What motivates all contrarians? Anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, Trumpers, Haskell programmers (kidding). There was a very insightful article on HN a year or so a

What motivates all contrarians? Anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, Trumpers, Haskell programmers (kidding). There was a very insightful article on HN a year or so ago, which explored "The Dangers of Being Right". Many people see personal value and being right interchangeably. At the unhappiest times of my career, where I've felt the most under-valued, I remember becoming fixated on being right, or more importantly, never being wrong. My take on many of the conspiracy theorists is there is some underlying feeling of insecurity and diminished personal value. Being "right" in a situation where everyone else is wrong, affords them some personal value their lives otherwise lack. In reference to the article, the hyper-masculinity element is the superficial element. What underlies it is diminished value (i.e. feeling emasculated), perhaps through economic insecurity.