People who are into conspiracy theories

The conflation of the idea of 15 minutes cities (encouraging, via the planning process, having amenities like shops, parks, schools with a fifteen minute walk of where you live) and the traffic control schemes being proposed by some councils is a sure sign of a conspiracy theorist. No council is going to ban people from travelling more than 15 minutes from their home! Even if you seriously believe that councils would do such a thing, how are they going to track people individually from their home and monitor how far they go?

My MIL has never believed the moon landings were real. They bought a colour tv so they could watch it in colour, and while watching it she sat there saying it was all fake and done on a film set. She was in her early 30s, so it's not like she was senile or anything.

She thinks that the conspiracy theories around the death of Diana are rubbish though, and that people make them up to try and discredit the royal family, so goes full circle on that one. Oh, and Prince Andrew is truly a prince among men and would never get involved in anything seedy, because the royal family are above all that sort of thing. All those rumours are just nonsense peddled by anti-royalists.

Related to these are the ones who think all weather is engineered, and make normal atmospheric conditions or cloud formations into some sinister plot.

I know one of those. I've showed her images of paintings by Constable and earlier artists, and asked her to explain how these cloud formations were manipulated hundreds of years ago, when technology was so limited. She just shrugs.

Sometimes there's a fine line between healthy scepticism and a conspiracy theory though. There are a lot of unexplained holes around Lee Harvey Oswald's responsibility for the assassination of JFK imo, and I can see why people are suspicious about Jeffrey Epstein's suicide, despite personally believing it was suicide.

I generally think that weird stuff is generally more likely to be caused by cock-ups than by conspiracy, but that doesn't mean that all conspiracy theories are wrong.

They’re disadvantaged in some way, or in several ways, e.g mentally unwell, socially disadvantaged, educationally or intellectually disadvantaged - so conspiracy theories fill the void to make up for the feelings of inadequacy. They make them feel intelligent, important and socially accepted in their echo chambers where they get validation and feel seen and connected. That’s all there is to it, really. You’ll find every CT fits into one or more of those groups. Or they’re narcissistic.

I think you're more mentally ill if you believe everything you are told

The Macanns situation is odd, Epstein shouldn't have had any period of his suicide watch unaccounted for but the Covid theories are batshit, too many people would have to be involved.

I’m not saying that Trump’s lies weren’t pushed by his supporters. Of course they were. But a widespread lie doesn’t equal a conspiracy theory. A British example would be the lies that were told about supposed establishment paedophiles - that was even called “credible” by the police and promoted in Parliament…before the liar got 18 years for perverting the course of justice.

As for traffic schemes, in London at least one council has backtracked in the face of overwhelming local opposition. The opponents aren’t swivel eyed loons; they just want to be able to drive their cars!

Why so prickly?

The 2020 rigged election claims were pivotal and extensive. It wasn't just Trump pushing them, it was all of the biggest MAGA proponents. They led directly to the attempted insurrection on Jan 6. Belief that the election was rigged is an important cornerstone of the MAGA personality cult.

It's interesting that you characterise the idea of 15 minute cities as a cash-grab. Says a lot about you.

What do we think about the conspiracy theory that a man in a dress automatically becomes a woman?

Apparently that’s progressive.

Re cattle mutulations - I worked with someone who had spent time as part of a team investigating these in the UK.

This was in the 80s and 90s. They worked with surgeons and medical equipment designers to try to find an answer, but the mutilations (the small number that weren’t sicko copycat ones) were too precise and intricate for modern equipment. There was a theory floating around that it was covert testing on robotic surgery, but this was quickly ruled out as it’s very easy to set up testing facilities and buy cows, plus the surgery being performed on these cows wasn’t possible with any of the stuff they were developing at the time. Covert testing would be done in secret, not out in fields.

It’s all very interesting.

Paranoia and prone to delusion = prime target for conspiracy theories, add some depression or stress, and down the rabbit hole they fall.

It’s not a mental illness, but some can become mentally ill and paranoid when they go down too many conspiracy rabbit holes, or some can be mentally ill and drawn to it.

In reality there are different sorts of humans. Some don’t question anything and merrily go through their life, some question everything, and then everything in between.

I tend to be very curious about things, and there are a few CTs that don’t have clear and reasonable explanations that, to me, remain open as potentially more than the eye can see

There are plenty of CTs that have turned out to be true, which keeps it all going (like MKUltra) and too many that are impossible to debunk so remain open to interpretation (like a small number of crop circles).

I like things that have a satisfactory explanation, like the Solway Firth spaceman. It’s very obviously the mother standing with her back to the camera, and once you can see that the whole spaceman thing falls apart.

However I like the mystery in certain stories which have a build up of evidence from different people and cover ups from others, like the Pentyrch incident.

I listen to The Why Files on podcasts - I love that you hear the stories and then the debunking (where possible) straight after.

