It's a paradox. Most people entertain conspiracies (ie they distrust the government and the mass media to some extent) and yet they have also been indocrinated to despise and reject anyone labelled as a "conspiracy theorist".

It's a pavlovian trigger.

Just go ask anyone what they think of politicians. "They're all liars!". "Not an honest one in the bunch". "You have to lie or sell out to get anywhere in politics". These things are extremely common to hear.

But the second you suggest that maybe, just maybe these rich and powerful megalomaniacs get together in secret once in a while and plan things for their own interest, you are labeled a nut.

How dare you insinuate that people might cooperate.

RANDOMNESS! SCIENCE! MEANINGLESSNESS!

There is evidence of the lies , therefore it is rational . The meetings are pure speculation . You truly are a nut if you can't make this simple distinction .

The meetings are pure speculation

Sure, I never said otherwise.

The "conspiracy" thing fails the common-sense test, IMO. Politicians and rich people fight each other like dogs; they're in competition with each other for money, power, publicity, etc. Even if they're in the same party or same administration or same company. Sure, there have been trusts and collusion from time to time. They always come to light eventually, with hard evidence to expose them.

It's a stakeholder society and everything is based on confidence.

Everything is based on confidence in our society. We trust that our food and water is untainted, that our information comes from trustworthy sources, that we can trust our friends and family to not take advantage of us, and so on...

Yes, big-time pavlonian trigger. I think it was mostly engrained in people around 9-11. I noticed people tried to raise a question about the incident and the host of the show would then be disgusted that they would even consider that,label them, and cut them off the air. The host then seemed the patriotic victor.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Crimes_Against_Democracy#Relation_to_Conspiracy_Theory

At least since the 1970s, the conspiracy-theory label has been applied pejoratively to a wide range of suspicions and allegations of official wrongdoing that have not been substantiated by public officials themselves. The label suppresses mass suspicions that inevitably arise when shocking political crimes benefit top leaders or play into their agendas, especially when those same officials are in control of agencies responsible for preventing the events in question or for investigating them after they have occurred.

Communication scientists Ginna Husting and Martin Orr, both professors at Boise State University, have studied the use of the conspiracy-theory label as a putdown and have explained how the label works to silence suspicion. The conspiracy-theory label challenges the very rationality of persons who voice suspicions and thus shifts the subject of discussion from the suspicions to the speakers’ competency or lack thereof.

DeHaven-Smith has shown that the conspiracy-theory label was popularized as a pejorative term by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a propaganda program initiated in 1967. The program was directed at criticisms of the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President Kennedy had been assassinated by a lone gunman. The propaganda campaign called on media corporations and journalists to criticize “conspiracy theorists” and raise questions about their motives and judgments.

because our education system has all but erased the concept of critical thinking.

As well as the corporate media propaganda outlets

That's what Common Core is designed to do: teach critical thinking skills

bahahahahahahahaha, you sir are quite funny

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/common-core_n_4367550.html

Have you been in school recently? It's a joke of a babysitting indoctrination service.

I have two elementary aged children so I'm quite aware of what their new homework and textbooks reflect

Exactly what are they being "indoctrinated" with?

[deleted]

Yes, it is very tough to find an unbiased view of CC. Let me know if you find one.

Governments (and TPTB) want you to believe them instead of people thinking for themselves. Just look at all the laws and spying they have in place to watch everything people do. It's time to stop worrying what others think and speak up to save humanity from government destruction and control.

It's not the government, it's those who control it

Yeah but the public does not know this yet. The Big G is playing along.

Then stop calling it the government. Ask ppl bout 9/11 they'll say "oh u think the govt did it?,"

Ok. What should it be replaced with so people understand?

Nazi space raptors is a good start,

Oh good. I thought someone would say shape shifting lizards that are hiding underground in New Mexico.

Also a likely scenario.

