Conspiracy theories have nothing to do with mental health. Large numbers of people who believe absurd things as a source of emotional comfort does indicate an elevated degree of emotional distress within a population, but that’s a different kettle of fish. A genuine conspiracy theory is a ruthlessly rational thing, most of what is called “conspiracy theory” these days is just plain old garden grade PR/propaganda that isn’t even internally consistent much less worth considering a theory to measure against reality. I should know, I hold grand master status in that mode of thought and have for twenty years now.
The one and only thing that the current massive propaganda campaign being waged against “conspiracy theory” says is that someone does have something to hide… and it must be quite an elephant they have standing in the dead middle of the ballroom to justify so much effort to make sure every single human in the room, for one reason or the other, to this motive or another, is staring at the art on the walls convinced the answer is somewhere in one of the paintings.
November 12, 2021 @ 6:48 pm
Conspiracy theories have nothing to do with mental health. Large numbers of people who believe absurd things as a source of emotional comfort does indicate an elevated degree of emotional distress within a population, but that’s a different kettle of fish. A genuine conspiracy theory is a ruthlessly rational thing, most of what is called “conspiracy theory” these days is just plain old garden grade PR/propaganda that isn’t even internally consistent much less worth considering a theory to measure against reality. I should know, I hold grand master status in that mode of thought and have for twenty years now.
The one and only thing that the current massive propaganda campaign being waged against “conspiracy theory” says is that someone does have something to hide… and it must be quite an elephant they have standing in the dead middle of the ballroom to justify so much effort to make sure every single human in the room, for one reason or the other, to this motive or another, is staring at the art on the walls convinced the answer is somewhere in one of the paintings.