Sunday, June 5, 2022

Why would anyone believe a "conspiracy"?

Olga Oksman (The Guardian, 4/7/16); Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Contact possible by meditation (Gaia)
Psychologists are trying to determine why otherwise rational [and cooperative] individuals can make the leap from prudent “paranoia” to logical “conspiracy” theories.

According to a Public Policy Polling survey, around 12 million people in the USA believe that interstellar lizards [reptilian humanoids or shape-shifting nagas] in people suits rule the country.

We imported this particular belief from across the Atlantic, where professional whistleblower David Icke has long maintained that Queen Elizabeth II of England is [possessed by] a [bay-sacrificing,] blood-drinking, shape-shifting alien [as if no one in the US suspected such a thing, which of course many did].


Theories about reality behind the headlines and official government propaganda in general are not necessarily bad, according to psychologists who study them.

“If we were all completely trusting, it would not be good for survival [of society, civilization, and rugged individuals],” explains Rob Brotherton, an academic psychologist and author of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories.

“Sometimes people [in power] really don’t have our best interests in mind.” But when people leap from thinking their boss is trying to undermine them to believing their boss might be a secret lizard person, they probably cross from what psychologists refer to as “prudent paranoia” into illogical territory.

No proof is ever enough, such as the Starchild skull.
And there are a lot of illogical ideas to pick from. About 66 million Americans state that they believe that space aliens crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico; around 22 million people believe that the government faked the moon landing [due to the phony footage shown on TV]; and around 160 million believe that there is a [CIA] conspiracy surrounding the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

David Icke, Green Party, explanatory theories
Whistleblower David Icke
(Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar)
David Icke is a well-known political commentator and proponent of the theory that human civilization descended from [or is partially controlled by dragon-] reptilians in the constellation Draco.

While space aliens and fake moon landings probably trigger eyerolls from many people, defining what constitutes a conspiracy theory is difficult, Brotherton says. [It seems to be anything the powers that be, such as the military-industrial complex, do not like to be widely known or discussed.]

Newspaper "art" mocks the story.
The government, for example, sometimes conspires to do the unspeakable, such as the infamous 1930s Tuskegee experiment, initiated by the US government to leave untreated and study the venereal disease syphilis in African-American men [and their partners and children].

Researchers blocked unwitting participants from receiving penicillin or exiting the experiment to get actual treatment. The study continued until a media report made it public.

In this case, believing that the US government was conspiring to keep people sick was completely accurate. [It was a conspiracy, and many Americans suffered and died for it.]

There are characteristics that help differentiate a unwelcome theory -- cast in pejorative term "conspiracy theory" (suggesting that a group is deliberately in on it while keeping others in the dark -- from prudent paranoia, Brotherton says. More

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