Trigger warning: Pikachu.
Belief in conspiracies exists because some things will never be known for sure. How many crimes go unsolved? Just because something has happened does not mean we have evidence to prove it occurred. Therefore, a lack of evidence does not mean it didn’t happen. Some conspiracies are believable and many even probable.
Sometimes people in power ensure by any means possible to not allow us underlings be privy to what they know. Do we have any idea what kind of horrible crap goes on in the world as it’s occurring? No. We have no idea. Some things we’ll never know. Some we find out about later. That is another reason. Our brains were wired for survival and discerning patterns is a method. When we discover something we form an association. As patterns emerge any indication that would continue the pattern seems plausible.
Intuition is a phenomenon that can’t always be proven with science or evidence. Theory is not solid, set in stone fact, either. Theory merely means there’s a hypothesis.
Some of us believe what some would say are conspiracies and never tell anyone about it. It’s often not about associations. But I agree with your points of us v. them thinking.
If I might be so bold, there seems to be a heck of a lot of assumptions and undercurrent of arrogance going on in your post there, friend. Are you asking this question really or is it mostly rhetorical and a mini essay on how stupid you seem to think some people are?
Consider also:
If there's a clearly defined enemy (a hidden group of conspirators) responsible for the things you don't like, then you have the power to unmask them, reveal their villainy to the world, and take away their ability to do bad things as most people (now aware of this evil) stand against them.
It's much easier than trying to fix the actual problems. Social issues tend to be complex and intertwined like creeping weeds. Far simpler to point a finger and scream "It's all their fault!"
And now you are taking control of the situation. Striking the problem at its single, uncomplicated root: the evil conspiracy.
Edit: Note also that the human brain doesn't do well with uncertainty. Assigning values of probability to things—instead of throwing one's hands up and saying "Well, no one really knows who Jack the Ripper was, so I guess it's just as likely he was an outer space alien as anything else!"—takes practice.
Without that practice, it's really tempting to go with the fun possibility (edit: or the emotionally provocative one) instead of the probable one. And then you're a nut.
@TheMidnightOwl says, "Theory merely means there’s a hypothesis." Got seven minutes? In short—it, uh... it doesn't.
Edit: Beat me to it. Eh, I'll leave my post up anyway. It's got a video! From PBS! With Joe Hanson, Ph.D! I think it's handy.
You may also want to consider that absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Not paying attention to that had some unfortunate consequences for the Japanese-Americans during WW2, if you remember.
They lost me at the Clinton pedophilia ring supposedly operated from the basement of the DC pizzeria that had no basement.
Is the Bible a conspiracy?
This is religious baiting. Thou shalt not on this board, @Plato33 . Thx. [-Sid]
@Plato33: No, it's a book.
@DarrenWalker like the Da Vinci Code?
@Plato33: No, like a centuries-long work of collaborative fiction carefully edited to remove contributions that clashed too blatantly to be ignored.
This is also a form of religious baiting. Thou shalt not on this board, @DarrenWalker . Thx. [-Sid]
All conspiracies are part of a plot by a secret sect of financiers whose aim is keep the population compliant with the neo-liberal status quo!
@Plato33: Ah, a conspiracy conspiracy.
@DarrenWalker Conspiracy conspiracies are the most insidious kind of conspiracy.
...
So this is just my opinion but if you have to put a "disclaimer" before you post something in a forum that you warn may offend people, maybe you shouldn't post it in the first place.
In my opinion, conspiracy theories don't deserve the word "theory." Theories are sturdy, reliable things used to make accurate predictions. Germ theory. Cell theory. The theory of relativity. Theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and embody scientific knowledge. Conspiracy "theories" aren't worthy of the name.
...I also think that, since there's nothing in the world that doesn't offend someone, content warnings are always useful things.
Oh, and that there's no need to spam a thread you dislike with repeated posts when the edit function exists. I think that, too.
@UltimateChungus: If it made any kind of sense, I'd think he meant him. Following people around the forum, disagreeing with them in every corner, then turning his posts into random images for no reason I can see—it's pretty trollish.
The biggest representation of conspiracy incarnate is the creation of the church
@pmvines: Or the creation of society, with its ranks and hierarchies. The Roman priests, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Indian Brahmans—wherever you go, humans think up reasons why they must be better than everyone else. Conspiracy doesn't have much to do with it, except insofar as every group of humans always conspires within itself to improve its own position.
