Conspiracy theories: why people need to believe that the truth is hidden out there

I have a buddy that is absolutely convinced that the federal government is constantly spraying the entire country with CHEMTRAILS every day.
When i’m with him he points them out in the sky.
When i’m not with him he emails me to go look up in the sky.
He also has many opinions on 9/11 and bldg 7, Vaccinations, Fluoride in the water, the Illuminati, the Bilderbergs, Depleted Uranium in the ME, etc etc etc.....

Sad part is he is a pretty smart guy.
Strange

One would wonder then about all the star personalities that died. Did they go into hiding? One fascinating parallel was a book written about a ship disaster just like the Titanic. In the story written in the late 1890’s the ship was called “Titan” ... same thing, hit an iceberg.

Say what you want folks, there's something appealing to that nice clean place.

And it comes with shielding on the inside. The outside world is protected. LOL

Psychologist Rob Bretherton talks about his new book and the way suspicion can overcome rationality...

I hope it also covers the irrational belief that every belief outside the norm, is a result of irrational beliefs.

If so, and I highly doubt it, be sure and read your book doctor...

There was a book published about fifteen years ago properly named SELLING FEAR. It had almost all the conspiracy theories in it.

Not in the book above...
Did you know that when THE FUGITIVE was a hot TV show a conspiracy theory came out.
The doctor DID kill his wife. The one armed man saw it.
So for several TV seasons we follow the doctor as he tries to find the one armed man, TO SILENCE HIM.

BS yourself. The questions remain: And who gains from having him in the White House? As opposed to any other random unqualified dip? Really, who puts all the effort necessary over multiple decades to pick him in particular as president? If they were going to put that kind of effort in why not somebody whoâ€™s not an idiot? Who could actually make their agenda work instead of watch it fail? The simple fact is if somebody had the power to choose a president decades ago they’d pick somebody who wasn’t an idiot.

If global warming was a conspiracy there wouldn’t be so much evidence against it. The democrats can “plan” whatever they want, meanwhile the GOP has control of both chambers and most state legislatures and almost certainly going to win the White House next year. They aren’t turncoats, you just fail to understand what they’re actually loyal to (hint: not you, nor any ideology). Conspiracies are in your head, and you blind yourself.

The phrase “Conspiracy Theorist” is used to silence people that are skeptical of certified on the record lying politicians and Establishment sell out lapdog media.

It’s used just like “racist”, “sexist” and “homophob”. There is no difference other than it’s used by some sheep on the right that want to silence people being skeptical of known on the record certified liars.

Like I said it comes from the same media and politicians that have been caught multiple times lying. Why would you still believe them?

No we all know that politicans along with teh filth in the media lie..., but for some reason people want to still believe these known liars that tell half truths?

When you take the time to do YOUR OWN RESEARCH, OUTSIDE WHAT THE CERTIFIED ON THE RECORD LYING MEDIA AND POLITICIANS SPEW ON AN HOURLY BASIS, then you start getting to the truth with facts, evidence and logic that sell out media ignores.

If the media did a fair a balanced job, then talk radio would not be so popular.

A lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction to that. They talk about conspiracy theorists as though conspiracies werenâ€™t real, and I feel sorry for these people because I know they have never read a history book because history is full of conspiracies. Theyâ€™re very real in our present day.

If you doubt that just go to any courtroom and sit there and listen to the cases that come before the judge and before the jury, and a good percentage of them involve conspiracies of one kind or another.

So when people talk about conspiracy theories, I have to laugh. Itâ€™s too bad they donâ€™t know anything about history. They are good obedient Sheeple or slaves.

You are so right, it has been said that the history of the world is the history of conspiracy and that is actually a statement of the obvious. Start with the death of Julius Caesar and list every known conspiracy you can think of since then and if you know much history you will need a lot of paper, yet the world is full of people who use the term “conspiracy theory” as if anyone who believes a conspiracy has ever occurred is a full blown nutcase.

Any crime ever committed that involved two or more people is a conpiracy and that is assuming that a conspiracy must involve wrongdoing.

I like to remind myself of an old song lyric;

Later on we’ll CONSPIRE
as we dream
by the fire
To face unafraid
the PLANS THAT WE MADE
walking in a Winter Wonderland

He probably has some good points on fluoride, you should hear him out heh.

There is clearly a connection between paranoia and belief in conspiracy theories. And yet there are real conspiracies. I think the dividing line is that people who think clearly will come to accept a simpler explanation if it is proven to fit all the facts. But people who are paranoid will always have an emotional feeling that something more complicated and sinister must be going on.

In some cases people who believe in conspiracy theories just have a lack of information. I met someone who believed the moon landing was a hoax because she had seen a TV show about this. She didn't really seem stupid was but young and uninformed. Of course one aspect of this is that there are people who cynically profit from spreading tales of conspiracy that they know are unfounded. If you only expose yourself to others who promote conspiracy theories, then it is easy to become a believer.

