To think conspiracy theorists are an infuriating mix of arrogance, stupidity and lazy thinking

[EmperorTomatoRetchup]

Having thought I'll leave it, I'll leave it, I found myself arguing with a conspiracy theorist.

Christ alight these people are utterly lacking in any sort of critical thought. This tool was trotting out one of the most popular of the conspiracy theories - 911 as an inside job, Madelline McCann was murdered by her parents, moon landings were faked, Diana was bumped off by Mi5 etc. and they seemed to be impervious to any of the logical flaws in their argument, that researching a matter didn't mean watching YouTube videos made by fellow conspiricists spouting unsourced, unreferenced nonsense and claiming that non adherents were 'sheeple' buying 'the official line'.

To take the example jokingly referenced on another thread, the Paul McCartney is dead conspiracy theory, how many people coroners, doctors ambulance staff, Paul's family and friends, would have had to be bought off in order to allow him to be replaced by a lookalike who could be trained to speak, act, play musical instruments left handed and pass for one of the world's most famous men in the full glare of the media . In 50 years not a single person involved in this dastardly plan, not a single one of this vast army of people cooped into it has blown the whistle despite their being unparalleled financial rewards for doing so.

No musicologists have detected a change in composition or playing or singing style. No one asking what happened to the bloke who became fake Paul', might their family not be curious as to why their son/brother disappeared off the face of the earth in the late 60s.After going to such extraordinary lengths the Beatles so desperate to cover up this audacious act, left a series of clues in their songs as a signal to their fans.

AIBU to think that this combination of scepticism, lack of critical thought, logic, probability twinned with overwhelming arrogance is infuriating and wonder how I should deal with these fuckers in future? Especially when any attempts to point out the flaws in their arguments are taken as signs you are one of the sheeple or a Co conspirator.

[tillytop]

Gersemi David Icke reckons Diana had her seatbelt on when she left the hotel. Good conspiracy theory video of his re Diana's death on YouTube. (Yes, I do have a lot of spare time)

[tillytop]

Pissedoff The child stealing ct always gets brushed off as ridiculous yet there has been government apologies in the past for this. Including Gordon Brown for the UK a few years ago.

[Lweji]

if MM's parents were trying for a cover-up, why on earth would they have spent so much time and effort in keeping the whole thing in the public eye?

Not saying that they did, but you'd be surprised.
Even this Summer, here in Portugal, two cases of missing persons were kept in the public eye by the relatives who later turned out to have killed them. It's not unheard of around the world or the UK.
You'd think two doctors would be smarter than that, but they left three young children alone in a room in a resort, so...

[LuvSmallDogs]

I think there’s a difference between “lizard people”, “Avril Lavigne’s been replaced by a clone” types of conspiracy and thinking there are paedophiles who are being protected due to their status or that a child’s parents were involved in her mysterious disappearance.

After the discovery of child trafficking rings that were ignored because the victims were no-good WC types and the police couldn’t be fucked with it, are we really supposed to believe the cops would beat down the doors of high ranking politicians and celebs for some other, no doubt, “bad” kids?

And thinking that in a case where there are literally no suspects that close family members had something to do with it, rather than “stranger danger” is hardly the whackiest theory.

[Pissedoffdotcom]

tillytop what, apologies for the government setting targets to remove children?!

[AssignedNorthernAtBirth]

Well true lweji, and as I said upthread, people are stupid. However, although there are examples of killers attempting to keep the story in front of the world's media over lengthy periods of time whilst also trying to evade getting caught, it's the less common reaction than trying to quietly get away with it.

Regarding Peaches Geldof, would it not have made more sense for the Illuminati to off her before she started tweeting what she knew? Their standards are slipping!

[GabriellaMontez]

MM disappearance is hardly equivalent to flat earth theory!

As far as I know there is no clear evidence about what happened to her. One theory holds as much weight as any other. All possibilities seem unlikely/unlucky.

[longwayoff]

Peaches Geldof? Struggled for years seeking death. No murder required, I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did.