Why humans believe there are vast hidden social groups out there, conspiring to do some quite unbelievable things (things better explained by incompetence, say, or bad century-long social habits... uh, that is, harmful traditions) ...why people believe these things is, I think, just down to them being humans.
It's funny, a few days ago some of my friends and I were talking about the recent Qanon drama (ie. how there was a sudden dip/crash in followers after the 21st, when a bunch of them realized they'd been lied to). We found it fascinating that so many people chose to put their faith in speculations about posts designed to be so vague they could be massaged to fit into anything that were to happen, written by an unknown author, whose authority is also based on speculation.
This might offend some so I'll put it in a spoiler tag, but...
It reminds me a lot of horoscopes and psychics.
Anyway, back to your post topic, @UltimateChungus. I ended up asking my therapist why some people choose to believe in this stuff so strongly. She said it can sometimes be born of a sense that "mom and dad are lying to us, and we need to figure out the truth" from childhood. I wouldn't have thought of it that way. So that's one theory.
@squeakytoy: I wouldn't have thought of it that way either, but it makes a sort of sense. If your first experience of authority is that it can't be trusted—and you don't know how there could possibly be any greater authority than your parents—then I guess I can see how you might end up just believing whatever fits your ideas best, no matter what those with more information than you say.
Well considering the vast majority of "palm readers and similar psychics" are run by one criminal syndicate or another (at least here in the U.S.) that's less of a theory and more of an ACTUAL conspiracy (in many major cities a lot of panhandlers are likewise run in the same manor)
Though I suspect you were referring to the art of Cold Reading that such Con "Artists" are known for.
@DarrenWalker Yeah, exactly! I found it really interesting.
@LyleLuvsHuggles WHAT! Really!? You're right about what I was referring to but I had no idea about any of the stuff in your first paragraph. That's wild!!
Yeah I'm kind of an organized crime buff so I've spent far too much time looking into such things lol
Thank you for completely missing the point, @UltimateChungus.
What I essentially said was that just because we don’t know about something and/or whether it happened for certain, does not mean conclusively that it didn’t happen. Read my entire comment in context. Don’t pull one sentence out and zero in on that.
Many events have happened in this world that the average person knows nothing about and will never find evidence of because it was erased, buried, or happened in secret. That does not mean those events didn’t occur. To believe a lack of evidence is conclusive that something did not happen, and anyone who believes it did is a quack, is an error in judgment evident in your judgmental assessment disguised as a question.
As for the official definition of a theory, @DarrenWalker & @UltimateChungus: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theory
Note that none of these options state that theories are facts or even that they must be proven or rigorously tested to classify as a theory. They’re merely propositions of plausible explanations and are ultimately a hypothesis - which is what I said. Science and research methods are two of my strongest subjects. I have a bachelor’s of science degree. I have had to do many research projects and papers to earn that degree and maintained a 4.0 cumulative GPA. I am now obtaining my master’s degree. Stop talking to me like I’m a know-nothing, moronic POS.
Also. Why the heck does it matter to you whether others believe in conspiracies? Mind your own business. And stop splitting hairs, people. CC is not the debate club and treating it as such makes it an unhealthy, unwelcoming, and contentious environment in an already soul-wearying battlefield of this inhospitable world.
"...CC is not the debate club..." Agreed. There are many posts that walk a fine line or intentionally step right up to it. I'm not an advocate of censorship, but I also not thrilled when forum rules and principles are subverted. I am debating options for the forum moving forward, FYI. [-Sid]
@TheMidnightOwl: And yet, despite the complete lack of evidence, it's still not terribly likely that Jack the Ripper was a rogue Cardassian.
Many things have happened in this world that we know nothing about and will never find evidence of—but a Romulan attack on a small town outside ancient Sumer is unlikely to be one of them. Even though we have no evidence that Romulans don't exist, or that they didn't attack Mesopotamia and then destroy all signs of their visit.
If there is no evidence for a thing, that doesn't mean the thing definitely isn't so—but it certainly means it's way less likely to be.
@Invisible_Touch: ...You know that a chungus is anything adorably chunky, right?
