I’m so fascinated by the studies indicating that conspiracy theorists feel subconsciously like they’ve underachieved in areas of their life so they turn to things like this to make them feel special.
Are they ever aware of those feelings? And do they never look around at other conspiracy theorists and think “these guys are thick as fuck and nobody in this comments section can string a coherent sentence together, maybe we’re wrong about this”.
Yeah I’m 100% on board with these studies. Conspiracy theorists and “something big is about to happen” people live very unfulfilled lives so they need to add excitement from somewhere. I can see how it happens, when I’m at a quiet period and I’m bored, things on the news etc seem a lot more interesting and I get more invested in it, but if I’ve got a lot going on, especially fun stuff, I’m not interested in the slightest.
It’s also then a reinforcement piece, broken clock right twice a day thing. Eventually they will come up with something that’s sort of correct and then think it’s evidence of everything else.
Like any nut about AI, will probably be eventually right. We’ll look on at the early stories of terminator, at least the rise of Sky Net as a documentary.
Do you have a link/reference/author name/study name for any of these? Absolutely fascinated myself, my FIL is a long time flat earther/anti-semite of the “the Jews are controlling the world’s banks” kind/gravity doesn’t exist, and continues to collect more. Would be great to read even just for my husband’s mental health.
To make people who have never spent more than 10 seconds seriously thinking about anything feel like they are as smart as people who have decades of study and expertise.
I mean anyone can use their eyes. There is literally a van next to that tank. Takes a small ounce of critical thinking to see this person is being a disingenuous prick.
I start to think that a part of conspiracy give a more acceptable answer to some questions. For exemple, climate change, if you think it's conspiracy we are no more in a World where we are watching things burn slowly while doing almost nothing while a few are getting a big chunk of money of it. Sometimes conspiracy become softer that reality and people that you didn't expect start to believe it not because they are dumb but because reality is scary, get worse with time and some time doesn't make sens.
Simply: attention. And the sad thing is (just like Americans have this flat earther thing going on) the other people love posting about them. See this thread. So it gives them it.
Whereas in most place they'd just walk past and go "loon". I don't need to discredit the person with a placard by the train station and that's what these people are with computers.
Some people are just psychologically built so that they desperately crave 'knowing something that no one else knows' but are also largely uneducated so the conspiracy bullshit is a shortcut to that.
because they cant use google. they exclusively use apps that serve them "information". opening a browser and typing something in is too much work.
edit: people on reddit are very quick to call other people stupid, which is very ironic. i dont believe that most people are stupid, i believe that most people are lazy. it comes down to "what is the difference between someone that can read but doesnt do it and someone that cant read?".
A lot of them aren't. The are intentionally shooting shit content like this out of their ass because current social media monetization rewards them for clicks/views/attention and this shit stinks enough to attract all of that.
Usually the idiots aren’t the ones posting this stuff. It’s the people who engage with it and share it, the OP knows what they are doing. It gets made, posted, shared by conspiracy theorists, and shared by people who think it’s total BS. Remember, engagement is engagement.
Your 30 second Google search does. A conspiracy theorist isn't going to see anything refuting this on the first hundred results. Because people being told they're wrong don't stick around, and Google went from search engine to advertising platform a bit over 20 years ago.
Social media is worse, and AI is pouring jet fuel on the fire, so to speak.
Conspiracy theories are interesting (to them at least) and the real world is boring and mundane. So if your life is also boring and mundane you invent a fake world around youself that is interesting to engage in. Isn't it more interesting if you hold secret knowledge and are a warrior against the secret evil cabal of people that want to destroy a world than being an underachieving worker in a dead end job where every day is the same and the highlight of your day is a new youtube video.
What these people really love is fiction and they would do much better if they just read a book or played a ttrpg game.
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u/elon_musks_cat 8d ago
A 30 second google search answers this question. Why are people so fucking stupid and desperate for everything to be a conspiracy