I have known some people with paranoia due to mental illness. In some cases they were originally quite intelligent and still are in some respects. But something is going on that has damaged their ability to think logically. So for instance they may think that the police are constantly following them because they see the police every now and then. But they can't accept for very long the rational explanation that the police probably have no time to be following a random law-abiding citizen.

It is true that the conspiracy threads on FR tend to be the most interesting. A long time ago FR didn't seem as much like conspiracy-theory-central, as it does now sometimes. Some conspiracy theories turn out to be true. But the conspiracy theory threads do seem to have a low batting average.

There is clearly a connection between paranoia and belief in conspiracy theories. And yet there are real conspiracies. I think the dividing line is that people who think clearly will come to accept a simpler explanation if it is proven to fit all the facts. But people who are paranoid will always have an emotional feeling that something more complicated and sinister must be going on.

In some cases people who believe in conspiracy theories just have a lack of information. I met someone who believed the moon landing was a hoax because she had seen a TV show about this. She didn't really seem stupid was but young and uninformed. Of course one aspect of this is that there are people who cynically profit from spreading tales of conspiracy that they know are unfounded. If you only expose yourself to others who promote conspiracy theories, then it is easy to become a believer.

I have known some people with paranoia due to mental illness. In some cases they were originally quite intelligent and still are in some respects. But something is going on that has damaged their ability to think logically. So for instance they may think that the police are constantly following them because they see the police every now and then. But they can't accept for very long the rational explanation that the police probably have no time to be following a random law-abiding citizen.

It is true that the conspiracy threads on FR tend to be the most interesting. A long time ago FR didn't seem as much like conspiracy-theory-central, as it does now sometimes. Some conspiracy theories turn out to be true. But the conspiracy theory threads do seem to have a low batting average.

>>People believe conspiracy theories because they have ample experience that they should not believe everything the government tells them, or the MSM, etc.<<

That is skepticism.

Conspiracy nuts are just that — nuts.

“That is skepticism”?

Do you believe Hillary? Do you believe Hillary when she talks about Benghazi? Do you believe Obama, everything he says? Do you believe that Obama is strenuously trying to get across truth to the American people, and that he and Valerie would never get together to conspire to tell the American people a lie?

Do you believe Ryan when he cloaks his desire to increase H1-B visas in the most honest, sincere, noble motives? Do you believe Nancy Pelosi would never, under any circumstances, get together with Harry Reid, who is such an honest person, and contrive to lie to the American people?

How is it that all these freaking liars ALWAYS tell the people the truth? And that is just in the United States. How many times are you told how the Communists murdered tens upon tens of millions of people last century? Why not?

>>Do you believe Hillary? Do you believe Hillary when she talks about Benghazi? Do you believe Obama, everything he says? Do you believe that Obama is strenuously trying to get across truth to the American people, and that he and Valerie would never get together to conspire to tell the American people a lie?

Do you believe Ryan when he cloaks his desire to increase H1-B visas in the most honest, sincere, noble motives? Do you believe Nancy Pelosi would never, under any circumstances, get together with Harry Reid, who is such an honest person, and contrive to lie to the American people?

How is it that all these freaking liars ALWAYS tell the people the truth? And that is just in the United States. How many times are you told how the Communists murdered tens upon tens of millions of people last century? Why not?<<

All positions of a skeptic.

I think you don’t understand what a “conspiracy theorist” is.

“All positions of a skeptic.”

Do you have locks on your doors? If you do, then by your definition, you are a skeptic. Of course, I am skeptical; common sense demands it.

“I think you don’t understand what a “conspiracy theorist” is.”

I do; evidently you don’t. A “conspiracy theorist” can be as wrong as anyone because he is usually guessing. The JFK assassination for example. No one will ever unravel that, but there was certainly more behind it than Lee Harvey Oswald.

I’m sure this “scientist” would think Bonhoefer crazy for considering Adolf Hitler conspiratorial. One or the other side was delusional: the people before the liberation of Poland who thought the Holocaust was happening, or the people after the liberation of Poland who thought the footage of emaciated prisoners was manufactured. Which group was delusional? Did the mass killing of Jews, handicapped, and enemies of the regime really happen while everybody thought things were fine, or did somebody manufacture all that footage? Both theories are a conspiracy. There isn’t an option that no conspiracy happened. Those who try to say there was no conspiracy are the delusional ones. And that has happened every time there really was a conspiracy - and as you say, that has happened often.

If it’s true that nobody’s reasoning is trustworthy, then this guy is just as crazy as the people he says are crazy, and none of us can have any degree of confidence in ANYTHING. So why say that there is a truth? The people who say there are NOT conspiracies when the evidence says otherwise are just as delusional as those who say there are conspiracies in the absence of evidence.

