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ORIGINAL: jlf1961

Why not a hunting season on Conspiracy Theorists. The Fed could pay a bounty of $500 an ear.

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Conspiratorial beliefs are useful in monological belief systems since they provide an easy, automatic explanation for any new phenomenon which might threaten the belief system. In a monological belief system, each of the beliefs serves as evidence for each of the other beliefs. The more conspiracies a monological thinker believes in, the more likely he or she is to believe in any new conspiracy theory which may be proposed. Thus African- Americans, who are more likely to be aware of the Tuskeegee syphillis conspiracy, are predisposed to believe that AIDS may also be a conspiracy, while this idea may seem absurd to people who are unfamiliar with past medical abuses.
Of course, conspiracies are sometimes real and not all conspiracy theories are rooted in monological belief systems. Today, everyone acknowledges the reality of the Watergate cover-up conspiracy because the tape recordings provided such strong evidence. The key issue is not the belief in a specific conspiracy, but the logical processes which led to that belief. As with other belief systems, conspiracy theories can be evaluated according to their productivity (B. Goertzel, forthcoming). To the extent that they are productive, belief systems generate new patterns of thought in response to new issues and problems. Some conspiracy thinkers are productive in this sense. They develop highly idiosyncratic theories and gather extensive evidence to test them. Brock (1993), for example, has recently uncovered a great deal of factual evidence relevant to a hypothesized conspiracy to defeat Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. Although Brock could be characterized as a conspiracy theorist, at least with regard to this case, the structure of his argument is less monological than that of many opponents of this particular conspiracy theory who rely on discussions of wider societal issues which add no new information about the particular case (Morrison, 1992). Of course, dialogical thinkers who sympathize with Anita Hill can find flaws in Brock's case and cite other facts in Hill's defense (Mayer and Abramson, 1993).


Belief in Conspiracy Theories

Ted Goertzel

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ORIGINAL: MC4Misfit

A friend of mine had a theory about the reasons why people like conspiracy theories.  His reasons were:

1)  It means that someone is in control  Life isn't chaos...there is order.  We may not like what "they" are doing, but someone is in control.  It's a comforting thought for some.

2)  They get to feel smart...after all, they saw thru the conspiracy.  Oh, they may not have the power to do anything about it, but at least they weren't taken it.  They're just too clever for that.

3)  They have someone to blame everything on...especially they're own failures. It's not their fault...they're being held down by the "secret Masters" or whatever you want to call them.  Since someone else is to blame, they don't have to accept any responsibility for anything.

I think those would explain a lot...or maybe "reality tv" is getting stale and they're looking for a replacement.

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ORIGINAL: jlf1961

I have a friend that got so tied up in conspiracy theories he actually had a nervous breakdown. He spent over six months in a psych ward.

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY


“selective skepticism.” sounds a lot like confirmation bias.

We have a lot of that on the forums (hell, in life) as well, beyond conspiracy theorists.

Although, I'll have to agree with LadyE, the conspiracy theorists have transformed the boards in much less inviting and entertaining place.

This is the flip side to allowing openness, after the reign of Mod11.

Firm

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ORIGINAL: jlf1961

Volkan (1985) suggests that during periods of insecurity and discontent people often feel a need for a tangible enemy on which to externalize their angry feelings. Conspiracy theories may help in this process by providing a tangible enemy to blame for problems which otherwise seem too abstract and impersonal. Conspiracy theories also provide ready answers for unanswered questions and help to resolve contradictions between known 'facts' and an individual's belief system.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

I really don't care much what creates conspiracy theorists. In the coal mine of free speech, they make excellent canaries. I like having a few around.

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ORIGINAL: jlf1961

Volkan (1985) suggests that during periods of insecurity and discontent people often feel a need for a tangible enemy on which to externalize their angry feelings. Conspiracy theories may help in this process by providing a tangible enemy to blame for problems which otherwise seem too abstract and impersonal. Conspiracy theories also provide ready answers for unanswered questions and help to resolve contradictions between known 'facts' and an individual's belief system.

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And isn't it interesting that of the 5 flags on this CM board- not one of them is a US flag?