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by burke_holland 2147 days ago
Just to be clear, the government literally does lie to you about what’s in the water. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flint...
1 comments

Right, good example. The government doesn't properly clean the water they are paid to, and the media doesn't report on it, but instead of talking about that, Alex Jones says fluoride is poison.

Conspiracy theorists have plenty of actual material, but they seem to like to make shit up instead of seeking the truth of the matter.

A lot of that kind of conspiracy stuff, Alex Jones and the like, has another level or two involved.

Since this need for alternative narratives is a media market you get grifters who say what makes the most money and not what they actually believe. Not surprising at all, so expecting Alex Jones to seek actual truth completely misunderstands what he is doing and what he knows he is doing.

But if you have a political plan and it requires some people to believe a specific thing, but it is hard to convince people (for example, because it isn't true) you have a problem. If you are smart you start to think about how there are these professional convincers who are very popular and their business model is "say things that make me money" and you come up with a pitch for them.

It's not exactly news that one of the most prevalent types of actual historical conspiracies involve plans to spread untrue conspiracy theories as propaganda, but it does have that perverse ironic flavor to it since it means saying things like "no, no, these conspiracy theories are spread as part of a conspiracy"!