To ask why Americans seem fixated on conspiracy theories?

Er, people emigrated to the colonies for decades before the declaration of independence was signed and decades afterwards. I'm not just talking about the Mayflower.

As I said many were disenfranchised (or poor) and so they went to seek their fortune in the 'new world' but some people went and some people stayed and there may well be an aspect of character which could skew it either way. As pp said, much of the early white population were self selecting for a variety of reasons.

I didn't intend for that to sound like a negative thing. It obviously worked for America the country, to be a nation of pioneers. It's gone a bit pear shaped recently but that does seem to be a global issue rather then specifically American, although the manifestation there has been interesting to watch but I appreciated that's just one perspective.

Hmm.

I would take a punt that it's sub 0.01% of the population of the USA that could trace their lineage back to the Mayflower.

America is a really interesting country with a difficult history.

I love the idea of the land of the free and the land of the brave.

And who's free and who's brave are conversations.

Who even gets to choose that & what does it mean?

I'm glad that America exists, I'm glad that it gets to ask these questions.

You're getting confused. The vast majority of the Europeans who entered the US between 1850 and 1950 were leaving grinding poverty, famine and/or escaping pogroms. They weren’t in general go-getting free-wheelers, they emigrated because their current conditions in their home country were intolerable — they were often peasants who could no longer feed themselves off their land because of agricultural changes and a lower rate of mortality. A million Irish people died of starvation and disease during the famine of the late 1840s. Two million emigrated to the US between 1845 and 1855.

Yes. I can't even think of an amusing rejoinder to that utterly bonkers comment.

The lazy and uneducated anti-American tropes aside, it's depressing and amazing how many people period do seem to believe in conspiracy theories period. Whenever there's a thread on them on MN, loads of people come out of the woodwork to explain which one(s) they believe in. Look how many people on here are anti-vaxx or believe Meghan Markle faked her pregnancies.

Like a pp, I think you could peg the Brexit vote on a large percentage of people in the UK falling prey to being gullible to some level of conspiracy, which seems to point to disaffection, distrust in authority and lack of resources and a feeling of dead-end prospects being key factors in that gullibility.

Then you throw in social media. Research shows that repetition is a critical factor in developing belief and the the algorithms are designed to pull you ever deeper into validating something you're already starting to believe.

And in America, the popularity of right wing talk radio starting in the 90s, Fox News, NewsMax, and the takeover of many local and regional tv news stations by Sinclair Media (I believe they own nearly 300 stations in around 90 markets) is a real problem as viewers are fed absolute garbage propaganda 24/7.

Same. Funny what is allowed on MN and what isn’t when it comes to certain countries.

There are several layers of very funny delusion there.

I love that the poster 'read it somewhere' whilst making a point about intellectual rigor.

You couldn't make that up.

You read it somewhere...

I see.

@KhakiPombear
Indeed. PBS is partially funded by taxes. It is a very good source of news, both national and international.

You've experienced at least 100-200 American universities?

Including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Duke, Rice, Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Muhlenberg, Knox, Princeton, U Michigan, Columbia, Cornell, John's Hopkins, Washington University in St Louis, Brown, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Haverford, Carleton, Dartmouth, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, Pomona, Northwestern, Claremont McKenna, UNC Chapel Hill, College of William and Mary, Ohio State, U Illinois, U Wisconsin, Davidson, Hamilton, Grinnell, College of the Holy Cross, Colorado College, Swarthmore, Washington and Lee, Texas A&M, USAF Academy, West Point, US Naval Academy, Williams, Wellesley, Barnard, Middlebury, Colgate, Bates, Smith...

The theory was that Elizabeth I died as a young child and was replaced by a similar looking available baby that happened to be a boy (it had to be done immediately and no girl baby that could pass for her was available). Then of course she didn't marry which some took as proof she wasn't a woman so couldn't marry and give away the truth.

She of course had a lot of enemies and this was one rumour designed to undermine her legitimacy as Queen.

I hate anti-Americanism. It's generally bourne of stupidity.

All the Americans I know are educated and intelligent, and the vast majority of Americans I meet out in the world are interested and open-minded.

It's you who are small-minded @movingonok with your ridiculous stereotypes.

Can you ask her why they have it in for Manchester? Many of us would like to know!

Welll, not salacious, but certainly shocking. Yes it is shocking to see people who are clearly functioning members of society with apparently fairly normal lives spout such mad rubbish. But of course the programmes don't show how many people they had to talk to before finding someone who would tell them what they wanted to hear. Nor did they pop round the corner to the pub nearest to the British head office to test out if they could get similar responses nearer to home.

I've had a highly educated man tell me all about how Elizabeth I ws actually a man. Leaving aside that there is historical evidence of her menstruating, if Elizabeth could have been seen as a boy, she would have been, and the entire history of this country would have been radically different. But it's less boring to believe that some amorphous authority decided to hide the fact she was male because reasons.

The controlling the weather conspiracy theory originates in people hearing about governments attempts to control weather through seeding of clouds and subsequent rain. This attempt is real, but is controversial and not that successful.
But the conspiracy theory takes this kernel of truth, and expands it to all weather.

This is a crackpot theory that is currently going around. SO ridiculous- it's laughable but really, it makes me feel like crying.

All Americans aren't like this, regardless of what the author says about us. Unfortunately, these theories make the news because they're salacious and so out there.

One last thing, pay attention to the people these conspiracies can be traced back to. They've found that the more outrageous the things they say are, the bigger the audience that wants to hear trash.

I live in the US. It is a massive country with vast differences between the states. Because it is such a massive country, more people numerically will believe in conspiracy theories than British people, but the percentages of population are fairly similar. There is a myth that only stupid or uneducated people believe in conspiracy theories, that is not true. And it is fairly common for people to believe at least one conspiracy theory. For example, one third of British people believe that Princess Diana's death was not an accident, believing instead various explanations for who murdered her and why.

It is true much of the US news is poorer quality than BBC. But GB News is rising in popularity in the UK and the BBC is under constant attack from some of the public who want the public funding of the BBC to end. If that happened, it would only be a few years until UK news was similar to US news. You have to pay tax in some form for the wider public good to fund services like the BBC.

Two mine also went back, the third to Oxbridge. The US experience far surpassed the UK.

What is your experience? My 3 children grew up in England and 2 of them went to university in the US. The brilliance of their peers and the quality of the education they got there were beyond all comparison better than the experience of my third child at Manchester University.

That is just a sample of a couple of kids. There is certainly a very wide variety in the experience people have at US universities, which cater to a huge population with very different backgrounds, needs, and abilities; it is undeniable that the opportunities they offer to undergraduates can be spectacular, and it is absurd to underestimate this.

Yeah, and those people were previously undergraduates in that same system.

In my experience, most US undergrad degrees are much easier and demand a lot less rigour than in many other countries.

That's quite a broad unsubstantiated statement.

I don't get why anyone from the world would see what!

GettingStuffed and others are hardly showing much facility for 'critical thinking' with these preposterous and ignorant generalisations.

And much of that excellence happens only at the PhD and post-doc level, or in specialist degrees such as Medicine or Law. In my experience, most US undergrad degrees are much easier and demand a lot less rigour than in many other countries.

It's not cool to see Americans as different in so e way.

I'm very keen on Americans.