Conspiracy theorists - mental illness or stupidity?

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I know people who believe if really crazy conspiracies have always been around, but this pandemic has really brought them out of the woodwork... I mean, how could you realistically believe that Covid-19 does not exist, or that the vaccines contain microchips??

Some people who believe those things might have a low IQ and/ or poor education and so lack any “critical thinking” skills - and so might not be able to see why this is really illogical. But what about people who are clearly reasonably intelligent and well educated - like Jeremy Corbyn’s brother. Is it almost like a mental illness? Do they become so obsessed with being anti-establishment that they lose the plot?

I was very ill with psychosis a few years back and I believed every conspiracy theory out there.

I didn't believe them before I was ill and I don't believe them now I am well.

Clearly in my case it was caused by mental illness, but I have no idea about anyone else. I imagine there are many reasons why people believe this stuff.

One or the other I reckon.

Ah yes, the old 'mad or stupid' (binary) question.
... but when is a cover up a conspiracy and vice versa? And who decides?

I know more people with mental illness who don't believe in conspiracy theories than do. I don't think there is correlation nor causation. Perhaps everyone is stupid. After all, half the population is below average intelligence!

I have an aunt like this. I’m reluctant to armchair diagnose her, but she seems to have some sort of paranoid personality disorder. She also struggles with anger. Sadly, she’s not a very happy woman.

I suspect she’s looking for an external cause for all the fear and anger inside of her. She’s been like it for as long as I can remember.

I’m not sure. I think a lot of conspiracy theorists are looking for some element of control in crazy situations - so they like to believe they have the answer even if it’s not a very nice answer.
There also seems to be a trend with fighting against a big faceless enemy.

I think it’s probably either or, or people just looking for a bit of grim excitement or superiority so they can feel like they know better than everyone else

I had a handyman at my house recently who said they didn't believe in covid. Usual "nobody I know has had it". Just seemed to be ignorance on his part and others who I have heard the same thing from.

Both, some mental illness but many people are really just gullible and not that bright.

I think the stage of capitalist development we're in (high levels of inequality, people feeling that they don't have control over their lives, the economy, technology, what's happening to the planet etc) leads to high levels of mistrust in government. People tend to believe that there is someone/some sort of selfinterested cabal with a concrete plan that exists behind the scenes pulling the strings and trying to control our lives...(rather than an economic system which leads to the aforementioned problems such as rising income inequalities). I think in the past people sought political change but that doesn't seem to be a concrete option in the supposedly "post ideological age"...people like to feel like they're smarter than other people and can see "what's really going on" etc..same forces that drive people to vote for populist leaders, anti-imigration parties like ukip...a misplaced desire to demonise others who are no better off than you are, or blame some mythical illuminati, rather than look at the real root of the problems people face today.

But yeah it's crazy that people think the government is injecting us with microchips when we already all have smartphones...I think the pandemic has really highlighted people's lack of critical thinking skills...

Actually people who believe in conspiracies and faux science are more often educated and intelligent. They have a tendancy to over research and distrust everything, which is where they fall down. If everyone researched for eg vaccines intensely before they vaccinate their children there would be a lot more anti vaxxers and I say that as someone who is pro vax. Most anti vaxxers read realms and realms of scientific essays and research but they aren't scientists, and they have a huge amount of distrust and paranoia so their research is biased. I don't think it is that they are gullible, more the opposite. They won't blindly do what everyone else does and this ultimately becomes their down fall.

This paranoia usually comes from deep seated trust issues, from upbringing, family issues, previous history of being heavily controlled, being let down by our government and policies, a tendancy to anxiety and or being a heavy cannabis user. Usually all those reasons. Saying it's because they are stupid doesn't help anyone.

The one I know has a few things going on. She isn't particularly bright or well-educated, but thinks she is cleverer than everyone else (narcissistic?). She has an addictive personality (alcohol, smoking and food). She spends a lot of time alone. Her arguments are thin, weak, not thought through to the consequences. But she repeats them saying she's a critical thinker and other people are sheep. So I guess she needs to feel different. Special.

I think both. Low IQ and/or mental illness.

As someone with genuine diagnosed psychosis I find this offensive. Real mental illness isn't believing some whack job conspiracy on facebook and believing it along with other people who thought it was a good idea because they heard from their mate down the road.

Real mental illness is serious, it's life wrecking, it's unbelievably difficult to live with, and be treated for and it has enough stigma as it is without posts like this where people get accused of being mentally ill because they've found a weird idea on Facebook

And also the suggestion that if it's not mental illness then it is stupidity, is also bloody offensive. In saying that you're making stupid thoughts comparable to mental illness. I'm seriously pissed off about this thread.
Try living with psychosis for a while, have it wreck your life and your families, live with the stigma of having to tell people what's wrong and then actually genuinely take a step back away from you because they're that scared.....and then come back and start this thread again.

@Titsywoo I absolutely believe that Covid exists but nobody i know has had it, Am i supposed to lie about the latter?

I think the lies and U turns from the Government add fuel to the fire.

I know loads of them sadly. They vary. The biggest conspiracy theorist I know is normally lovely. Her family cook and send snacks for her colleagues all the time. They donate generously to whatever charity run we are doing. I don’t get her at all. I saw her have a heated conversation with a colleague last week who had lost a relative to covid. They agreed to leave it but when the colleague friend left, she started to talk about the fact that person must have had a serious medical condition they didn’t know about. She is trying to talk everyone out of having a vaccine. Some have listened to her. It is maddening.

