wonderful definition for conspiracy theories that explains the problematic aspect of them without simply reinforcing the narratives of the powerful it has less to do with the substance of the theory itself and more about the type of reasoning that leads to conspiracy theories specifically that they are unfalsifiable that any evidence to the contrary of the conspiracy is just more confirmation of the scope and size of the conspiracy and that people who get into these cultures enter a sort of epistemic loop probably shouldn't have said epistemic it's not a it's not an accessible word but you know what i mean it gets stuck in a loop where there's essentially no way for you to be convinced that the conspiracy theory you've bought into is somehow incorrect and when you find yourself believing in something that there is no amount of evidence that could talk you out of it there's a problem and very often these sort of closed off loops are designed to hammer reality into accepting a worldview that you believe in but is at odds with reality uh you could also call these types of people reactionaries reactionaries by definition have a worldview that is at odds with reality the conspiracy theory allows them to build a mental construct that allows them to force reality through violence to conform to whatever assumptions about the world they want i suggest that if you're interested in this line of reasoning that you watch dan olsen's video in search of a flat earth in the video he points out that flat earthers and cuban people are reactionaries who are desperately trying to force reality to conform to their either biblical literacy or fascist worldview but not all conspiracy theories have to be reactionary there are plenty that seem more born of an anxiety about particular groups or institutions they have a set of political beliefs that if their conspiracy turns out to be true would confirm many of them for example the jfk and NUMBER_TOKEN truther conspiracy theories are rooted in concerns about the deep state not like in the q a nonsense but in the like unelected pentagon officials who just keep and maintain a system of empire as well they imply the presence of a large and powerful government that's way more confident than they are in real life and so it also is an anxiety about government overreach people who believe in ufo conspiracy theories just so desperately want to believe in a positive answer to the fermi paradox the whole thing about why haven't we met aliens you know google it it's also born of trust issues with the secrecy obsessed united states especially in the cold war era when a lot of new technologies were being tested and nobody would speak up about them because they were secret things to fight the soviets you'll also find a lot of conspiracy theories run rampant across the world in unpopular or dictatorial regimes in many ways they exist as counter narratives to confront the official story that represents the government that they're opposed to and of course it would be irresponsible to talk about the culture of conspiracy theories without talking about those who have other motivations for amplifying and proliferating them because of the stigma against conspiracy theories and the shared values within them a lot of conspiracies turn into their own like subculture or activist movement in which case then adherence and belief in the theory becomes part of your membership in a community and communities can mean a lot to people and because of that within the community the ideas that build up the conspiracy can thrive multiply divide mutate
NO_SEGMENT_TOKEN