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The enduring allure of conspiracies

Phys251

Purge evil with Justice
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Why do people fall for CTs?


Conspiracy theories also take advantage of our tendency to look for patterns and explanations, says Karen Douglas, a psychologist who studies conspiracy thinking at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom. Pattern detection serves us well in everyday life, Douglas says: It’s how we piece together how people typically behave in given situations, for example. Believing in a bogus conspiracy theory amounts to seeing a pattern that’s not really there.

Social and emotional factors are likely at play as well. “People are most susceptible to conspiracy theories when particular psychological needs are frustrated,” Douglas says. “Specifically, people need knowledge and certainty to feel safe, secure and in control, and to feel good about themselves and the social groups they belong to.” When these needs are unmet — say, amidst the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic — conspiracy theories might seem to offer consolation, Douglas says.
 
Why do people fall for CTs?

That is surprisingly similar to the reasons that people fall for demagogues. No wonder they overlap so much. We need a much more comprehensive mental health system.
 
Why do people fall for CTs?

What is even worse than people falling for CT's is people who label anything they don't like as being a CT.
 
What is even worse than people falling for CT's is people who label anything they don't like as being a CT.
Like what CT's exactly? CT's are evidence free BS stories that weak minded people believe because they like them. You are often guilty of just that. The election fraud hoax comes to mind.
 
Uhhh, some conspiracy theories end up being true.
 
Uhhh, some conspiracy theories end up being true.

A coin flip is right 50% of the time. CTs are right way less often than that. Nice try. :)
 
Then they are not CT's.
The point is that shit has happened that could be considered a conspiracy theory, so that's one good reason why people believe conspiracy theories.
 
A coin flip is right 50% of the time. CTs are right way less often than that. Nice try. :)
WTF has a coin flip ever been right about?
 
CT's are fun to discuss

Usually however, there is a somewhat intelligent individual at the top of the power structure who....even if they entertain the theories....don't add fuel to the theories....
With Trump that didn't happen.
 
Why do people fall for CTs?

IMO, besides giving he uneducated a chance to feel smart (I know the REAL truth), CT provides easy answers to complex things by focusing on a small grain of truth and blowing it up with a ton of innuendo into the final answer.
Eg:
"George Bush acted weird on 911. Ergo, it was an inside job. Btw, did you know the buildings fell faster than the force of gravity would allow?"
 
Something else to remember about conspiracy theories....

They can be true and false at the same time. Is it true that the US government covered up details about 9/11 or, put another way, Is it true that the US government did not publicize all of the details about 9/11? Yes. There are several details that are not known by most. Like exactly how were the flight crews incapacitated,..where were they stabbed (or were they stabbed)? Just one example. Now....nobody in their right mind would equate the government not coming out with the gory details as being some sign that the Bush administration or any of the alphabet soup agencies in DC were "in on it". So the statement that the US government is covering up some details is probably true but it doesn't mean that there is evidence of LIHOP (let it happen on purpose)
 
Uhhh, some conspiracy theories end up being true.

Then they are not CT's.

That's disingenuous, because those people denigrated and debased and then when it was ultimately proven they were right, there was nothing but silence from the people screaming, "CT!"
 
That's disingenuous, because those people denigrated and debased and then when it was ultimately proven they were right, there was nothing but silence from the people screaming, "CT!"
Actually real CT's are always false and usually fabricated on purpose by sick people who know they are making up a lie. The Russian GRU has made up quite a few too.
 
Actually real CT's are always false and usually fabricated on purpose by sick people who know they are making up a lie. The Russian GRU has made up quite a few too.

But if everything is given the cute label of "CT" then how can one make the distinction between the real and the fake?
 
But if everything is given the cute label of "CT" then how can one make the distinction between the real and the fake?
Credible news sources and a liberal use of Occam's Razor.
 
