Field Guide to the Conspiracy Theorist: Dark Minds
When does incredulity become paranoia? Radio personality and filmmaker Alex Jones believes an evil cabal of bankers rules the world. http://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...ist-dark-minds
In an analysis of conspiracist thinking, British psychologist Patrick Leman suggested in a 2007 New Scientist paper that belief in conspiracies, however outlandish, is a coping mechanism for the insecure. That on the one hand, convincing ourselves of conspiracy theories wishes away the stark, terrifying arbitrariness of life on this Earth, or, on the other, compensates for a sense of disempowerment and enables people to blame personal failures on the clandestine machinations of a malevolent governing system that conspires to keep them down and from knowing the truth of their evil schemes.
And this is how I view guys like Mikey. Insecure, uneducated people looking to blame the world on their personal failures. Listen to coast to coast at night. Maybe this explians why virtually every person calling into that show with a whacked out theory is some unemployed loser living next to a garbage dump in a trailer, without internet access.
It is not often you see successful, well heeled people buying into this BS. I am sure mikey will point out one person, which means to a conspiracy theorist, every single one, but thats just how these dellusional people operate.
Last edited by pylon; 09-03-2011 at 12:01 PM.
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We had some dingbat blonde idiot in my history class try to convince us all that Lady Gaga was one because of that stupid symbol that bush is doing above, also she used some rapper as a source too... The professor lit her up like a box of cheap Chinese firecrackers. She started to cry and stormed out of class, she has yet to be seen since that episode. Some say that there was no one there arguing the fact and that the government set it up for argument sake. Hell some even say it was a robot that came from the future to stop the take over of machines. Only the government knows, why wont they tell us? why wont they tell us the truth???~!?~?~!?
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Thank you for everything CP. Good memories and thankful for everything that has been done to help me out. I will no longer take part on these boards. Take care, Go Flames Go.
We should be careful not to browbeat conventional wisdom into people's heads and attribute general psychological attributes to those people. I believe in some conspiracies and not others. The are degrees of conspiracies.
1. True conspiracies. There was a conspiracy of some in the Bush administration and CIA to trump up evidence to invade Iraq. That's very well-documented.
2. Some truth or unclear. Then you have the JFK conspiracy where things look very fishy but it's hard to tell one way or the other what actually happened.
3. Not true but have some reason behind them. Then there's the 9/11 type conspiracies where the motives are there but the logistics don't work.
4. Bat#### crazy, pasta strainer on head conspiracies. Finally, you have the bat#### conspiracies where neither the motives nor the logistics make any sense. Illuminati, moon landing, politicians are actually lizards etc.
I'd say you can factor in psychological reasoning to the last two, but that reasonable people can believe in the second and should believe in the first.
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We should be careful not to browbeat conventional wisdom into people's heads and attribute general psychological attributes to those people. I believe in some conspiracies and not others. The are degrees of conspiracies.
Oh I believe that there were conspiracies out there, but I believe that they never got out of the planning stages. But what conspiracy theorists don't realize is that if you go into governmental archives that are open there are plans for everything no matter how outlandish, because governments plan for every single contingency. Then those plans get in front of someone sane and their sh%t canned because they're entirely ######ed and outlandish, or just plain insane.
[QUOTE=Weiser Wonder;3267084]1. True conspiracies. There was a conspiracy of some in the Bush administration and CIA to trump up evidence to invade Iraq. That's very well-documented.[/wuoyr]
Absolutely, the whole WMD thing in front of the UN for example to create evidence was insane, and should have illustrated to Conspiracy theorists that governments are completely incapable of executing mass top secret conspiracies. I mean I will honestly say that up until that point, pre Iraq I was convinced that.
1) There had to be small stockpiles of gases or biological agents or even a baby nuclear program because they had used them before, and the Iraqi's were working awfully hard to hid something from the UN inspectors.
2) That most of the Iraqi government knew that they had no WMD but didn't want to tell Saddam that, so they put on a major drama to hide the truth from their leader because of his known temper. That is a livable conspiracy theory.
I lost belief in the WMD when I saw poor General Powell parading portable labs disguised as ice cream trucks.
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Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder
2. Some truth or unclear. Then you have the JFK conspiracy where things look very fishy but it's hard to tell one way or the other what actually happened.
I've never bought into anything that the whole JFK thing was what it was surrounded by incredible coincidences. I don't think it was a murder plot by shadowy members of the government aided by the mob. The reason why I say that is the government couldn't even effectively kill off the bay of pigs invasion and that was in conjunction with the CIA, FBI senior branches of the government and the military, the best and errr brightest.