Tptb. Or those who control the govt

Money controls the people in government. The industries with the most money have the most influence. The industry that makes money itself has the lion's share of influence, banking. Most of our wars can be seen as advancing the interests of this top lobby group. Libya tried to make a gold backed currency. They were hosed. Iraq under Saddam started selling oil outside of the petrodollar. He got hosed a few years later. Iran is selling outside of the petrodollar and look at how bad propagandists want to attack them. It's all about the money. It's all about keeping the world buying our dollars to get oil so we can keep economically feeding on them by printing more dollars in exchange for their goods and services. If they ever drop the dollar, we'd experience the same thing other nations do when they rampantly print money, massive inflation. For now, the world feels the pain and the bankers, and secondarily the USA receives the gain. Follow the money, find the human parasites behind the misery.

More like vampires.

If you look at the trade deficit and the budget deficit, you can see that the US is already hosed. The hammer has not dropped yet, but when it does, the pain will be real.

It's hard to draw a line in the sand and talk about things which have substantial evidence, without people automatically assuming that you believe in some extreme and crazy things automatically off the bat. It's basically stereotyping and just the nature of the human psyche. We are not naturally good at critical thinking, attention to detail and nuance.

A perfect example would be how people treated Gary Webb after he published his Dark Alliance articles. Webb with the passage of time has been vindicated, although he was treated horribly in aftermath of the articles being published.

Posts like this don't help, that's for sure. You're reinforcing the concept of the "loony conspiracy theorist" by implying that the normal/expected response to CT is disbelief.

It's a matter of critical mass, and I think we are getting verrrry close.

Building 7 is super fucking simple. Either Building 7 is the loose end that unravels 9/11, or the Brits are gonna turn one of their high-ranking pedos for evidence and we'll find out about 9/11 then.

I still want to see the business plan whereby Larry Silverstein wouldn't have gone broke removing the asbestos from the buildings and bringing them up to code to avoid condemnation were they to have remained standing.

If he didn't foresee the insurance payouts, how was he going to afford to do this? If it was by way of investors etc, why don't we have a look at that viable business plan, please. I understand a private citizen is under no obligation to publicly disclose their decade-and-a-half-old private business plan, yet it would be interesting and would be rather comforting to know that the official story might be plausible. I want to believe authority is benevolent, I really do.

The fact is, conspiracy theories are not even shut down that often in our society. Watch the history channel, they have programs on conspiracy theories all the damn time. So the idea that people have been indoctrinated to reject conspiracy theorists is nonsense. In reality, many conspiracies simply are crazy. Everything from Reptilian overlords, to the twin towers being destroyed by lasers just are crazy ideas. And while some may be more plausible than others, ultimately a lot of conspiracy theories are just nuts. As for those that seem more plausible, people most often don't believe them because there's no evidence. Conspiracy theories are so far removed from official stories that the conspiracy theorist needs a lot of evidence for his position, evidence that hardly ever exists.

The Reptilian Overlords destroyed the Twin Towers with lasers, my friend.

My god you're right! How could I have not seen it earlier, its so obvious.

They communicate with Alpha Centuri using lasers that beam out of the top of the pyramids at Giza. Watch for the arrival of our overlords in 2020/10/20. It is a code. It is ordained. It is our destiny!

As stupid as Reptilian sounds on first look the association chain looks like this.

Reptilian -> Coldblooded -> Blue Blooded Aristocracy/Psychopaths.

to me the root of this is just coded language and suddenly it makes perfect sense.

Ike goes into full detail about what planet they come from and shit. The idea that the theory was created purely as a coded way to say politicians are psychopathic is silly, they would just outright say it. He, and other proponents of the theory (Ike didn't start it) believe %100 they are real reptilian aliens from another planted walking among humans. You don't need to hide behind metaphor to say they're evil, no one's getting murdered in their sleep for that.

suddenly it makes perfect sense.

Can you please explain to me how that makes perfect sense? Are you saying that the whole reptile theory is a coded metaphor? Or are you saying that this word association chain is evidence of reptilian overlords?

I think the root was a metaphor. What has been made out of the metaphor is either used to discredit conspiracy discussion, trolling or a bunch of mentally challenged people running with it.

Most of this subreddit is totally fictional. It's good and right to call that out.

We should be as comfortable receiving critical examination as we are giving it.

