Totally agree, x_files!
IMO, it gives people a sense of control over events/situations that would otherwise be overwhelming. By definition, conspiracy theories are false beliefs. People who promote them do so with some vested interest.
The simplest solution can't possibly be the solution, in other words. The opposite of
Occam's Razor, essentially. (Paul McCartney is dead! :beamup[emoji4]
Why Do Some People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-some-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories/
Conspiracy theories: Here's what drives people to them, no matter how wacky
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/
There's a lot of good stuff at the last link you shared. Thank you for posting it!
I think the biggest reason these conspiracy theorist exist are:
1. "People dont like it when things are really random.*Randomness is more threatening than having an enemy. You can prepare for an enemy, you cant prepare for coincidences."*
2. They appeal to people's need to feel special and unique because it gives them a sense of possessing secret knowledge.
3. Illusory pattern perception: the tendency to see causal relations where there may not be any (many theorists seem to find the most casual detail that they can find and declare it's "proof" that something is afoot -- like a mass casualty training that took place 30 miles away two weeks ago, for example.)
Other quotes of note from the article:
"Of course, sometimes conspiracies turn out to be*real. President Nixon tried to cover up the Watergate break-in; the Reagan administration sold arms to*Iran to illegally fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, and the CIA really did test LSD on unwitting U.S. citizens.*
One thing those conspiracies have in common is that they all came to light. And that is almost certain to be the case with any large plot like those imagined by conspiracy theorists."
"The absence of evidence never got in the way of a good conspiracy theory. No matter how unlikely a given imagined conspiracy, and no matter how many facts are produced to disprove it, the true believers never budge.
For example, the fact that multitudes of horrified people witnessed the planes fly into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, hasn't stopped conspiracy theorists from insisting the towers collapsed."
I think most conspiracy theorists simply find it easier to entertain their delusions of granduer than accept the harsh fact that there is some evilness in this world which cannot be stopped nor foretold.
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