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This is interesting and IMO generally true. But, not everything that is called a conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory. Asking “who benefits from this policy
by jrs95 8y ago
This is interesting and IMO generally true. But, not everything that is called a conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory. Asking “who benefits from this policy, and are they in a position to have influence in creating or maintaining it?” is not inherently a conspiracy theory. But anyone who’s doing something different from what they’re saying would prefer you didn’t notice. And if people are noticing, they’d probably want to dismiss their critics with whatever means they could. Including dismissing legitimate criticism and skepticism as paranoid conspiracy theories. This is especially confusing because there is overlap between actual conspiracies or at the very least dishonest politics/leadership and what people prone to paranoia and conspiracism would be more likely to think about. I just don’t like the idea of people allowing the charicture of a conspiracy theorist to stop them from thinking critically about the information they are being presented.
- codezero 8y agoI read some of the article and I don’t think the findings make statements about the existence of conspiracy theories, but rather attribute individuals who attribute conspiracy to a number of things to a cognitive bias. Individual conspiracy theories have sometimes panned out to be real but that doesn’t mean one who leans towards conspiracism to explain things is right.
- empath75 8y agoI would argue that a true conspiracy theorist doesn’t just believe that a single event was the result of a single group of people, but that the conspiracy is near omnipotent and responsible for many unrelated terrible things. It’s one thing, for example, to believe that some aspect of the 9/11 story doesn’t hold up — perhaps that you believe the government covered up for Saudi involvement. That may be right or wrong, but it’s at least something that’s plausible. A true conspiracy theorist would believe that the whole thing was made up and never happened, or that the whole thing was planned and executed by the Illuminati, who have been working together for centuries to control the masses through mind control.
- dudul 8y agoI don't disagree with this comment, but unfortunately the label is also used against the people described in your 2nd paragraph.