- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
- Messages
- 81,356
- Reaction score
- 19,622
- Location
- Houston, in the great state of Texas
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
@CLAX1911 - Those are some good insights into the psychology of conspiracy theory "beliefs". Just a couple or 3 comments (EDIT: OK - make that seven ):
1 ..and I suggest there is also a common underlying cause. Put simply it is "blind spotting" - the inability to comprehend that there can be many things beyond our comprehension. I'll comment further later in the post.
2 Agreed - we are safe enough if we are self aware and stay within our limitations. Those who are not self aware and go outside their limits are the ones you are referring to. And - of course - our range/scope/limits vary widely.
3 Yes. If you are within your limits than you can legitimately know" they are wrong. The risk is that any of us MAY not be accurately aware of our limits.
4 The converse of the previous - they are outside their limits and not aware of it for the reasons you describe.
5 Agreed those are important factors.
6 ... That is a key point although I'm using it from a different perspective than your post. See the concluding paragraph.
7 OR - my version - when the problem in in pathological psychology there is no point arguing technical facts of physics. CT belief is almost always indeendent f the specific issue under debate. "truthers" are first and foremost conspiracy theorists. "9/11 truth" merely the topic ()or one of the topics) that attracts their attention
The issue I regard as driving much constproacy behavior is fefined by a pair of hypotheses: (1) Most conspiracy theorists cannot think; AND (2) That is why most of them became conspiracy theorists. Where "think" ot "thinking" refers to the process of convergent reasoning needed to resolve complex muilti-factor problems. The evidence of "don't think" litters these threads. "cannot think" not as obvious but that is a topic for another time. I've explained in more detail in other Forums but the limited reasoning skill builds a defence mechanism of blame - with "authority", "the man", "Government" as obvious targets for blame. Again a topic for discussion in another place and time.
Sometimes there is something outside of them selves prohibiting the thought process. I remember a supervisor at a place I used to work here had this idea that the world was going to end in a month. Mentioned it to another friend and this other friend said he was a Jahova's witness. I took my friend's word for it because he had left the Jahova's witness church.
Sometimes things like that can cause this.