During covid times I heard many interesting conspiracy predictions such as the value is money will fall to zero, the whole society will collapse, the vaccine will kill 99% of the population etc. None of those things have happened yet, but can you add some other predicitons to the list?
Actually, long before covid hit, there were all sorts of predictions floating around. You know, things like the 2008 recession will cause the whole economy to collapse and then we’ll go straight to Mad Max style post-apocalyptic nightmare or 9/11 was supposed to start WW3. I can’t even remember all the predictions I’ve heard over the years, but I’m sure you can help me out. Oh, just remembered that someone said that paper and metal money will disappear completely by year xyz. At the time that date was like only a few years away, but now it’s more like 10 years ago or something. Still waiting for that one to come true…
I knew a conspiracy theory nut who said that society is about three months away from collapse. As in, on any given date society was due to collapse in a few months.
First society was due to collapse due to cancer caused by COVID vaccines. Then it turned to “COVID vaccines cause sterilization and cancer, which will collapse society in a few years” and complete disregard to the prior time line. Then society was due to collapse due to a global war caused by Putin using nuclear weapons. Which turned to "Putin will invade [my country, which does not border Russia. Or any country that borders Russia, and so on].
The fun part was that each theory didn’t over-ride the previous, but they somehow build on top of each other. The atom bomb didn’t replace the vaccine cancer, they were both part of the same plan. He believed in many other world-ending conspiracy theories, so I think he, like, gradually added layer. There was a thing with 9/11 that was somehow related to a world ending event (Probably began as a “The US is going to atom bomb the middle east and start a world war”) and a weird economic conspiracy theory about countries not having any assets that probably grew from the 2008 financial crisis.
I’ve had 2 kids since getting vaccinated. It is not effective birth control.
Oh no. Are you saying that even the backup explanation of the conspiracy theorists was BS? Who would have thought.
First, the vaccine was supposed to kill you on the spot, then they shifted to saying that it will kill you some time later and the final version was that it will make everyone sterile.
Dude, that just means that without vaccines you would have had, like, 10 kids.
This stuff is absolutely golden! I have some friends like that too, so a lot of that sounded somewhat familiar.
I was into conspiracies for a while too. They seem very real, and they do make sense. Some of them are true, like 9/11. But people think they are all false as soon as the word conspiracy theory gets thrown around.
Anyway, my point is that it’s very easy to believe all of it without being sceptical, because once you lose the trust in society, you don’t trust anything they say.
Yep, you hit the nail on the head. 99% of people don’t believe conspiracy theories because they’re dumb or mistakenly came to the wrong conclusion. They believe because it allows them to create a reality where they are a part of a chosen few who have seen the light.
I’m not so sure about that personally. People who believe in some conspiracy gets treated like idiots, so there is no payoff for them.
If they would be treated by the public like they were on to something, then maybe you could be right. But today, there is zero incentive to talk publicly about conspiracy theories. :)
Oh, but there are lots of other mechanisms. Conspiratorial Thinking (CT for short) is a complicated subject, and people who are into CT tend to have a bunch of things in common. For example, many of them suffer from anxiety, uncertainty, loneliness and many other things. Some will even show signs of sub-clinical narcissism, psychosis and paranoia.
All of that means that they tend to find CT very appealing, but it won’t really alleviate their symptoms or address any root causes. Well, some people find a sense of community in conspiracy circles, so that would help with loneliness. The sense of uncertainty can be alleviated by offering simplified (but incorrect) explanations as to how the world works. People having CT will also have a sense of being in an exclusive group since they are in possession of hidden truths. Nevertheless, CT still drives these people deeper into CT and further away from the rest of the society. This causes further alienation and anxiety.
That’s the thing - to be valued by “the public” (mainstream society), one generally has to know something or be able to do something. If someone can’t do that (because they didn’t have the chance to learn or develop skills, or because their skills become irrelevant), the simplest way to feel valued is to change your point of reference. These people are treated like idiots by most of society, but within their group they’re the smartest people there are. And all those sheeple that make fun of them? well, they’re the real idiots, and when the whatever happens, they will see just how wrong they were. All one has to do so he can be considered smart and valued by this group is to accept some BS about the earth being flat or whatever. for someone who isn’t valued by society anyway that’s about the lowest entry price possible.
I guess it could be like that for some people, but how it worked for me when I was into all that, I just wanted to know what actually happened. I didn’t talk to anyone about it because I’m not stupid. :)
Ok, entertain us… What’s true about “9/11”?
JEt FUeL MeLtS STeEL bEAmS. /s
What’s the conspiracy there? Steel beams don’t conspire.
No, but they do go soft long before they melt.
It’s a funny one that one because it’s technically true! Jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to liquify structural steel, but it’s also irrelevant, because a fire in a steel frame building doesn’t have to burn hot enough to do so in order to bring about collapse.
That’s clear to me. What’s not clear is what the story of unmelted steel is supposed to point at.
Well the claim is that the government carried out a planned demolition of the towers after arranging the impacts in order to justify all the post 9/11 curbs on freedom and trillions in war spending in the middle east.
They claim this because they believe the collapse couldn’t have been due to an airliner almost full of fuel crashing into the building, the explosion blasting the spray applied fire protection from the steel truss beams supporting the floor (where they weren’t already destroyed by the impact itself) causing them to buckle after the crash but before the fire rating predicted, dumping several floors would of debris on the first undamaged floor below overloading it and starting a cascade to the bottom, all of this in a building that was designed with most of its rigidity in the outer skin, restrained from buckling via the tensile strength of the floors that were collapsing.
Because the steel didn’t, and couldn’t have melted.
I think it’s the other way around: they are convinced that the government did it and look for reasons why to support the tale.