What is supposed to matter is the EVIDENCE, and blowing off a theory because you’re unwilling to look at EVIDENCE makes a person the crazy one. Right now that basic premise has been lost; people run around thinking they are sensible because they think like most people, not because the evidence supports anything they believe. It’s crazy.

Did the IRS target conservatives and then (initially) hide the evidence, lie about it, obstruct justice, shred evidence, etc? Did the Obama regime make up a lie about what happened at Benghazi? Did what belonged to secured GM investors end up in the hands of the unions? Did the Obama regime give money and support to both the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS while withholding support from the Iranians who resisted sharia? Etc.

Refusing to look at evidence is a choice to place your confidence in group-think rather than evidence, and given the stupidity of the majority of America’s masses and the deceptions and outright lies of the media the majority listen to, THAT is the stupidest idea around.

There’s a lot of evidence that says otherwise, including (among MANY other things) a criminal investigation into WHO forged a birth certificate and draft registration for Obama, and a signed statement from a media personality confirming that the media companies threatened their on-air personalities with the loss of their careers or worse if they allowed Obama’s ineligibility or Muslim leanings to be discussed. There are other things too, like the people working with the Hillary campaign who were preparing for Clinton’s exposure of Obama’s ineligibility at the Dem convention - a plan which fell flat when 2 of the people who pledged to set the stage for the exposure fell dead in succession within the 2 weeks before the Dem convention. Another who worked with the Hillary campaign says the higher-ups in the campaign told her that Hillary gave up on fighting when Chelsea’s life was threatened.

There are a lot of trolls here on FR who alter the perception of “normal”, but the “normal” people that I’ve spoken to - generally apolitical and agnostic about an issue because they haven’t looked at the evidence - when shown the evidence, are convinced. They knew something was not right - as polls show VAST majorities in America saying the country is going the wrong way - and the evidence made sense out of what they had seen but not dug into trying to explain.

The strong approval that Trump has now supports the idea that a lot of people don’t trust the official story line we are constantly given. Trump was supposedly annihilated/humiliated when Obama presented the “birth certificate” that is now the subject of a criminal investigation. Trump didn’t give us the mealy-mouthed, brainless, politically-correct responses in the past; law enforcement has vindicated him and the public noticed. Somebody spoke common sense to us rather than politically-correct “media-approved” drivel. And the more he confronts the media drivel, the more his approval soars. The public knows it has been lied to. They know the media has an agenda/conspiracy and don’t trust them.

Slowly, as evidence rolls in, people are waking up. I hope it’s not too late.

Seems like this scientist is saying that we’re ALL just guessing.

So how can anybody know anything?

None of that is evidence. 99% of it is rumor mongering, all of it is completely unsubstantiated, and it all fails to answer the core questions: why? That’s a lot of work for no gain at all.

Polls show the vast majority of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction all the time, since at least the 80s. Especially during the end of a president’s second term. It’s a historical trend.

The approval Trump has now shows exactly how Obie won without a conspiracy: cult of personality. A good TV cult can work wonders.

There is no evidence. Because there is no conspiracy. Conspiracy theories always run into the same 2 problems: how could any group be so smart as to pull all that off and yet so dumb as to let you catch them, and why in blazes would they go through all that work for so little reward. When you can answer those 2 I’ll believe you might be onto something.

You’re not listening. They had to forge documents and they got away with it by threats. How did they get caught? Because their forgeries were piss-poor - I believe because somebody within the system resisted. Sort of like the Benghazi heroes didn’t do as they were told... (and yes, that is fact, and denying it will NOT make it go away).

So little gain? If you really believe that, you are an idiot beyond any reasoning ability. The world is on fire, with the USA being totally destroyed. Nothing gained? If you’re the sworn enemy of America and of freedom (such as the Islamists and communists that Obama has pal-ed around with his whole life, who funded and organized his education, and who have said they would destroy us by exploiting our gullibility), you’ve gained EVERYTHING by putting this impostor into our White House. Of all the claims I’ve heard the trolls make, this is the stupidest one yet. Not enough at stake? Good Lord!!!

One State of HI death certificate - issued with official DOH seal - had T.H. on it, for Territory of Hawaii. Somebody in the DOH had to go out of their way to import that anomaly onto that death certificate (replacing “State of Hawaii” with mismatched, misaligned font saying T.H.), making it clear that it was a forgery, even though issued by the DOH itself. Somebody in the DOH deliberately put that red flag there. What other explanation is there?

I don’t have time to try to talk sense to trolls. You just told me that the criminal investigation I mentioned is “rumor mongering” and “unsubstantiated”. If you can’t even recognize what is fact and what is not, there’s no point talking to you. Goodbye.