[holidayacct]

There is no such thing as a conspiracy theory. Every conspiracy theory in existence can be explained in terms of math, technology, physics, psychology and behavioral biology. They are conspiracy theories because the average person refuses to believe basic science that was discoveres i the early 1900s.

It's 2020 and if you use science and technology from the early to mid 1900s in the right way people get confused and they believe there is some strange conspiracy.

Here is an example, I can get people to do things with online advertising. If I get people to do the right combination of things with the right combination of advertising it looks like magic to people who don't know about advertising, psychology and neuroscience.

[II2II]

> There is no such thing as a conspiracy theory. Every conspiracy theory in existence can be explained in terms of math, technology, physics, psychology and behavioral biology.

I don't know whether that is true of every conspiracy theory, but here is one example that supports your point:

While finishing up teacher's college, I was paired with a maths teacher who believed in 9/11 conspiracy theories and who mentioned them in class. From his point of view, a delayed "explosion" lower down in the tower was evidence that the destruction was planned. Left in an awkward position, I did the only thing I could think of: I used math. Simply put, the time that it would take a shock wave to propagate through the steel structure matched the delay so the "explosion" did not prove his conspiracy theory. That was one heck of a teachable moment that transformed an otherwise abstract math lesson into something that could be applied to every day life.

(Edit: clarification on the intent of the calculation.)

[komali2]

Right but specifically a conspiracy theory involves malicious and powerful actors.

>A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation

So 5g mind control, moon landing is fake, earth is flat are all examples of conspiracy theories. No matter how much science you apply to demonstrating the theories are incorrect, the conspiracy theorist will simply provide more ways that the lizard people are tricking us. It's irrational by definition.

I stress about this. I encounter plandemic types far too often in texas. I've tried so many different strategies to convince them of the public health crisis, that if they would at least just wear a mask it would help. I never get anywhere. Is this the fatal flaw of the species? Our vulnerability to disinformation? Considering the creation of disinformation can be scaled cheaply to staggering heights, will this halt our progress?

[holidayacct]

Agreed, and you don't want the answer to those questions.

On a side note:

Its easy to understand why people believe in the whole mind control thing. It's just advertising and sometimes its people running "Debility, Dependency and Dread" on other people to re-train them without having an understanding of what "Debility, Dependency and Dread" really is. For some reason people have a difficult time making the logical leap that humans are mammals. Everyone wants to believe that we are better than all other mammals in a way that none of that is possible.

[NikolaeVarius]

BS.

The US Govt reading middle-manning internet connections was pants-on-head stupid conspiracy theory until Snowden

[jwalgenbach]

Except it wasn't. Carnivore was a thing that people knew about, and the US government backed away from it when it was publicized. Total Information Awareness was a thing that was known and not a conspiracy theory. The Patriot Act was a thing that took a lot of steps towards a surveillance society.

Snowden's information was just a confirmation that the US government was pursuing these things in secret when doing them in the open failed. It's not a lizard people/flat earth/q-anon level thing. There was plenty of "prior art" for the Snowden revelations.

There are conspiracies. I have never seen or heard of one that turns the world upside down. They seem to be all continuations and expansions of bad behavior that is currently accepted as fact.

[usrusr]

Yeah, that was the first thought that crossed my mind when Snowden happened: not "oh shit, they are listening!" (I knew that before, for a very loose definition of "to know"), but "oh shit, advocates of crazy conspiracy theories will cite this as precedent for decades".

[mthoms]

I strongly disagree. That theory (before Snowden) was never in the same category as flat earth, QAnon, lizard people, faked moon landings and the like.

[samcal]

I'm failing to see the connection between "looking like magic" and "being a conspiracy theory", but I'd argue that the mechanism doesn't really matter. From a certain perspective, your advertising might take away some part of their free will, and _that's_ the part that makes them uncomfortable.