To ask why Americans seem fixated on conspiracy theories?

[movingonok]

I know other nations are too but not to the extent of Americans.

Is there a simple answer? Mistrust of authorities?

Not just today's guff but all the way back to alien abductions and assassination of JFK etc.

There are several layers of very funny delusion there.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.