Skepticism has always been frowned upon. See: all the people executed for heresy by the church.

its an umbrella term created to group all aspects of critical thinking and government scrutiny into one label that every 'normal' person sees as crazy. have some doubts about what we are being told in the media? are you opposed to unending war as a means for profit? or what if you just oppose the Federal Reserve?

Well, nope not anymore. As soon as the word conspiracy drops, the everyday folk have been conditioned to think you now believe in everything from reptile overlords to zombie hitler and who knows what else TV and movies are associating with the term.

Its actually very effective at grouping all of the things authority doesnt want people talking and thinking about, and putting it on the fringes of society in the crazy pile. Quite annoying when you try to have a conversation with someone you think is open minded, then out comes all the looney disinfo shit associated with conspiracy theories....drives me nuts sometimes.

It's because of the extremist conspiracy wackos. Yes many conspiracies are real but the extremist views EVERYTHING as a conspiracy. This is why so called normal rational people roll their eyes at conspiracy theorists. Like so many things it's the extremists that ruin it for the rational conspiracy theorist.

r/actualconspiracies has many cases.

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People have trouble believing that Federer and Nadal might actually be friends in real life.

Because most conspiracy theories are batshit crazy. Given the number of people that have to be involved in most, but see no benefit from, conspiracies, most are implausible.

Also, when pointing out that implausibility to conspiracy theorists, there's always one additional thing to explain why so-and-so hasn't spilled the beans yet. These plus ones continue to have less and less plausibility until the entire thing is broken down.

Downvote away, I can take it.

Because most "conspiracy theories" are fucking retarded when you repeat them out side of the echo chambers that they grow in.

People are afraid and subliminally don't want to even acknowledge something they cannot understand/control. It's much easier to believe the government is your "big brother" keeping you safe and watching out for you. Sad.

Because most people soon realize that conspiracy theorists have no evidence to support what they say. CT's just start with a conclusion (usually, govt is evil or corps are evil, or something), and then make up "facts" to support their conclusion. People see through that behavior.

Some key telltales about CT behavior:

1- When any significant event occurs, within MINUTES there will be N new conspiracy theories to explain it. No waiting for facts, just right to the theory, and it never goes away, regardless of future developments.

2- Most CT's I've conversed with claim to know the REAL TRUTH about many different events. JFK, Roswell, 9/11, Illuminati, etc. Somehow all these things done by amazingly powerful, enormously secret organizations are known by this ordinary guy typing on his computer. Yeah, that makes sense.

Sounds like the people who pushed the official 911 story, all those criteria you just named...

Really, the official story has no evidence to back it up ? They didn't interview any eyewitnesses who saw planes crash into the towers ? They didn't ask any of the survivors inside the towers "hey, did you see teams of guys installing tons of explosives in the weeks before the attacks ?" ? Didn't examine the wreckage to see if bomb parts were found ? There weren't investigations by NYPD, NYFD, NTSB, FBI, etc ?

As opposed to the CT's, who came up with nothing but speculation. No work, no evidence, just ... nothing.

The official story might be greatly divergent from the actual events without the real story involving a lack of planes.

The words 'conspiracy theory' have been purposefully weaponised.

The very term was created to shut down conversation. Calling someone a conspiracy theorist is the equivalent of calling them insane, never mind that conspiracies exist in our everyday life from the card table cheat to state-sponsored theories of WMDs.

Also, the CIA created the term.

Because too often the conspiracy theory is cooked up before any details are known. Who would side with an ever-changing story? Just look at 9/11:

"Official" story: Muslim terrorists flew planes into our buildings.

Conspiracy theory: It was drones, no now it's Saudis, but they were backed by the US. No, Israel. No, US. But the towers were brought down by explosives. No, thermite. No, by the planes.

Fear of insanity. It's an existential fear.

Let's not flatter ourselves. There are a lot of hard working people out there helping to keep the conversation focused around "tin-foil."

I don't even really understand what you're saying but I get the idea that just about any theory you close is probably ignored having nothiing to do with conspiracy... :-)

Edit: oh my god, I'm so sorry. I thought this comment was in a game of Thrones thread...I won't remove it to hide my shame I'll leave it so I can get what I deserve

truth meets wall of ignorance and programming

if i get chatting to someone and they dont mention tv or something off tv within the first few minutes i will ask them in a round about way how much tv they watch. if they are an average tv watcher and newspaper reader i don't even bother talking about current affairs/politics/reality because i already know what their unshakable responses will be on any given topic

Because they can't be proven wrong.

