What is wrong with being a Conspiracy Theorist?

Jan Ardena

Jan Ardena

OM!!!
Banned
I think conspiracy theories (some not all), regardless of whether or not they
are true, allow us to take notice of the world and it's leaders in a way that we wouldn't
have before.

Is that so bad?

Please discuss.

jan.
 
As with many things, it depends on the extent to which it is taken.
If one understands that the theory is at the borderlines of possibility (based on the evidence) rather than the likely/only possible solution then it is no more harmful or bad than discussing any possible scenario.
It is when one promotes it above those theories for which evidence exists, and when one starts to be irrational with regard the theory, that the issues arise, imo.
 
Most hardcore conspiracy theorists are either delusional or merchandisers.
 
Sarkus said:
As with many things, it depends on the extent to which it is taken.
If one understands that the theory is at the borderlines of possibility (based on the evidence) rather than the likely/only possible solution then it is no more harmful or bad than discussing any possible scenario.
It is when one promotes it above those theories for which evidence exists, and when one starts to be irrational with regard the theory, that the issues arise, imo.
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Can you give examples of the kind of thing you mean?

JAN.
 
psikeyhackr said:
Yes, it's impossible for the majority to be wrong. Isn't physics hard core by definition? :D

psik
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Yes, indeed. But Physics is right and the majority of conspirators are cynical frauds looking to fleece you of as much "investment" money as possible.
 
There's nothing wrong with recognizing conspiracies, they happen all the time, but when people have no critical thinking skills, it can quickly become a form of mental illness. I've been talking with some interesting LDS people and their belief system seems to be nothing BUT conspiracies. The typical person there thinks vaccines cause autism, the government engineered the 9/11 attacks as a form of insurance fraud, the US has hidden reserves of oil in Utah that rival Saudi Arabia, Obama is a Muslim, Osama Bin Laden died 5 years ago of natural causes, the government can control the weather, Satan influenced the government to kill us all through airplane chem-trails, Romney is connected to the illuminati (he supported abortion and socialism (Romneycare))... I could go on but you get the idea. It's easy to take it all too far.
 
What's wrong with being a conspiracy theorist is that it means you're either an idiot or a paranoid delusional idiot. Look at the Troother stuff. It's all bad science, but most of it is just copy/pasted from other sites, and all of it comes from the bad science of the frauds who exploit these paranoid idiots by selling them books full of shit.

Recognizing a genuine conspiracy doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist. A conspiracy theorist is the person who believes in total nonsense either because he's paranoid or he's a bleeding moron. You are right that being such a thing does make people look at the world and its leaders differently, but that's not a good thing in this case. They create fictional versions of these people and governments (and sometimes even fictional governments, like the Illuminati) and superimpose those on top of the real people and institutions. They do this, again, either because they're paranoid or stupid.

(PS: I owe the spelling of "Troother" to Grumpy. I saw him do it and fell in love, now I've stolen it and will use it forever)
 
Balerion

(PS: I owe the spelling of "Troother" to Grumpy. I saw him do it and fell in love, now I've stolen it and will use it forever)
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Yeah, I tend to grow on people, you know, like a fungus.

Grumpy:cool:
 
I wondered about conspiracy theorists and am curious of how they choose which conspiracy to believe in, do they go in for one's that fit their own world veiw, maybe one's they find plausable for a particular reason, most people would accept the idea that when you're interested in something and thus take the time to learn about it you end up more informed and become able make better judgements in that field. However strangely when it comes to conspiracy theories most people always think they are better informed and capable of better judgement than say a theorist who might have spent his every waking minute for the last 40 years studying every aspect of conspiracies.

Why is that?
 
Gorlitz said:
I wondered about conspiracy theorists and am curious of how they choose which conspiracy to believe in, do they go in for one's that fit their own world veiw, maybe one's they find plausable for a particular reason, most people would accept the idea that when you're interested in something and thus take the time to learn about it you end up more informed and become able make better judgements in that field. However strangely when it comes to conspiracy theories most people always think they are better informed and capable of better judgement than say a theorist who might have spent his every waking minute for the last 40 years studying every aspect of conspiracies.

Why is that?
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I think it begins with credulity. These people are extremely gullible, and the kind of media that propagates a conspiracy theory (usually books, but also movies and TV "documentaries") are very persuasive to people who don't have the expertise to spot the fraudulent parts. I also think they tend to be of lower intelligence, and many times of lower character. It's obvious this psiky fella in the 9/11 thread just doesn't understand physics, for example. In the case of The Esotericist, however, the fanaticism seems to be fueled by delusion. And there are others who are simply disingenuous. Frauds, in other words.
 
Balerion said:
It's obvious this psiky fella in the 9/11 thread just doesn't understand physics, for example.
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ROFL

It is obvious that somebody does not understand.

Conspiracy crap gets into human motivation and physics does not give a damn. We don't even have the data to accurately compute the Potential Energy of each tower. They were different heights they could not be the same.

psik
 
psikeyhackr said:
ROFL

It is obvious that somebody does not understand.

Conspiracy crap gets into human motivation and physics does not give a damn. We don't even have the data to accurately compute the Potential Energy of each tower. They were different heights they could not be the same.

psik
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Gorlitz, the above post is a perfect example of the lack of knowledge I spoke about earlier. Also, delusion. This poster has had the physics explained to him about a hundred times, yet he carries on as if he's got the right of it. Also, note the use of "ROFL" and the need to sign the post despite the fact that the user's name is already visible to the left.
 
Balerion said:
Gorlitz, the above post is a perfect example of the lack of knowledge I spoke about earlier. Also, delusion. This poster has had the physics explained to him about a hundred times, yet he carries on as if he's got the right of it. Also, note the use of "ROFL" and the need to sign the post despite the fact that the user's name is already visible to the left.
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So where does this poster point out when, where and how this Potential Energy was calculated? Is it Gregory Urich's data?

psik
 
psikeyhackr said:
So where does this poster point out when, where and how this Potential Energy was calculated? Is it Gregory Urich's data?

psik
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I'm not a physicist, man. That's the one thing we have in common. But I see more than one person with a working knowledge of physics shutting you down in that thread, and that's all I need to know.
 
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