[recursivedoubts]

> Conspiracy theories can help people defend a fragile ego by exaggerating the importance of themselves and their groups;

So can identifying with the mainstream story: I'm not a crazy conspiracy theorist, I'm a serious person.

> Conspiracy theories can make people feel like legitimate actors by rationalizing their beliefs and behaviors;

So can identifying with the mainstream story: I'm listening to the experts, everyone is doing it.

> Believing in conspiracy theories entertains people by making them active participants in an exciting tale.

Most conspiracies are non-participatory. The federal reserve was created by a conspiracy[1]. I have no control over that or any ability to change the situation. It's simply depressing.

[1] - https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/jekyll-island-c... "A secret gathering at a secluded island off the coast of Georgia in 1910 laid the foundations for the Federal Reserve System."

[jfengel]

For whatever reason, identifying with the mainstream story isn't working for them. They feel left out and powerless.

Identifying with the conspiracy theory gives them a shortcut to power by inclusion with other conspiracy theorists. They can quickly become a large fish in a small pond. And even as the smallest fish in that pond they are already ahead of everybody who accepts the mainstream theory.

It's also useless. Conspiracy theories give one secret power that can't actually be applied. The best one could hope for is that one day everybody else will be forced to accept your conspiracy theory, which will somehow confer prestige on you. But they can live in hope of that sudden burst of importance, while simultaneously having a built-in excuse for having no importance now.

[BuckRogers]

The difference between a conspiracy theory and something that is not a conspiracy theory is that objective reality consists of things we can corroborate and substantiate.

Of course there are conspiracy theories that are true, but some guy sitting on the Internet is never going to learn about them. He’ll be dead before he does. Backroom deals are cut all the time but the peasants aren’t going to know about them. So why sit around and theorize and things you’ll never know?

All it comes down to is attempting to comfort yourself in an unstable world, conspiracy theories are the result of a brain that failed to understand reality. It’s collapsing chaos and collapsing complexity into something that makes sense at least to you and your friends. As well, often an attempt of pretending one has secret knowledge that the real peasants don’t have access to. A cheap and easy way to becoming elite, but based on nothing. Only those digging into conspiracy websites know the truth hidden from the public.

A lot, but not all, of the mainstream news is indeed substantiated and corroborated. That’s how we know the truth. It’s the best way that we know of at least. Conspiracy theories that rely on every single western and eastern media outlet to falsify Russian atrocities in Ukraine for example, it’s simply not possible. We can’t create causal links without evidence. I mean we can, but it’s meaningless until you substantiate it. So what’s the point? Just operate off of the evidence.

It’s just a lot less fun. And that’s really what conspiracy theories derive from other than a brain that failed. Schizophrenia is a cause as well. Desire for easy elitism with “hidden knowledge”. Or merely someone seeking a cheap thrill.

[silicon2401]

The term 'conspiracy theory' is one of those words that has strong, inherent connotations. It's impossible to productively discuss conspiracy theories and theorists (IMO) because of those connotations. As with so many things, rational, objective discussion is critically dependent on appropriate words and wording. Nobody would deny that elite groups have agendas and get up to shady stuff, as we have concrete evidence of this happening all the time, and even both extremes of US political parties can be called "conspiracy theorists": extreme liberals think every white person is actively and consciously out to conspire against minorities, and extreme conservatives think covid vaccines are a way for the government to install nanochips or whatever. But nobody will respond constructively to being called a conspiracy theorist, they'll just get defensive and the discussion dies as soon as it starts.