Conspiracy theories // The conspiracy way of thinking

Id say this is a follow up post on the 2 parter i made titled "Why people believe stupid shit", that ruffled some feathers apparently. 😌. In those 2 posts i did mentioned certain conspiracy theories, even though they were hardly the focus, as well as "the conspiracy way of thinking" thats been plaguing the internet since its inception. Because the internet is a place where anyone can voice their opinions anonymously it seems like a perfect place for conspiracies.

Conspiracy thinking i describe as being akin to fundamentalist religious thinking. Just like with religion in the conspiracy world everything that is in line with the core belief is accepted, while everything that goes against it is considered "heresy" and the perpetrator labeled as being "an agent of evil".

If you stay away and dont give that world any credibility, then "youre the mainstream", "youre a sheep" (the equivalent of a non believer, a infidel) and if you engage with the conspiracy world and dont agree with them you become a heretic, a spy, an agent of the enemy (a devil worshiper).

Now, ofc there will always be those even in the hardcore community that you would call "moderate". I mean not every fundamentalist muslim would want to cut your head off even if they dont see anything wrong with that.

Even in the extreme there is a spectrum.

My Story.

In the last couple days ive been commenting on a post by a conspiracy theory group called @deepdives. (seems quite popular)

I usually avoid these type of posts but they pinged me and i felt weak for a moment. They pinged a few other people and wrote that "We were offended".
Their claim that i was offended offended me! I could NOT let that stand!😄

I did something i would never recommend anyone doing. I RESPONDED.
First rule in internet life:

Never respond to conspiracy theorists.

Now, im not saying that because i think theyre all idiots or theyre aggressive or something in that regard.
No, you should never respond to them because you will never be able to deal with the sheer amount of information they will throw at you. These are people that are keen on convincing you in their agenda and they are prepared, their guns are cocked and ammunition ready for a reload.

Every time you debunk one thing, they will throw a 100 different unrelated things at you. Even if that thing you debunk completely tears down their conspiracy claim, they will just move to something else.

Their strength being in the fact that its very easy to write a sentence that needs no research saying "what about this?" while the answer you would have to give, takes research and your answer a complex one.

A conspiracy theorist is like a badly trained boxer that has massive stamina but just flails his arms around with no technique hoping to catch you on the nose, while someone that subscribes to empirical skepticism picks his punches and drives them with precision.
You will always win in the end... but is that really the fight you want to have? You will get exhausted and that win wont really look good on your resume.

The reason why i felt i could go in with my comment is because a long time ago i was one of these guys.
It was some time ago in high school when i was introduced to the "Zeitgeist" documentary. I was 14 years old or something.
I was extremely compelled by that documentary. The points they made i found amazing. I talked about it with my parents. I told my friends. I researched every part of it.
I was amazed because after watching it, i had the secret knowledge, i was enlightened, i was among the very few that understood the truth.

I was wrong.

Everything said was poorly constructed, biased conclusions thrust forward, evidence nitpicked, many facts disregarded. I didnt know it at the time but Zeitgeist was the first time i ran into fake news.

People tend to think that fake news is someone that has public access lying to you. That is only partly true. Fake news in most part is those with public access picking and choosing what they want the public to see. They ignore everything but the information that suits their politics. That suits their agenda. That suits their ideology.

That is the ACTUAL conspiracy. A conspiracy about information distribution. The mainstream does it AND ITS EXACTLY WHAT THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS DO AS WELL.

This post has gone to almost 1000 words. My internet pals, "the Lerminati", shout out to @lazyfeta , @whitebanana, @blakmamba, always tell me to "stfu" and write shorter "non loaded" posts, but i cant.
I have to indoctrinate everyone into skepticism. 😃
How you think matters! Skepticism is a skill that has no bias. Its a skill you develop over time by repetition and training.

Dont get me wrong, theres plenty of people i respect that i think believe stupid shit. Ive been an atheist since i was 15 and my wife is a Christian. She prays to God and goes to Church on Sunday. My mother works in the Croatian agricultural agency and she holds lectures to farmers. She thinks GMO is evil.
People believe stupid shit that are simply wrong. Whats important isnt to convince them otherwise, because you cant, but what you cant do, if you want them to be in tune with reality, is to try and teach them how to think properly, how to adopt the scientific way of thinking, and maybe, just maybe, they use what you taught them, they let go of emotional attachments and accept facts.
If not, so what?

???

There is comfort in believing nonsense and strange things. There is comfort in being a part of a group.

"Echo chamber" is a pejorative term but "happiness" doesnt care about facts.

Its the scientific standard of how we examine the world that i feel trumps any other. Thats how i feel. "The anecdotal evidence, the hearsay, the gossip, the presuppositionalism" failing terribly to beat that. But, not everyone has to subscribe to my worldview.

Where does it say that "being right" improves the quality of your life?

😉PEACE

Oh and i got a meme about me. I feel honored.

Btw, i payed for the delegation from @theycallmedan. Another example of why you conspiracy theorists should RESEARCH things before making conclusions.😉
Still funny though. 😂lol

You made a post about how wrong American mainstream media is about leftist protests. You know in America a post like that is 100% considered a conspiracy theory. I wish you lived in america {not really} then you would see how ironic your action is. Questioning the media in America {and many European countries, I guess not your area} is considered EXTREMELY conspiratorial. In fact Trump supporters are often called "conspiracy theorists" even if they have no beliefs in them.

The term conspiracy theory was {according to official declassified documents} developed by the government after the assination of JFK to make people talking about the event seem crazy. THe term "conspiracy" just means a political sceme by 2 or more people to comit a crime. The term "conspiracy theory" is designed to connect real crimes with bigfoot and reptilian people.

Of course you can find dumb posts in Deep Dives. I can find dumb witness posts everyday probably. Why are you even on that tag anyways... to just find some shit posts and making everyone else look dumb by proxy?

P.S Pretty much everything you said in this article is a logical fallacy.