People who are into conspiracy theories

[Wasneverintomickeyandminnie]

Are they mentally ill?

I read once that they’re more likely to be

I love a good conspiracy theory and uncovering the truth about things.

Currently quite obsessed with the whole Epstein thing, find the McCanns situation very odd, covid was strange etc

Are you into them too, am I mentally ill 🙈😬😅

Why oh why did the laughing emoji go!!! My DD rang this morning, said one of her customers was a conspiracy theorist, I was laughing so much, annoying, I cannot remember a single one!

I have a casual passing interest in what people are thinking and why. Not CT so much specifically, but the way the brain thinks and processes and how it finds a way round explanations that are very straightforward to try to find a complicated, outlandish and often quite barking mad theory that fits into its world view.

The conspiracy theorists that I know are all disadvantaged in some way. Either financially, employment wise or mentally. But they have all locked onto conspiracy theory as a way to make themselves feel powerful ('I know something you don't know!') in a world which disenfranchises them.

My anecdotal experience is that yes, often conspiracy theorists aren't very clever combined with a sort of anxiety/distrust of the world. It's a killer combination becuase they're so anxious/distrustful AND they're not smart enough to really understand or analyse what is being said or what they read etc.

But I think there are two other, linked, factors that make them such a thing today - linked to the way we consume information and media.

The first is that TV shows and movies and the big Hollywood machine has taken what always happened with many books and other forms of entertainment a step further - in popular media, there's always a nice neat, clearly proven, absolutely TRUE answer. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the real world is never present in those stories we read, watch, listen to and so when there's ambiguity in real life, its easy for some people to believe it's a conspiracy.

The second part of this of course is also how widely conspiracy theories can get around and the lack of trust in MSM etc. So your average CP will tell you that this is a GOOD thing because now we're not being gaslit and having things hidden by "the elite" or whatever, but in reality, it means that Jack-the-batshit-guy can load whatever he likes up on facebook and people will assume the reason he didn't get it into The Times is because it's a conspiracy to keep people like Jack silent.

It's quite interesting. One of the most vocal and bizarre Conspiracy theory types I know is a cousin of DH's. She 100% fits my "highly anxious and also not so bright" theory above, but what you say here is interesting - by most standards, there's no reason to think she's disadvantaged in ANY way but if I think about it, she had very little control when she was young (ridiculously traditional parents from a conservative culture) including more or less being forced to marry a man she didn't love. Then, when she left that relationship, her world got very small - she lives in a small town and has always been anxious about travelling etc so simply doesn't do it at all any more, even just the surrounding areas. On top of that, while she has a good life, arguably she is not as well off or as privileged as she would have expected to be based on how she grew up.

So she does sort of fit your theory too.

I'll have to think about the others I know like this/ It's less obovious but now I'm thinking about it, my friend I'eve had to distance myself from a bit is a lovely person and on the surface, has the perfect life. But me and other friends have long worried that really, she's just put herself into a box to fit her husband's needs. So perhaps conspiracy theories are a usufal way for her to regain control?

I am going to think more about this. Thank you.

The tour guide in Helsinki last year was really convincing. Was he a lizard do you think?

Some are gullible.

With others it's more sinister

I remember getting a taxi the day after Trump’s first election win. The driver was genuinely flummoxed as to how it could have happened, because someone told him online that George Soros had fixed the voting machines in Hilary’s favour. He was going through all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to explain it.

Of course, he failed to consider the most obvious explanation, which was George Soros hadn’t fixed the voting machines and that what he’d been told was a load of bollocks.