Why do conspiracy theorists go on at length about it all the time?

[AquamarineBalloon]

I’ve just been on a taxi journey during which the driver went on and on about his conspiracy theories for the whole journey, doing his own research, etc. I just acknowledged he was speaking but didn’t offer any response or engagement but the lecture continued for the whole trip (which was thankfully relatively short).

I hold opinions about various things but unless I’m specifically asked what I think, or having a conversation on that topic, I don’t feel the need to go on at length about them to other people.

He’s entitled to his view (however baseless and ridiculous) but why the lecture?

AIBU?

I can't answer your question but it is blooming annoying. You can either listen politely (inwardly cringing) or get into a heated argument. I have an old school friend who is like this, swallows any old crap and harps on and on about it. They post A LOT on Facebook and make comments about how people like them are bravely standing up against the majority and one day they will be proved right. Unsurprisingly many of their group of friends have distanced ourselves.

They're evangelists, they know secrets that you don't and they want to share them. Demand to share them. Insist on sharing them. They are all welcome to their beliefs and even more welcome to keep them to themselves and their internet friends. Very annoying to be trapped on a journey with one.

I have no time for such people. Their theories usually boil down to "the Jews", of which I am one, and I've heard it all before.

I just say ‘Please stop talking. It makes me car sick.’

Apparently there is a powerful secret society that is attempting to turn Jew, Muslim and Christian against each other to bring about an "end of days".

It gives them a sense of purpose and superiority, and gives people who are not very bright the sense that they have one over on everyone else while still allowing them a mental figleaf of "helping people" by spreading the word. They need you to know about their in-the-knowness.

For me, they are like (some!) vegans, they feel you need the education and they are the ones to give it to you

Always refer to 'they' I have to bite my tongue not to ask who 'they' actually are

We had a plasterer in the house a week or so ago. He was an excellent plasterer but (I stayed in another room with the dog, leaving my partner to deal with him) my partner kept coming into the room I was in grinning, to tell me of the conspiracy theories with which he was - for no apparent reason - regaling her.

Our favourite was that the Vatican is responsible for all the flooding, because they've dug loads of tunnels all round the world. Donald Trump is sorting it out as we speak, apparently.

It's because we're sheeple, don't you know!?

I’m glad it’s not just me!

Why are the Vatican digging tunnels? Who is actually digging them? How does a tunnel cause flooding?

Cause they are nutters

They do tend to love Trump @VickyEadieofThigh - he is so obviously full of BS and only out for himself and his family but they can't see it

Yes…the mythical ‘they’ who always want to control us.

So the Vatican must be helping matters by digging tunnels so the flood water has got somewhere to go?

Excellent point!

I have taken to laughing hysterically at the mythical "they". I like to point out that in my experience, get three people in a room and try to get them all to follow a basic set of instructions or be on the same page completely is pretty much impossible, so the power "they" must have to all be uniformly in agreement about how to control the rest of us sheeple.... wow, I wish I had some of that when I am wrangling the DC to bed!

For some it's because they're frightened and they're trying to shake off a sense of powerlessness by rallying others to be aware of what's going on so there's a potential we might fight against it (eg. Sarah Connor in Terminator etc).

But I usually find the conspiracy taxi drivers just like having a sense of wiseness and authority

I see conspiracy theories the same way as I see religion. A talking snake told eve to eat the apple and we have now become sinners the same way these crazy evangelicals believe jesus wll float down and scoop them all up the sky when, I'm not sure entirely sure but something to do with Israel and what happens there. A prophecy but involves lots of killings and such things.

The same way I know the government were laughing at the masses during covid, one rule for them ,one for us. The same way Jimmy Saville was known filth but lots was covered up. It's all crazy in this world, and not everything is clear cut. Enjoy each day, believe. What you want as long as you don't harm another should be the way.

I sometimes feel bad for them. When you take some of the individual theories in isolation, they sound plausible - some even have a nugget of truth that's been distorted - and then they disappear down the rabbit hole where theories cross-over, clash and conflict and then suddenly it's goodbye logic. It seems like a confusing place to be. The mental gymnastics they have to go through to square away so much conflict and contradiction sounds exhausting, no wonder their brain turns to mush.

There's a definite shift when someone get's into the conspiracy mindset and suddenly everything is "they". The thing that makes me laugh is that they'll criticise my reliance on biased sources but spout a theory that they learned from a Facebook post from one of their compatriots. I could understand if they'd gone and done some research to find the origins of the theory and assess it themselves but they just accept it because the person is a fellow theorist, their word is golden. As if people on both sides of the spectrum can't have an agenda. Their standards of evidence get weaker as they go deeper but their biggest criticism of me is my sources.

They want you to know how much smarter than everyone else they are. Also, if you were trapped in a car with them, it gave them a wonderful opportunity to talk and talk and talk at you at length because you had little means of escape.

Most people in your seat would smile and nod (and count the nanoseconds til their freedom) and that gives Mr./Ms. Looneytunes the feeling that they have converted you, they have spread the truth, they have enlightened and inspired 💪

Maybe they even go home and bore their poor wife to death with tales of how 'when I tell people this they can't believe it, they're amazed, they say I've opened their eyes'. Genuinely believing their own bullshit.

gish galloping

Aka spouting so much shit it's impossible to refute it all

If the Vatican have been digging tunnels all across the world to bring about the global floods, good for them. That's quite the achievement. We should hire them for all of the infrastructure projects we can't seem to get right above ground! 🤣

That's a new one. Made me giggle

Presumably because they believe that people are being hoodwinked or harmed and they feel compelled to speak about it? It's evangelism I suppose.