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Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder
3. Not true but have some reason behind them. Then there's the 9/11 type conspiracies where the motives are there but the logistics don't work.
The logistics or the logic? The logistics clearly don't work, the plot would have to be too massive and complex to cover up, and the logic of manufacturing something that over the top would have little more effect in creating a justification for war then a couple of small but effective bombs planted in different targets.
If I was in the U.S government and wanted to manufacture a terrorist event, I could do it with far less people, kill far more people and create far more war rage by bombing a couple of NFL games. Or killing some kids with an explosion at Disney land.
In effect I could get the same war results by killing 100 people instead of 3000.
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Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder
4. Bat#### crazy, pasta strainer on head conspiracies. Finally, you have the bat#### conspiracies where neither the motives nor the logistics make any sense. Illuminati, moon landing, politicians are actually lizards etc.
You missed the Bilderberg group or whatever its called, and you failed to attach Bush to Clinton by their supposed induction into the Skulls.
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Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder
I'd say you can factor in psychological reasoning to the last two, but that reasonable people can believe in the second and should believe in the first.
People like conspiracies because they're far more fun then the real life theory that amazing sh%t happens in the simplest manner. Its more fun to believe that there is super villian level evil in the shadows manipulating events so that when things go bad its the big evil against the individual good.
I remember one of the coolest show evil that I've ever seen was in Angel where the apocalypse was happening and it was being pushed along by a group called the circle of the black thorn, who were the elite of the mortal and supernatural. They hid in the background and basically encouraged man's inhumanity to man.
Totally ludicris, but as fun as any conspiracy theory.
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How can anyone not believe that terrorists highjacked 4 planes and crashed them into their targets. Well mostly. Some of us didn't quite live up to the dream.
And this is how I view guys like Mikey. Insecure, uneducated people looking to blame the world on their personal failures. Listen to coast to coast at night. Maybe this explians why virtually every person calling into that show with a whacked out theory is some unemployed loser living next to a garbage dump in a trailer, without internet access.
It is not often you see successful, well heeled people buying into this BS. I am sure mikey will point out one person, which means to a conspiracy theorist, every single one, but thats just how these dellusional people operate.
LOL......yeah you got me pegged ...not.
Blaming the world for my personal failures? I'm fairly content in life at this point. I have never been unemployed or down and out as you put it.
I'm sorry you are incapable of independent thought. It takes great security in onself to hold an unpopular opinion/belief and not change myself in the face of ridicule or peer pressure.
I have never listened to George Noory. In fact it sounds like you listen to it alot with your intimate knowledge of the callers .......and no I don't believe in all conspiracies because I think 9-11 was a false flag terror attack. I thought it was all legit when it happened.
Hey, you forgot to throw in your lame "comic sans text" joke......
This article doesn't discuss "facts" whatsoever. But the end of it was rather interesting..maybe you didn't read that far.
"Canadian psychology prof says there is basis for 9/11 conspiracy theories
People who suspect a conspiracy was at work in the 9/11 terror attacks, or in the way the U.S. government responded to it, are not crazy, says one Canadian psychology professor working in Norway.
Floyd Rudmin, with the University of Tromso, says those labelled "conspiracy theorists" with regard to 9/11, the John F. Kennedy assassination or any number of other dramatic events have good reason to doubt the explanations given to the public by authorities.
"Some people say there are no conspiracies and that all conspiracy theories are nonsense," he says. "That simply is not true. Humans do conspire."
Rudmin says some of the elements that create conditions for conspiracy theories to emerge include improbable events occurring that have political implications, coinciding with indications that officials are not being completely forthcoming about what they know.
He says 9/11 contains all these ingredients.
"It never happened in history that a steel-framed building fell down without demolition," Rudmin says. "And we've had buildings in war zones."
Things about the subsequent 9/11 investigation and information released — such the lack of investigation into the collapse of Building 7, the smallest of the World Trade towers that fell, and not releasing video of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon — helped fuel the suspicions surrounding these unusual happenings, Rudmin says.
Rudmin notes that many of the organizations of people who question what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, are experts in architecture, aviation and military. "These are not wackos. These are professional people."
This thread is like spitting in the face of all the memorial events and pissing on the grave of people who died on September 11. Especially to bump this around the anniversary date. What a disgrace.
How can anyone not believe that terrorists highjacked 4 planes and crashed them into their targets. Well mostly. Some of us didn't quite live up to the dream.
Show me a video of a plane crashing into the Pentagon.
I just want the truth. There is no reason why the footage should be hidden from the public.
Show me a video of a plane crashing into the Pentagon.
