3 ms·

Conspiracy theorists are maximalists, so when they take credit for getting something correct they rarely acknowledge how far they overshot.

shrubble 3y ago
Did you have a particular example in mind?
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  There's a class of conspiracy theorist who ties everything into a grand unified theory, usually anti-Semitic. Some are anti Jesuit. They're not picky about conspiracy theories, they like them all. So the moon landing was faked, argument over the origin of Covid was suppressed, mkultra happened, because ... The Jews, somehow, for some reason. This is usually who is meant when "conspiracy theorist" is used. A recent example is Epstein. Epstein ingratiated himself to powerful people to preserve his human trafficking operation. Some of those powerful people partook in his sex trade. He may have had connections to intelligence agencies. This was all varying degrees of a conspiracy theory ~five years ago and some people got this right. But you have to be careful because there's a lot of conspiracy theorists who believe that Epstein's operation was harvesting adrenochrome from children for the benefit of those powerful people. Either as an anti-aging drug or as a satanic ritual, which explains how the powerful people became powerful. Epstein and his associates were/are evil perverts, they're not satanically powered. The people who manage to avoid the adrenochrome level of theorizing are interesting and may be worth listening to on certain subjects. It's unfortunate that there's not more people in that category. They mostly dodge the label "conspiracy theorist", depending on what they talk about.
  - shrubble 3y ago
    I think you are saying that not every CTist is a "maximalist" as you put it. A lot of CT is just being skeptical about things and trying to reconcile either "statements against interest" or actions that are not congruent with a person's position in society or the government. Since CT is usually anonymous as to the person advancing it, is it reasonable to assume that for instance, the "flat earth theory" might be in fact advanced as a form of "false flag" in order to discredit other theories, even on a different subject? A way to "increase the noise to signal ratio" as it were?
    - kevinmchugh 3y ago
      Flat earth is a very long-lived conspiracy theory, believed and pushed by a lot of unrelated individuals and largely because of the way they understand the Bible.

shrubble 3y ago

Did you have a particular example in mind?

kevinmchugh 3y ago
There's a class of conspiracy theorist who ties everything into a grand unified theory, usually anti-Semitic. Some are anti Jesuit. They're not picky about conspiracy theories, they like them all. So the moon landing was faked, argument over the origin of Covid was suppressed, mkultra happened, because ... The Jews, somehow, for some reason. This is usually who is meant when "conspiracy theorist" is used. A recent example is Epstein. Epstein ingratiated himself to powerful people to preserve his human trafficking operation. Some of those powerful people partook in his sex trade. He may have had connections to intelligence agencies. This was all varying degrees of a conspiracy theory ~five years ago and some people got this right. But you have to be careful because there's a lot of conspiracy theorists who believe that Epstein's operation was harvesting adrenochrome from children for the benefit of those powerful people. Either as an anti-aging drug or as a satanic ritual, which explains how the powerful people became powerful. Epstein and his associates were/are evil perverts, they're not satanically powered. The people who manage to avoid the adrenochrome level of theorizing are interesting and may be worth listening to on certain subjects. It's unfortunate that there's not more people in that category. They mostly dodge the label "conspiracy theorist", depending on what they talk about.
- shrubble 3y ago
  I think you are saying that not every CTist is a "maximalist" as you put it. A lot of CT is just being skeptical about things and trying to reconcile either "statements against interest" or actions that are not congruent with a person's position in society or the government. Since CT is usually anonymous as to the person advancing it, is it reasonable to assume that for instance, the "flat earth theory" might be in fact advanced as a form of "false flag" in order to discredit other theories, even on a different subject? A way to "increase the noise to signal ratio" as it were?
  - kevinmchugh 3y ago
    Flat earth is a very long-lived conspiracy theory, believed and pushed by a lot of unrelated individuals and largely because of the way they understand the Bible.