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YOU ARE NEARLY ALONE with your crackpot theories.

Yes, he is nearly alone with his crackpot theories.

There are a few here that have bought into the theory. But they're pretty much always the same people.

I do actually think most FReepers regard them as crackpots, or at least wrong. Of course, there's no way to know for sure.

I was discussing this a night or two ago with a relative who is studying psychology. She was talking about the various reasons people believe stuff. I told her that one of the reasons people believe stuff is because they are around somebody else who believes it. And that you can come up with a theory pretty much at random, and the evidence can be TOTALLY against it (like the theory it takes birth on US soil plus two citizen parents to make a natural born citizen).

Then I struggled to come up with another example that doesn't involve birthers. I said, "It works better if you can make it sound plausible, and if the evidence is complicated enough that most people won't look at it..."

So I said, "Okay. Here's an example. You could claim that shape-shifting aliens from the planet Kutran, from a star in the constellation Orion, are secretly controlling the United States government. You can then find government documents that don't specifically say that aliens don't exist, and a few people who will claim to be experts, and one or two who will claim to have personal knowledge. And you could get a few people on board, and then because those people are convinced, there are other people who would decide that the whole theory must be a credible one. And in fact, not only credible - it's absolutely true. And then anyone who denies that the theory is true, well, it's because they're an agent of the Kutranians, or perhaps an actual shape-shifting Kutranian in human guise."

"S_______'s boyfriend D_____ basically actually believes that," she replied.