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> When people adopt conspiracy theories, they are unsatisfied with some aspect of their place in the world and they may feel no one is caring for them properly.

> When people adopt conspiracy theories, they are unsatisfied with some aspect of their place in the world and they may feel no one is caring for them properly. Or they feel that the world is behaving improperly and they want it to return to the state they are used to. It is very easy to blame one group. Either that or something else entirely. I personally know a few people I would firmly place in the conspiracy corner. What I noticed are very different motivations for conspiracy theories (the absurd ones). Some use it for fun, some for boredom, some to get/have an explanation, some to have a sense or a mix of them and there are certainly more aspects to it. > It is very hard to realize that every human is an individual actor with their own emotions and motivations and moral history. But you would not deny that conspiracies do exist, right? The term is so widely misused, that I want to make clear that conspiracy theories in their actual meaning doesn't tell you if they are absurd or not. We saw with Iraq war and NSA mass surveillance how this can actually happen and stay clandestine for quite some time.

csours 4y ago
It's very interesting to me that I've gotten two comments asking if I believe that conspiracies happen. Of course they happen. But it's pretty rare for a conspiracy to be responsible for everything bad happening to a person. Most conspiracy theories are motivation theories - I believe that this group has a reason to collude for these reasons. If that motivation is real, it's entirely likely that something LIKE that conspiracy is happening or has happened. False Flag operations do exist, but not everything is a False Flag. The problem with conspiracy theories is that when you start believing them, you start defending them, and that's when families get angry at each other and split and people get cut off from their usual support groups.
- AnonCoward42 4y ago
  > It's very interesting to me that I've gotten two comments asking if I believe that conspiracies happen. Of course they happen. But it's pretty rare for a conspiracy to be responsible for everything bad happening to a person. Yeah, I actually expected you to mean the absurd, but I wanted to make clear that conspiracy theories are not the same as absurd as this gets too often conflated. > Most conspiracy theories are motivation theories - I believe that this group has a reason to collude for these reasons. If that motivation is real, it's entirely likely that something LIKE that conspiracy is happening or has happened. False Flag operations do exist, but not everything is a False Flag. From my intuition I'd say False Flag happens very rarely, yeah (but it erodes trust). And I would go a bit further and say that only because something is plausible doesn't mean it's likely, but the lower bound of my statement would be to not outright deny the possibility. We are mostly in agreement here to be clear. > The problem with conspiracy theories is that when you start believing them, you start defending them, and that's when families get angry at each other and split and people get cut off from their usual support groups. That's not exclusive to conspiracy theories. Everything slightly political can easily make people angry including myself (tho not resentful). One needs to gauge with whom you can talk about political topics even if disagreeing. I personally do this less/not online tho, except for people I know for longer.
michael1999 4y ago
I've been trying out "conspiracy fantasies" instead. I'm trying to clarify when my objection is to the plausibility, or lack of evidence, rather than deny the possibility of conspiracy. The 20th century was so much the product of conspiracies that it is childish to deny their power. The Bolshevik revolution, the Nazis, and COINTELPRO were all disturbingly successful conspiracies, and involved many secret plans despite their size. When the conspiracy fantasy is personal ("they" are out to get me, and screwed me at the DMZ), "paranoid conspiracy fantasy" is traditional. Not that this solves anything. People discussing ECHELON in the 80s were called fantasists. And many react to descriptions of room 641A the same way despite the pictures. Arendt's concept of reconciliation is a helpful tool for making my own sense of other people's sense-making.

csours 4y ago

It's very interesting to me that I've gotten two comments asking if I believe that conspiracies happen. Of course they happen. But it's pretty rare for a conspiracy to be responsible for everything bad happening to a person. Most conspiracy theories are motivation theories - I believe that this group has a reason to collude for these reasons. If that motivation is real, it's entirely likely that something LIKE that conspiracy is happening or has happened. False Flag operations do exist, but not everything is a False Flag. The problem with conspiracy theories is that when you start believing them, you start defending them, and that's when families get angry at each other and split and people get cut off from their usual support groups.

AnonCoward42 4y ago
> It's very interesting to me that I've gotten two comments asking if I believe that conspiracies happen. Of course they happen. But it's pretty rare for a conspiracy to be responsible for everything bad happening to a person. Yeah, I actually expected you to mean the absurd, but I wanted to make clear that conspiracy theories are not the same as absurd as this gets too often conflated. > Most conspiracy theories are motivation theories - I believe that this group has a reason to collude for these reasons. If that motivation is real, it's entirely likely that something LIKE that conspiracy is happening or has happened. False Flag operations do exist, but not everything is a False Flag. From my intuition I'd say False Flag happens very rarely, yeah (but it erodes trust). And I would go a bit further and say that only because something is plausible doesn't mean it's likely, but the lower bound of my statement would be to not outright deny the possibility. We are mostly in agreement here to be clear. > The problem with conspiracy theories is that when you start believing them, you start defending them, and that's when families get angry at each other and split and people get cut off from their usual support groups. That's not exclusive to conspiracy theories. Everything slightly political can easily make people angry including myself (tho not resentful). One needs to gauge with whom you can talk about political topics even if disagreeing. I personally do this less/not online tho, except for people I know for longer.

michael1999 4y ago

I've been trying out "conspiracy fantasies" instead. I'm trying to clarify when my objection is to the plausibility, or lack of evidence, rather than deny the possibility of conspiracy. The 20th century was so much the product of conspiracies that it is childish to deny their power. The Bolshevik revolution, the Nazis, and COINTELPRO were all disturbingly successful conspiracies, and involved many secret plans despite their size. When the conspiracy fantasy is personal ("they" are out to get me, and screwed me at the DMZ), "paranoid conspiracy fantasy" is traditional. Not that this solves anything. People discussing ECHELON in the 80s were called fantasists. And many react to descriptions of room 641A the same way despite the pictures. Arendt's concept of reconciliation is a helpful tool for making my own sense of other people's sense-making.