I’m not sure I think Trump’s rigged election lies or objection to 15-minute cities are conspiracy theories.

The rigged election claim was just a pack of lies from a loser.

A few voices against 15-minute cities are bonkers, that’s true, but it’s mostly a well-founded pushback against money-grabbing councils who want the revenue from fines from extensive traffic control schemes.

Just take a look at my username 😅 crippling anxiety and very much into conspiracy theories, although I'm not preachy about them!

Pizza gate was my fave unhinged one, which then spilled into Wayfair furniture...

Yeah. Depends on the particular conspiracy. Some are actually wuite reasonably sounded and rationally, one has to agree something is not right. Some are absolute bonkers.

The nice weather during covid lockdown has very reasonable scientific explanation as well.

Well it depends on the theory. I mean, there are actual unanswered questions about Epstein's death, and the origins of covid, and maybe at a push the McCanns. But when you get into the really nutty ones (covid is a plot hatched by Bill Gates so he can inject us all with microchips or whatever), I think they are mostly an opportunity for thick people to feel clever for once. And for people whose lives haven't turned out like they'd hoped to blame their own failures on some sinister conspiracy.

There's a whole bunch of reasons why a given person might be in to conspiracy theories. Paranoia, narcissism, poor education etc can all play a factor

What I find more interesting are the motivations of the people pushing those theories. There can be a lot of political power behind the right conspiracy theory, eg Trump pushing the "2020 election was rigged" bullshit, people here claiming that immigration is a deliberate globalist plan to take over the UK, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over 15 minute cities etc. There are political agendas being played out and reinforced by carefully constructed conspiracy theories.

Apparently people whose parents were tricky and manipulative with them are very prone to believing in conspiracy theories.

I know two in this category who spend hours and hours researching theories, YouTube being particularly popular.

It's like they are unconsciously compelled to expose their parents, but trying to achieve it through the conspiracies.

There was a single dad in my area who had his child removed from his care during covid due to his conspiracy views.. he was doing things like stopping her going to school when it was opened, as he thought all the kids were going to be stolen by the government and I think mental abuse was an element as he was filling her head with it all. Not to mention the withholding medical care/ vaccinations etc.
These idiots need to be careful.

I sometimes read the conspiracy subs on Reddit. Most are a bit too wild for me but I do think that Covid escaped from a lab and that LHO wasn’t the only JFK shooter

I think one of the wildest ones is that the third 9/11 plane was in fact a missile and not a plane that hit the Pentagon. They say the only video available shows what looks like a missile and not a plane

If you want to go down a rabbit hole look in to cattle mutilations. Nobody can explain it, there’s never been one witness and it’s been going on for something like fifty plus years.

@windyfarmers exactly that theory makes zero sense. I remember those lovely warm spring days in the 2020 lockdown and the news was full of authorities trying to stop people using parks and beaches as people, especially those of us without gardens, were desperate to go out and enjoy the nice weather.

Surely if the government could engineer the weather and needed /wanted people to stay indoors they would make it cold and pissing it down with rain.

There's a huge spectrum though, isn't there? At one end you have people who have watched a Netflix documentary about whether the moon landings were faked in a studio, and at the other end you have people who belief the covid vaccine has chips in it to control us and that the Royal family are alien shapeshifting lizards.

The people at the extreme end of the spectrum are definitely mentally ill but there is no point engaging with them as they are so deep into their "world view" that you challenging that is just written off as proof that you are one of the sheeple. They exist in an echo chamber, only listening to people who confirm their theories. There's a good podcast on this from the BBC called Mariana in Conspiracyland.

Skybastards is a great insult. 😂

I think some of them are funny. Like tom hanks is a clone. There are some batshit people out there.

Personally, from what I've observed in RL people who are into this stuff don't seem to have their life under control. They need to blame and deflect from themselves.

The more damaging are the ones still banging on about COVID daily. Maybe the pandemic has left people traumatised and they need some therapy, instead of convincing parents not to vaccinate their kids and filling them up with vitamin A instead..

I have a grandson,well educated and articulate who is a flat earther. He's never had a passport for that reason. One friends DH has so many beliefs. Practically everyone and everything is trying to kill us. He went over to organic milk,meat,veg fair enough. If I was as worried as him, I would grow all my own veg and fruit. The weird thing is they both look so ill, dreadful skin. He eats like a horse but is horrendously thin. She's thin, she hardly eats.His teeth are yellow stumps,he doesn't go to the dentist or a Dr. She thinks he's a perfectionist and that no one else does anything correctly.. their house is falling apart, they don't do any kind of maintenance. The irony is,he thinks he is being spied on and people are trying to control us,he has a Tesla! He has a responsible well paid job. When he mentions the next CT he has latched one, his daughter just laughs and says "oh dad".. naturally,they only drink bottle d water.