjects just tend to align with politics. Look at all the left wingers who believe GMO's are some part of a gigantic conspiracy. What's amusing about that to me is how the left says only the right wingers are science deniers, even while being highly irrational about the science behind GMO's.

[SeaGypsy]

Funny, right wingers mostly don't realize they are supporting the elite, under conservativism while left wingers don't realize they are ultimately going to destroy the fabric of the society, by demanding generosity to all comers- under the theory of compassion, humanism. The whole arena is such an incredible mess, the theories do end up being just self talk- impotent regardless of degree of validity. The wise know both left & right will do virtually anything to keep what they've got & get more. Neither are remotely trustworthy. Is that obvious? Or is it a third branch of conspiracy theory?

[Newfie]

Seems pretty obvious to me Sea.

There is only 1 conspiracy I believe in, JFK. I don't know how it happened, I just can't believe Oswald made those shots. Some other details as well.

But that's about the end of it for me.

[mmasters]

I think the right tends to have more common sense, so I would say the left are more prone to conspiracy theories.

[SeaGypsy]

Also there's some weird sectors like Alt-Right, blaming Joos for everything they don't like, walking the steps of Hitler- a hard core socialist. As always, extreme right & extreme left are virtually indistinguishable. When Americans talk about right & left, they are usually talking the few degrees tilt applying to centrism which actually always ends up being the reality in modern democracy.

Centrists have their own bias- against conspiracy theory in general. This has been very easy to amp up by such social media campaigns as 'chemtrails' + the latest twist in stupid- the new flat Earthers. Such complete dickheads give plenty of fuel for defensive centrists to burn up the entire notion of doubt in faith in our beneficiant systems & people in government. This is why 9/11 got put to bed around here- just an example.

[SeaGypsy]

Goebbels is up there somewhere (according to some beliefs) watching this situation unfold (global smart phone in a nutshell) in awe- with a popcorn machine which never turns off. It's awesome. Really.

[Ibon]

So yes, the popcorn is warm and slathered lol

It's no longer entertaining. I am hardly any more engaged. Feels pretty good.

[Newfie]

Re flatearthers

ATM we are on Fogo Island. This is reputed by some flatearthers to be one of the 4 corners of the world. We will be sailing off tomorrow. If you don't hear from us again consider the flat earth to be proven, we will have crossed over to the other side.

[Newfie]

They shortened Seldom. It used to be Seldom Come By. But we can't get down Dildo Run because the mast is too tall. I tried once and bent my tip.

[MD]

This thread is floating off into the ether. Popcorn, anyone?