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Oh and didn't the WMD fraud come out internally ? Tell me one NASA or JPL scientist officially on the mission who is claiming that it was fake ? Stop being con

Oh and didn't the WMD fraud come out internally ? Tell me one NASA or JPL scientist officially on the mission who is claiming that it was fake ? Stop being contrarian for the sake of it .

ceilingcorner 6y ago
As I said, I’m not defending the moon landing doubters. But it seems obvious to me that the recent increase in conspiracy theories is a direct result of unethical institutional and government actions coming to light.
- tgv 6y ago
  Like flat earth and anti-vax? To me, it seems more obvious that that's the effect of attention and manipulation in media, both "classic" and social. A suspicious attitude institutions has always existed: from the government down to the grocer, who pushes the scales down while weighing. The more the attention is drawn towards it, the greater the suspicion gets, and I feel that especially divisive attention feeds suspicion. When behavior of an institution, such as the Trump administration, is not beyond reproach, it feeds the attention cycle.
  - ceilingcorner 6y ago
    The Flat Earth thing makes no sense to me, but regarding Anti-Vax: again, not defending them, but it’s trivially easy to find examples of governments (worldwide) deceptively giving people medicine which had a negative effect on their health, whether as experimentation, sterilization, or otherwise. The fact that vaccines are scientifically known to be safe is just lost in the noise. I attribute the rise of conspiracy theories to an overabundance of information; doing the research on each individual topic is just overwhelming to the average person and subsequently a simplistic conspiracy theory has appeal.
    - tgv 6y ago
      I mention flat earth and anti-vax, because they are conspiracy theories that are not obviously driven by the government's behavior.
      - ceilingcorner 6y ago
        I am not too familiar with either, but in my view they are definitely associated with ‘authority’ whether then be mainstream media, government, institutions, etc.
        tgv 6y ago
        Sure, but where I live, these are still held in high regard, yet anti-vax and flat earth spread here too. I don't think the institutions are the direct drivers of conspiracies. Perhaps I should have made clearer that it was in particular the word "direct" that I was responding too, not the fact that unethical or shady behavior from a government can trigger long-lasting distrust.
    - api 6y ago
      My pet theory on the flat Earth is that it's been pushed in order to compile lists of extremely gullible people by scraping social media so that these lists can be used later. For what? Who knows. Targets of scams, marketing, propaganda...
      - bcrl 6y ago
        Nah, some AI just figured out it was an easy way to get more clicks on YouTube.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- kstenerud 6y ago
  It's actually the result of a natural civilization cycle where falling living standards and increased intra-elite competition and conflict erodes the public trust in its institutions and leads to political unrest. America is now in the thick of it (starting around 1970 and culminating in the last decade), and so trust will remain low and conspiracy theories high for years to come yet (not to mention the riots). https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7ahqn/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7ahqn/
- laumars 6y ago
  I think conspiracy theories fill the same void as religion does. It’s for people who want to believe in a higher truth, that someone more powerful is constantly pulling the proverbial strings and the universe isn’t just a chaotic series of random events. And I believe, like religion, that those who love conspiracy theories are less interested in researching those facts themselves because they’ve come to rely on their assumptions for comfort and their peers for unity. In short, it’s less about the actual conspiracy and more about the individual needing something more in life.
kungato 6y ago
Did it come internally? Didn't it just become obvious once they got there and nothing was there? Apologies, I'm not from the US so I didn't follow that closely
seppin 6y ago
> Stop being contrarian for the sake of it . That would eliminate the need for this website almost entirely.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  Definitely applies to many threads.
  - krapp 6y ago
    No it doesn't.
    - seppin 6y ago
      Haha.

Oh and didn't the WMD fraud come out internally ? Tell me one NASA or JPL scientist officially on the mission who is claiming that it was fake ? Stop being contrarian for the sake of it .

ceilingcorner 6y ago

As I said, I’m not defending the moon landing doubters. But it seems obvious to me that the recent increase in conspiracy theories is a direct result of unethical institutional and government actions coming to light.

tgv 6y ago
Like flat earth and anti-vax? To me, it seems more obvious that that's the effect of attention and manipulation in media, both "classic" and social. A suspicious attitude institutions has always existed: from the government down to the grocer, who pushes the scales down while weighing. The more the attention is drawn towards it, the greater the suspicion gets, and I feel that especially divisive attention feeds suspicion. When behavior of an institution, such as the Trump administration, is not beyond reproach, it feeds the attention cycle.
- ceilingcorner 6y ago
  The Flat Earth thing makes no sense to me, but regarding Anti-Vax: again, not defending them, but it’s trivially easy to find examples of governments (worldwide) deceptively giving people medicine which had a negative effect on their health, whether as experimentation, sterilization, or otherwise. The fact that vaccines are scientifically known to be safe is just lost in the noise. I attribute the rise of conspiracy theories to an overabundance of information; doing the research on each individual topic is just overwhelming to the average person and subsequently a simplistic conspiracy theory has appeal.
  - tgv 6y ago
    I mention flat earth and anti-vax, because they are conspiracy theories that are not obviously driven by the government's behavior.
    - ceilingcorner 6y ago
      I am not too familiar with either, but in my view they are definitely associated with ‘authority’ whether then be mainstream media, government, institutions, etc.
      - tgv 6y ago
        Sure, but where I live, these are still held in high regard, yet anti-vax and flat earth spread here too. I don't think the institutions are the direct drivers of conspiracies. Perhaps I should have made clearer that it was in particular the word "direct" that I was responding too, not the fact that unethical or shady behavior from a government can trigger long-lasting distrust.
  - api 6y ago
    My pet theory on the flat Earth is that it's been pushed in order to compile lists of extremely gullible people by scraping social media so that these lists can be used later. For what? Who knows. Targets of scams, marketing, propaganda...
    - bcrl 6y ago
      Nah, some AI just figured out it was an easy way to get more clicks on YouTube.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
kstenerud 6y ago
It's actually the result of a natural civilization cycle where falling living standards and increased intra-elite competition and conflict erodes the public trust in its institutions and leads to political unrest. America is now in the thick of it (starting around 1970 and culminating in the last decade), and so trust will remain low and conspiracy theories high for years to come yet (not to mention the riots). https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7ahqn/ https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7ahqn/
laumars 6y ago
I think conspiracy theories fill the same void as religion does. It’s for people who want to believe in a higher truth, that someone more powerful is constantly pulling the proverbial strings and the universe isn’t just a chaotic series of random events. And I believe, like religion, that those who love conspiracy theories are less interested in researching those facts themselves because they’ve come to rely on their assumptions for comfort and their peers for unity. In short, it’s less about the actual conspiracy and more about the individual needing something more in life.

kungato 6y ago

Did it come internally? Didn't it just become obvious once they got there and nothing was there? Apologies, I'm not from the US so I didn't follow that closely

seppin 6y ago

> Stop being contrarian for the sake of it . That would eliminate the need for this website almost entirely.

mav3rick 6y ago
Definitely applies to many threads.
- krapp 6y ago
  No it doesn't.
  - seppin 6y ago
    Haha.