AquaFairySoul I see what you're saying, but there are a lot of different types of things that come under the umbrella of mental illness, including personality disorders, some of which could plausibly leave you more vulnerable to believing conspiracy theories.

I feel part of the problem is too much, and poorly-filtered, information. It feels as though it's possible to find out about anything online (to the point where it seems unbelievable that, say, you can't find any mention anywhere of the regional rhyme your mum used to sing to you at night, or whatever). Human beings have an instinctive drive to learn, and to come to conclusions, and when there's unending information out there, so much that you could never read it all, and a lot of it at a level beyond what you can understand by yourself, and somebody promises to lead you through all the most interesting bits and show you how it comes together and makes sense, it's tempting to follow that path.

High-importance information that other people don't know, especially, is high-value to the human brain. Combine that with mistrust of the media and government, from living in a massive, faceless, lumbering bureaucracy that you feel you have no influence over and which has perhaps placed you personally in a disadvantageous economic or social position, and finding a community dedicated to discovering The Truth THEY Won't Tell You seems kind of appealing.

If you believe that the government is involved in a conspiracy, then you'd have to also believe that the government is organised enough to carry it out.

If you believe governments and media have been involved in cover-ups, it is not unrealistic to think they could be covering their arses on other things.

I wouldn't usually post another thread, but this thread from 2012 illustrates the extent of the Hillsborough tragedy and subsequent cover up: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/1562167-Hillsborough-Police-did-doctor-evidence-in-a-bid-to-avoid-blame

I think you are being not very clever putting the question in that way. In fact it's offensive.

Conspiracy theorists - mental illness or stupidity?

I would say neither. Describe what you call 'Conspiracy theorist'.

Is it a person who did the research and surfaced lots of facts that did not go well with the government narrative? Someone who pointed out to the wrong way PCR tests are done ( at 40-45 cycles so that they pick up any respiratory virus incl dead one)? Or someone who did a research on vaccines and found out that there was very little data to call vaccines safe? Or someone who is questioning why we are still in lock down when the R is well below 1? Or someone who has done even deeper research into why the lockdowns might be happening? ( tip: take a look at the Great Reset, World Economic Forum). Do you understand why the government are constantly moving the goal posts? Do you agree that schools should be shut for xxxx?

If you answer 'Yes' to even some of these questions, it might be YOU who are deluded, have 'mental illness or stupidity'. Do you not think?

Critical thinking is important in processing all the information from various sources. But if you are only relying on what BBC/ITV tells you, you will never learn the truth.

We get the info and we make our decision to believe what we choose to believe based on what we have been sold by the news and the media. Sometimes the message is clouded and conflicting from one news agency to another. It creates mistrust.

It makes you doubt what you read and hear is the whole truth.

At the end of the day you make your own decision without being preached at.
It's those people who try to make you believe what they are saying is right that I can't do with and that comes from both sides of any argument.

23 posts in and we've already got two Q-Anon believers posting. Says everything.

Actually people who believe in conspiracies and faux science are more often educated and intelligent.

There's a substantial body of evidence (peer reviewed journal articles, etc.) showing that conspiracy theorists have on average far lower IQs and lower education levels than non conspiracy theorists. I'm not generalising; of course not all conspiracy theorists are poorly educated, but that is simply not a fact-based statement.

They have a tendency to over research and distrust everything, which is where they fall down. Most anti vaxxers read realms and realms of scientific essays and research

I don't believe any of this to be true. Most conspiracy theorists claim to have "done thorough research" when all they've done is watched a few YouTube videos with zero critical thinking or questions about the motives or backgrounds of the people making the videos. Most conspiracy theorists have such a distrust of "Them" (whatever they define "Them" to mean; the government, MSM, etc.) that they automatically and blindly believe anything anyone who's not in authority/MSM say. I have a science background never come across a conspiracy theorist who could hold their own in a conversation above GCSE biology or GCSE physics level. Look at the conspiracy theory threads here - plenty of people talking about the moon landings being faked or Covid being made in a lab, but the second you ask them even the most basic question about how Americans faked radio signals, or why the genomic sequence of C19 shows patterns of natural evolution, they go all slack-jawed and have obviously never even heard of "genome sequencing" much less understand what it is and how it's relevant.

Anti-vaxxer forums are full of people ranting about how "the science" is against them and complaining that they can't find a single "science thing" thing that supports their beliefs, and how the fact there are no scientific papers to support them is all part of the conspiracy. And that's the minority who actually do even a cursory google search for scientific research; many of them just watch Jenny McCarthy videos and call it a day.

I believe those who believe things that make them a danger to themselves or others should be sectioned and de-radicalised.

I think in some cases it is due to a lack of critical thinking or mental illness, but in others it's more a of a coping mechanism people use when confronted with something scary - the logic being that if they can attribute the scary thing to someone/thing can control it. So if Bill Gates is responsible for Covid, we can easily solve it.

Saying that, I think there is another category of people who spread conspiracy theories knowing they aren't true. I'm thinking of the likes of Alex Jones, Laurence Fox and Julia Hartley Brewer. They don't believe a word they say but it gets them lots of lovely money and attention.