A popular theory a few years ago is that people who believe in extremely unlikely and sometimes nonsensical explanations of current events are actually too shre

A popular theory a few years ago is that people who believe in extremely unlikely and sometimes nonsensical explanations of current events are actually too shrewd. They understand better than most that all of the information they receive is compromised for the benefit of powerful others, but in the desperation for information that isn't mercenary, they turn to random gurus who aren't connected to or knowledgeable about anything. You see that impulse a lot on HN and other forums, when they decry some study as "biased" because the author of the study is well-known to believe that what the study shows is true. For them, the people who initiate studies would ideally be people with no knowledge about or interest in the subject that they are studying. Anything less than that is obviously an intentional manipulation.