This is a video of a model plane crashing into a field. It's not quite what you were looking for, but just kind of imagine it's hitting a big pentagon like building instead of a field, and that's pretty much it.
PS. Keep watching after the crash, there's some pretty in depth analysis of the aftermath, hopefully that will answer some questions.
We had some dingbat blonde idiot in my history class try to convince us all that Lady Gaga was one because of that stupid symbol that bush is doing above, also she used some rapper as a source too... The professor lit her up like a box of cheap Chinese firecrackers. She started to cry and stormed out of class, she has yet to be seen since that episode. Some say that there was no one there arguing the fact and that the government set it up for argument sake. Hell some even say it was a robot that came from the future to stop the take over of machines. Only the government knows, why wont they tell us? why wont they tell us the truth???~!?~?~!?
I would say that most people refuse to believe that 9/11 was anything but an orchestrated terrorist attack because it is much, much harder to consider that the U.S. government was complicit in the events. It would take a mountain of evidence and many years before people would start to change their beliefs.
Now I am not saying the U.S. government was responsible, I've considered and studied the events surrounding Sept. 11, and I've come to believe that we are dealing with a very complex situation, but essentially OBL was able to take down the twin towers, through quite a bit of luck IMO. But I still have doubts, it would be abnormal to take everything at face value.
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I would say that most people refuse to believe that 9/11 was anything but an orchestrated terrorist attack because it is much, much harder to consider that the U.S. government was complicit in the events. It would take a mountain of evidence and many years before people would start to change their beliefs.
Now I am not saying the U.S. government was responsible, I've considered and studied the events surrounding Sept. 11, and I've come to believe that we are dealing with a very complex situation, but essentially OBL was able to take down the twin towers, through quite a bit of luck IMO. But I still have doubts, it would be abnormal to take everything at face value.
Thanks for the great post.
My opinions on September 11th have changed somewhat. I personally dont have a theory on what happened. It may of happened as has been portrayed by the government/msm, or it may not have.
Im keeping an open mind and asking questions, thats it.
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Im keeping an open mind and asking questions, thats it.
And that's what bugs me about some of the posters in this thread. They get all indignant and ridicule anyone that just might believe something out of the mainstream. Like you said, keep and open mind, consider alternative views, listen. There is nothing wrong with entertaining a conspiracy theory, in fact it can be a lot of fun. And if the truth really is the truth, it will stand the intense scrutiny.
I've watched several conspiracy type films, read many of the theories, read about the inconsistencies of the official report. And some things to me are outright impossible but reported as the facts. Which is why I say it is a very complex issue, not everything is black and white, the U.S. government is probably lying to the public 100 different ways, but that does not mean all of sudden they conspired to destroy the twin towers.
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This article doesn't discuss "facts" whatsoever. But the end of it was rather interesting..maybe you didn't read that far.
"Canadian psychology prof says there is basis for 9/11 conspiracy theories
People who suspect a conspiracy was at work in the 9/11 terror attacks, or in the way the U.S. government responded to it, are not crazy, says one Canadian psychology professor working in Norway.
Floyd Rudmin, with the University of Tromso, says those labelled "conspiracy theorists" with regard to 9/11, the John F. Kennedy assassination or any number of other dramatic events have good reason to doubt the explanations given to the public by authorities.
"Some people say there are no conspiracies and that all conspiracy theories are nonsense," he says. "That simply is not true. Humans do conspire."
Rudmin says some of the elements that create conditions for conspiracy theories to emerge include improbable events occurring that have political implications, coinciding with indications that officials are not being completely forthcoming about what they know.
He says 9/11 contains all these ingredients.
"It never happened in history that a steel-framed building fell down without demolition," Rudmin says. "And we've had buildings in war zones."
Things about the subsequent 9/11 investigation and information released — such the lack of investigation into the collapse of Building 7, the smallest of the World Trade towers that fell, and not releasing video of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon — helped fuel the suspicions surrounding these unusual happenings, Rudmin says.
Rudmin notes that many of the organizations of people who question what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, are experts in architecture, aviation and military. "These are not wackos. These are professional people."
Why exactly is this interesting?
I think most people, even those calling you a whack job will admit there have been "conspiracies" throughout history. I don't think anyone would deny that.
9/11 conspiracy theorists get that "crazy" label because they refuse to answer glaringly obvious issues in their believes. That despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, refuse to accept the most plausible account of what happened on 9/11. They hold on to unknowns (ie. video footage of the pentagon) as if that clearly shows the government MUST have had a hand in it. In essence, the absence of "evidence" they believe must/should be there proves the conspiracy. They take something minor (ie. the existence of thermite) and make it the smoking gun.
