I thought I'd explain why conspiracy theories sound so convincing at first glance. I'll be using a few of the most prevalent conspiracy claims as examples. 1. The public's ignorance - This title isn't really an insult to the public. The public can't possibly be knowledgeable in everything, and conspiracy theorists exploit this. I could use countless examples, but I'll just choose two examples. One is from the Apollo conspiracy: no stars are visible in the pictures. How many of you actually thought this was convincing? Well what if I could tell you that a 10-year old with a camera could debunk this. Stars are faint, cameras won't show stars unless they are set to a slow shutter speed to take in more light. The moon was brightly lit and a camera with a slow shutter speed isn't practical. Unless you're a photographer, you probably wouldn't know this. Another, the 9/11 claim that steel doesn't melt at 1800 degrees, the temperature fires were burning, and this means the towers couldn't have collapsed due to fire. They conveniently ignore the fact that steel loses half its strength at 1100 degrees. Past 1100 degrees, it loses strength at a staggering rate. The steel doesn't HAVE to melt to fail. http://tinyurl.com/4ctfbvq Unless you're a physics/chemistry major, you probably wouldn't know this. You'd either have to study it or look it up yourself. You don't know any better, you're just going to take the word of the conspiracy theorist. Now conspiracy theorists know that their above claim is straw man, but they still use the same claim, which leads to the second point. 2. Never letting go of debunked claims - Now if conspiracy theorists did this, there wouldn't be conspiracy theories. You must reuse the same claims no matter how pathetically futile they are. Remember, the public doesn't know better and their ignorance allows the theorists to get away with this. Let's look at Jason Bermas, one of the main creators of Loose Change. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs5jWvu4tR8"]YouTube - 9/11 Truthers: Meet the Creators of "Loose Change"[/ame] Skip to 2:45 and watch until 4:00. There you have it, the creators of Loose Change acknowledge that this claim is false, yet REFUSE to change it. Why do we listen to people who won't change their “facts†even after they admit it's untrue? This isn't just out of ignorance, this is pure dishonesty to the public. This is why they always make the same claims: you can debunk it, maybe they'll admit it's debunked, but they won't change a thing the next time around. 3. The illusion of credibility from documentary-like films - Conspiracy theorists make a video like Loose Change or Zeitgeist and label it as a “documentaryâ€. The illusion that only facts are being presented in a professional manner is deceiving. It makes the conspiracy theorist look credible, but how credible are they? Take a look at the full video I posted in point #2. Hm so Dylan Avery, creator of Loose Change, was rejected from college. He doesn't even have a college education yet he somehow cracked the secret to 9/11? Interesting. Jason Bermas (Loose Change) believes the Apollo missions were faked, and practically every other conspiracy theory in the book. Korey Rowe (Loose Change) is a felon deserter. Now take a look at some other videos of Bermas and Alex Jones. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythOK2yt5TI"]YouTube - Alex Jones Owns Glenn Beck On FEMA Camps[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMSVWHfOkt4"]YouTube - Jason Bermas puts moronic caller in his place[/ame] Please tell me how anyone could possibly take these folks seriously. Their immature insults are just embarrassing and these guys are supposed to be the icons of Truth? Just because they know how to make a film, doesn't mean they are credible of professional one bit.
Yeah, not the people who think the government is there to love them and hold them tender. Those people aren't ignorant.
5) Confirmation Bias - many people want to believe that the government is out to get them, so when they hear theories of malfeasance, they are inclined to find them to be true.
It's hard to disprove a conspiracy theory though because a lack of evidence for the conspiracy is considered evidence itself by conspiracy theorists. It's always a cover-up.
Thank you, OP - very lucid post! I'm glad I stay away from those exact conspiracies you've mentioned (the moon-landing and 9/11 - gimme a fucking break), and the people and "documentaries" - Alex Jones (makes me sick to me stomach - unbelievable disinfo) and Zeitgeist. I call these the mainstream conspiracy theories. There is only ONE THING that attracted me to so-called conspiracy theories - the whole alien phenomenon. I wasn't even interested in abductions - I was/is more interested in the fact that alien life is absolutely probable (if not a fact - just hasn't been proven yet) and that so many people just laughed when you mentioned the word "alien". This made me wonder - for years and years (I've been intrigued with the stars and other life since I was 8). So I went to a certain conspiracy site (hoping to learn about the ET phenomenon) and ended up getting sidetracked by the other shit. The other ridiculous shit. Then I became aware of some personalities - like Alex Jones for instance. I knew that guy was a nutjob from the getgo. So yeah, Aliens are the only conspiracies I'm interested in. Other than that, the mainstream conspiracy called chem-trails makes me wonder, but the more I do research (real research), the more I see them to be just vapor. The only reason I am on the fence with it is because I've seen multiple planes in the sky at once - some emitting longer "chemtrails", and some emitting normal short contrails. But now that I think about it, it could have just been the differences in altitude. Extra Terrestrials. Oh, and how could I forget? Another conspiracy I am interested in is religion (Abrahamic), which I do look at as a conspiracy. Once you put ET's and religion together, however, you can an extremely interesting theory - the Ancient Aliens. Bottom line is - I am trying to learn the truth about things. How can you learn the truth if you can't admit you're wrong at times? I mean that as far as like the OP said - some people will still believe a conspiracy theory even when there is proof or info otherwise. This is the ego getting in the way. Think about that. And I'm not right all the time - I will admit it. But I do cherish the fact that I WILL go on a forum and right in front of everyone say, "Ok, my bad - I was wrong and you were right". Ego.
Conspiracy theories will always exist because some people get a thrill from believing in convoluted absurd plots of their governments or something else likewise. EDIT: Yea you don't even really need any scientific evidence to believe that aliens exist. Earth was a "lucky" planet which was able to sustain life. Earth is part of ONE solar system that revolves around ONE star. There are HUNDREDS of billions of galaxies, with each one containing trillions of stars. Each of those stars may or may not have their own solar system. I don't think it's very probable that there are absolutely no other "lucky" planets out there.
"Extremely probable" And no - I disagree that if you believe in ET then you're a conspiracy theorist... Now, if you believe that aliens are engaging us and shit like that, then yeah - THAT'S a conspiracy. But (nowadays), even scientists and astrophysicists will concur that ET life is "extremely probable, if not a fact". I think I'm just disagreeing with you over semantics, right? You were being facetious I think.
There are definitely planets that can sustain life somewhere in space. But what are the odds that they would ever find our planet?
What I find disturbing is that people who refuse to associate themselves with conspiracy theory usually shuts out any information that is even associated with a conspiracy theory. While some are incredibly outlandish, such as reptilians, 50 years ago you would get the same looks if you were talking about mind control. Guess what? The government admits it conducted those experiments. They even told some of their methods. One describing CIA whore houses and drugging people with LSD. You probably will still get those looks when you try to talk about MK-ULTRA But yes, I was being facetious. To believe in alien life is not a crazy thought. A crazy thought is thinking we are alone.
I forgot government wasn't about money and was all about the well being of it's people. Yet marijuana is illegal and the president takes lavish vacations all the time on our tax dollars. Man I just forgot how much the government cares about us......I'm such a silly goose.