But if everything is given the cute label of "CT" then how can one make the distinction between the real and the fake?
Everything is not CT's. They are easy to spot because they have no real evidence and most do not get play on mainstream media except to discredit them.
 
Everything is not CT's. They are easy to spot because they have no real evidence and most do not get play on mainstream media except to discredit them.

So, it's a CT if the Lamestream Media doesn't embrace it? That's hardly satisfying and still quite disingenuous. Not only that, it flies in the face of the Pike Committee Report, the Church Committee Report, and the report issued by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Government agencies plant information in the Lamestream Media for purposes of propaganda and disinformation, with the intention of swaying the opinions of Americans. and the reports I mention show specific instances.

What about Kosovo-Metohija? Oh, gosh, that's right...you don't know anything about it because your Lamestream Media was told by your government not to breathe a word about it.

Metohija is the western province in the Kosovo Region settled by Slavic peoples circa 800 CE, and which contains UNESCO designated historical sites, many of which are Orthodox churches or religious sites built by Slavs between the 10th and 14th Centuries. Kosovo is the eastern province settled by Albania Muslims at the behest of the Ottoman Turks in the mid-16th Century.

If your Lamestream Media mentioned Metohija, then Americans might get the wrong idea, which is that Serbia really does have a legitimate claim to at least the western province in Kosovo, and that would make it difficult for the Clinton Administration to carry out its bombing campaign.

Your government perpetuates CTs through its lack of action. Take the JFK assassination. Notwithstanding the fact that your government still refuses to release classified documents, what does the Warren Commission say about the two Conspirators talking on Dallas PD radios?

Nothing. The Warren Commission pretended it never happened in spite of the fact that it is irrefutable proof of conspiracy.

How exactly does one acquire a Dallas PD radio? One way is for one to show up at roll-call for duty and have the radio dispatcher assign you both a radio and a radio call-sign, you know, like 1-Adam-12 or 3-Michael-14 or 2-David-6.

The other way is to have a paid informant on the Civello Family payroll steal the radios.

Why do they have paid informants? Because the vast overwhelming majority of people are weak: they drink, do drugs, gamble, are promiscuous, like little boys, like little girls, like prostitutes, and this being 1962, well, there's homosexuals, and then people who are financially crushed by gambling debts or an acrimonious divorce with high alimony and child support payments.

So, yeah, the Civello Family had cops on their payroll, because they'd want to know when they're about to be investigated, or search warrants are executed or there's an undercover operation going on, just like they had paid informants in the Dallas County Prosecutor's Office and in the US Attorney's Office and in the Dallas Secret Service Field Office.

The Secret Service investigates banking, money laundering and counterfeiting (counterfeiting includes both counterfeit money and counterfeit goods that are patented or trademarked).

The Civello Family would certain want to know if the Dallas Secret Service Field Office was investigating money laundering or one of the banks where the Civello Family is laundering money. All it would take is for someone in the Civello Family to call someone else who will call someone else who will call their paid informant in the Dallas Secret Service Field Office and tell them it would be a good think if the Field Office Director could convince JFK to change drivers.

Which is exactly what happened, because JFK changed drivers to an old guy who hadn't been on a personal security detail for over 20 years.

The Dallas PD radio dispatcher reprimanded the two conspirators cross-talking on the radio and the Dallas PD Dictaphone recorded their voices for posterity. You can go to the National Archives and order a copy of the audio tape, so why don't you?

When the radio dispatcher informed the Dallas Police Chief, he brought in all on-duty and off-duty police officers and civilian employees and made them listen to the voices of the Conspirators recorded on the Dictaphone and none of them could identify the mysterious voices.

Frustrated and embarrassed, the Dallas Police Chief then ordered all police officers and civilian employees to read a transcript of the mystery voices for recording to obtain voice exemplars which were sent to two independent laboratories.

The two labs concluded the mystery voices were not those of any Dallas police officer or civilian employee.

And then people got the nerve to wonder why CTs persist.
 
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