[PurpleTrilby]

I think it's a way of replacing religion, of satisfying a primal need to believe in something higher, bigger than ourselves. In the past we all had it neatly presented to us through mainstream religion and most were happy to go along with that. Now, in a more secular age (in terms of UK numbers, atheism is the biggest threat to Christianity, not any other religion) people struggle to make sense of the world and some turn to conspiracy theories instead. In that way they can say, I know the bigger truth, I'm smarter than these unbelieving heathens (sheeple) around me and I need to convert them to this one true path I've discovered and that I'm also being persecuted for (early Christianity again). The best debate about this that I saw online involved a very smart atheist ct sceptic who basically forced a conspiracy theorist to admit it was his beliefs he was propounding, not facts, or anything more solid, simply belief. I thought that was very telling.

[AssignedNorthernAtBirth]

Whether MM disappearance is akin to flat earth theory depends on what the person's saying really. If someone just says there's no evidence for any of the theories, so in the absence of anything else I go with the statistically most likely occurrence of a parent having been responsible, that's not illogical. Still leaves questions like why they made such efforts to keep the case in the public eye, but so do all possible explanations. So that's not like flat earthing.

If however the person thinks Madeline never arrived in Portugal in the first place because the lizard people had scalped her and swapped her with her sister, or similar, that is sufficiently batshit to be around the same ballpark as flat earth.

I think that's a very interesting way of looking at it purpletrilby. It's making sense of a world where loads of stuff happens for no satisfactory and/or discernible reason.

[user1457017537]

There are some conspiracy theories that are just plain idiotic and there are others with more than a grain of truth in them. I don’t think some theories can be dismissed as there seems to be credible evidence

[Gersemi]

When I was watching the first “moon landing” in 1969 aged 12 I told my mother that it was fake filmed in a hollywood studio. I don’t remember this but she did. Not seen any evidence to disprove my initial thought

Really, seniorcitizen1? You haven't see the evidence of the subsequent moon landings, the rocks etc brought back from the moon, the artefacts left on the moon? How about the fact that the Russians, who were monitoring the relevant parts of space throughout and with every incentive to debunk this, never did so?

[Gersemi]

Geraldine170, a letter was produced at the inquest by Paul Burrell, whose reliability and motivations are, to say the least, distinctly questionable. There was no proof who had written it.

[Hanyu]

The problem that I see is that special effects really weren't that great back then and a faked video would be easily proven with modern technology.

[user1457017537]

I may be wrong but I thought the letter was written in Diana’s hand and passed for safe-keeping should anything happen to her. Diana was very concerned as two of her close Protection police officers had tragic accidents.

[HebeMumsnet]

Evening, all. We know these threads are really good silly fun mostly but please do think carefully before posting anything about recent cases.

We've just deleted a couple of posts that sounded a bit like blaming parents for the death of a child and we just think that's not really in the spirit of what we're trying to do on Mumsnet.

Thanks!

[ChicagoLil]

@PurpleTrilby I think it's a way of replacing religion, of satisfying a primal need to believe in something higher, bigger than ourselves.

This is what recycling is about. The government has convinced us to spend so much time worrying about which bin to put the tin cans in that we have no time to rebel against the system. Now that we know that all the plastic bottles end up in the ocean we are questioning the government on every level.

[Gersemi]

That was what Burrell said, user. He was never the most reliable person in factual terms, and her friends were very clear that they didn't believe the document was genuine.

[RomanyRoots]

Those asking why a parent would keep the story going if they were involved, it's not unusual, I knew that Fred West was guilty, I told my mum when it was on the news.
Youtube has got lots of video's and psychologists explaining their behaviour.
I've looked at a few now as obviously the FW thing freaked me out when it all became apparent.

[Gersemi]

Shannon Matthews' mother was pretty inadequate and was blatantly trying to cash in. Not comparable.

[tillytop]

In the days when there wasn't even colour TV and only three channels, would they really have been able to send live footage from the moon?

[Lweji]

In the days when there wasn't even colour TV and only three channels, would they really have been able to send live footage from the moon?

Most TV then was live. Also, astronauts were sending live footage to NASA.

Computers then couldn't handle large data storage, so it would have been harder to record it than to broadcast it.