People are afraid to look crazy.

It's a shared delusion. "Conspiracy" topics are casual conversation among expats, who have escaped the controlled media of the US & Canada. Get outside the US and everybody knows what's going on.

Can't confirm.

Source: I'm European and Saudi terrorists crashed planes into WTC towers.

US citizen here. I've been living and cruising on my sailboat in the Caribbean for last 8 years or so, visited Spain for 4 months so far, and "outside the US everybody agrees with us CT's" is nonsense.

And inside or outside the USA, plenty of people who agree with you that 9/11 was a conspiracy will disagree with you about what KIND of conspiracy it was (who did it). All of these "I know the REAL TRUTH" people, disagreeing with each other. Should be a wake-up call for you guys.

It's like how I can't talk about my profession with anyone ever.

Fear, plain and simple. It took me several months after 9/11 to really question the official narrative despite one of my closest friends suggesting that about a week later (he had a professor who was immediately suspicious), oh, and despite that and the ridiculousness of the official narrative. It is fear of realizing how many ideas we grew up with were lies and how much less influence on the world we have than we were brought up to believe. How non-egalitarian the world really is. (Edit: Oh, and how stoopid the American electorate has become.)

Later I accepted it and many thousands of hours of functionally useless research later, I have developed a pretty good sense of what I do know, what I don't know and what I am, and probably always shall be, unsure about.

None of that pyramid magic and alien heritage stuff though. Also no superhuman powers like telepathy or precognition; that's all bull.

Mind kontrol

The Kontrol has a capital K as in MK-ultra.

In that instance, is it not capitalized merely due to it being an initialism?

Either way, I'm referring to deliberate conditioning of the potent government-funded and researched sort.

I was sort of joking but

I'm referring to deliberate conditioning of the potent government-funded and researched sort.

Yeah, this is spot on.

People who are in the know just call it information -- while people who haven't heard it before call it a conspiracy

Some people can't handle the truth or don't understand it. If they don't understand it they poopoo it.

Conspiracy theorists can't handle the truth. Bad things happen without needing any govt conspiracies. Some people hate USA because of the dictators we support and the way we use our military, or because of their religion. Some nut-jobs assassinate presidents or prominent people, for their own twisted reasons. CT's just want to pin everything on the govt or the corps or the rich, and will make up "facts" to try to do so.

How many assassinations has the CIA been involved in over the last 70+ years?

There are facts to back that up; it's not a theory. Ex-agents have written books, for example.

Conspiracy theorists can't handle the truth.

You are joking right or just plain lost.

I'm completely serious. CT's can't handle the fact that often bad things happen without big govt or corp conspiracies behind them. Their anger against govt or whoever leads them to make up "facts".

I don't think its just anger. Its the lies and coverups that get CP upset. Other shit happens all the time but the government is usually right on top knowing they are not accountable or follow the same standards as the public.

No, you have it backwards. The CT's are angry at govt or whoever long before an event occurs. As soon as the event occurs (9/11, MH370, whatever), the CT's jump on it to invent theories and make up "facts" to fit their conclusion. No wait to see what the official story or investigation is, just right out with the anti-govt theory.

And don't forget that plenty of people are making money or political gain out of the conspiracy theories. They're writing books, giving speeches, and/or whipping up voters against Obama or whoever.

Government mind control/conditioning. Think about that for a while. Why would my government want to control my thinking?

Tptb don't want a population capable of critical thinking

These comments only further the whole "loony talking crazy" stereotype.

Cuz some "theories" are stupid and make valid ones sound like bs. MKULTRA and COINTELPRO was real, but because of idiots talking about 9-11 and the annunaki. so that mkultra is shrugged off as crazy.

In that instance, is it not capitalized merely due to it being an initialism?

Either way, I'm referring to deliberate conditioning of the potent government-funded and researched sort.