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There's a lot of stupidity on both ends of the political spectrum, but the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation because it's essenti

There's a lot of stupidity on both ends of the political spectrum, but the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation because it's essentially a bunch of political viewpoints that culminate to: government is bad. Just look at a list of popular conspiracy theories, if you start to label each one... there are generally common threads of anti-government rhetoric. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories Everything from chemtrails to roswell and the moon landing hinge on "the government is trying to fool you" rhetoric. There are plenty of dangerously bad liberal-leaning conspiracy theories (liberals and conservatives share fault for anti-vax), but it seems fairly obvious that conservative-based theories outpace them in volume.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation True, but probably not for the reason you describe. Anxiety is a prominent undertone in conservative psychology [1]. That is the nexus conservatism shares with conspiracy theories. (Note that "liberal" and "conservative@ don't neatly map to modern political parties in almost any democracy.) [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-political-wars/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-pol...
martin1975 9y ago
yeah, as opposed to liberal trash that makes every corporation that hires nearly 100 million Americans evil... I get your point. Perhaps its something about "truth assessment" websites that gives me the heebie-jeebies.
taway7241111 9y ago
>the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation because it's essentially a bunch of political viewpoints that culminate to: government is bad. As opposed to a bunch of viewpoints that essentially culminate into "white people are bad" "men are bad" "rich people are bad" "businesses are bad" "religion is bad" and lately "free speech is bad". You talking about a group that has completely whipped itself into the following frenzies over the past several months: 0) Russia has secret blackmail information that includes Donald Trump urinating on underage prostitutes. 1) Donald Trump is an actual Nazi Fascist and the future of the world is in danger. You should flee the country. 2) Donald Trump is secretly a Russian Spy. 3) JILL STEIN is secretly a Russian Spy. These aren't fringe conspiracy theories. These are mainstream things being pumped on shows like Rachel Maddow's. EVERYON has their loonies, and there are just as many on both sides of the spectrum. Othering conservatives helps no-one, and IMHO is the type of thing that caused DJT (who is a joke) to be elected.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation True, but probably not for the reason you describe. Anxiety is a prominent undertone in conservative psychology [1]. That is the nexus conservatism shares with conspiracy theories. (Note that "liberal" and "conservative@ don't neatly map to modern political parties in almost any democracy.) [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-political-wars/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-pol...

martin1975 9y ago

yeah, as opposed to liberal trash that makes every corporation that hires nearly 100 million Americans evil... I get your point. Perhaps its something about "truth assessment" websites that gives me the heebie-jeebies.

taway7241111 9y ago

>the nature of conservatism seems more prone to conspiracy generation because it's essentially a bunch of political viewpoints that culminate to: government is bad. As opposed to a bunch of viewpoints that essentially culminate into "white people are bad" "men are bad" "rich people are bad" "businesses are bad" "religion is bad" and lately "free speech is bad". You talking about a group that has completely whipped itself into the following frenzies over the past several months: 0) Russia has secret blackmail information that includes Donald Trump urinating on underage prostitutes. 1) Donald Trump is an actual Nazi Fascist and the future of the world is in danger. You should flee the country. 2) Donald Trump is secretly a Russian Spy. 3) JILL STEIN is secretly a Russian Spy. These aren't fringe conspiracy theories. These are mainstream things being pumped on shows like Rachel Maddow's. EVERYON has their loonies, and there are just as many on both sides of the spectrum. Othering conservatives helps no-one, and IMHO is the type of thing that caused DJT (who is a joke) to be elected.