I remember a month or two ago I saw a post on the front page of reddit all about how some Ivy league psychiatrist asshole just wrote a paper on how belief in conspiracy theories is a mental disorder. We are only going to be seeing more and more of this. This is not the first time in history a struggling regime has abused the mental health system in order to silence dissonance.

With the new gun laws on the way for mental illnesses. Guess who this law is aimed at.

Exactly. They seem very determined to get our guns away from us, wonder what they have planned where an armed society might be a concern for them......

What in the name of common sense would you have come up with that idea?

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/23/plots-destroy-america-251123.html

EDIT: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643770/Why-Americans-suckers-conspiracy-theories-The-country-founded-says-British-academic.html

You can see the trend in the MSM over the last few years where they started mentioning "conspiracy theorist" in any crime even if the perp had so much as an alex jones poster hanging in their bedroom. Granted it's been going on for decades but never so blatant as today

CNN: Watched by more war criminals than any other network

NPR: Because you think that if you give us your money, we aren't beholden to a corporate agenda.

NYT: You're an educated, empathetic white collar professional who thinks that makes you part of the ruling class. So we're going to give you interesting information about world affairs, science and the humanities- and then commiserate with you about how everything wrong in the world is the fault of Republicans.

Fox News: You're a working class american who has it pretty good now, but you're the first to get hit in a recession and can see your standard of living starting to slip. Let's blame black people and mexicans to keep you distracted.

MSNBC: Hey look at what those Fox News working class idiots are doing. They're stupid and religious and uneducated and don't take their vaccines, so now your kid is going to die of measles.

ABC: Hey stay at home moms. Let us tell you how to raise your brat kids. Watch out for pedofiles.

CBS: Basically just homeland security propaganda all the time.

Who can argue with this? You are a baller.

Spot on.

Nowadays whenever I go into a post in this sub, I click the hidden buried comments and what do I see? Someone who I've upvoted at least 10 times according to RES. This is turning into the Twilight Zone, where the truth gets buried and lies flow to the top.

I do the same, green RES numbers buried and red ones at the top. It's a joke

I'm wary of RES... But I have noticed the same thing quite a bit.

Can you tell me how to mark people in RES? I just get save or un-save RES options...

Either people are getting crazier or the world is getting crazier. Just say that.

Conspiracy Theorist = Insanity

Conspiracy Theorist ≠ Insanity

Ill worded title nullified.

Words influence minds & some may read only the OPed title absent of your other words that show the title is not the intended effect of the full gist of your post.

Some whom identify as "Conspiracy theorists" could be of weak mind & thus your title could have summoned ill response.

þ

So you are apparently fine with using a "shock title" to get people to read your deeper gist due to provoking a visceral defensive response for a click.

It seems a click to read your words is worth potentially summoning ill response by some of those you seem to want to assist.

Sounds like potential "shock treatment" to some whom did not click/bite the lure to your deeper words.

I see your point may hurt some & do not feel that is your intent.

In summation, I agree to disagree with your methods.

þ

I did not intend to bait you, thus I ended my last reply with "In summation".

I am being civil & polite in my own admittedly often strange way. I simply am an odd word nerd of sorts whom felt an abused [by the ill machine & not you] weak mind could have been injured causing them to react in ill by reading only the title.

I apologize if you feel baited, that was not my intent, the nullification was my intent.

þ

has now become

This is not a new thing. The term was targeted successfully a long time ago.

People who deal in labels and don't know what an ad hominem logical fallacy are are probably not the most important thinkers in our society. If you're right, you're right. If someone is scared of what you're saying and they have to discredit you in their own mind, then they're subject to living a fantasy to comfort themselves and they should be treated as such.

"Conspiracy theorist" has now become an insult to free thinkers.

If I tell you it actually started as a secret phrase by some to describe what you call 'free thinkers' in the 1980s then it got stolen by the very-same people you're encouraging from the hands of power to be used colliqually by those who were disenfranchised by it only for it to spiral out of control back to its original use as a derogatory term what do you have to say about it?

What if 'conspiracy theory' was a polite and proper term to say 'self-deluded dissident' by people with power to those they cared about, to avoid the harsher words of what they really thought of them? Then a "free-thinker" got it into their minds (cause culture is a complex and beautiful mistress, no?) that they should share this term with the people who were getting the short end of the stick as it were. So now we have conspiracy theorists given a new unity, a name they took from others, a sort of promethean imagery, but they still face the problems they did before, they're self-deluded dissidence to formal established authority.

With one another, agreeing that authority is disagreeable to them (because they insist on being themselves) they can have a mediocre time, even like one another. But if you get them to discuss any real topic they find that they dislike opinions not their own, put a pair of conspiracy theorists in a closet and they're going to discard the arguement about why they're in the closet in favour of discussing who is more oppressed by the pink dress that never hurt anyone.

Keep this in mind whenever you throw out a theory or idea.

Yeah, but it's discouraging and frustrating, why do all these people continue to hang out with those who are identified by others as conspiracy theorists? What sort of gratification do they expect from talking about their discontent with the government amongst people who don't seem to be able to do much about it?

Whenever there is an overzealous group trying to ridicule you for rational and critical thinking, you may be on the right track.

Fingerpainting with a wide stroke are we?

We are aware of the mass downvotes and disingenuous posters on this sub so let's try to utilize it to the best of our advantage.

It's not to your advantage, the delusion is clear, you will try to think of a way to use the efforts of your enemy to your advantage but it is not possible because they're focused on disrupting you, exactly that, you will not be able to organize effectively when your only hopes are the combined efforts of the malcontents who insist that every attempt to make them see reason is a conspiracy against them.

We are well aware that media has a profound effect on the minds of the people.

No you're not. More like 'we are of limited awareness on the issue that the media may affect more people, profoundly affecting the life we share'. What makes you more aware than say a market analyst who watches trends arising in the youth, or a university professor teaching art history?

But it was already being demonized before the 80s over the JFK assassination.

Edited to un-autocorrect JFK to JUL. lol, you're so random, autocorrect.

George Carlin sums it up perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO0-u900OG4

How does 'strategist' sound as an alternative?

[deleted]

The meaning of the phrase now has a loaded meaning, blanketing any theory (which may be proven true) with instant disdain.

Look at all the downvotes coming around. But no actual negative comments.