[leokeba]

I don't think this is about education, but I suspect rather something more akin to "intellectual revenge". Let me explain : In my experience, people who are into conspiracy theories are usually people who have been intellectually marginalised or disparaged during their life. It's not about being stupid - I think that's besides the point - but it's about being called and made feel stupid, literally or metaphorically.

People don't want to believe they are stupid, and they especially don't want to believe the people (or institutions) who call them stupid are superior to them. So they find a way out, by believing something that not only makes them feel important (they know but other people don't), but also superior to those who ostracised them in the first place.

I've been thinking about this for a while, but somehow never came across any similar ideas anywhere, anybody got references (or comments) ?

[Smoosh]

There is also a component of this which is (some) people needing a simple explanation for problems and injustices and preferably one where _someone else_ (individual or group) is to blame.

[gitaarik]

Yeah, that psychoanalysis makes sense, but why would there suddenly be so many people that supposedly had traumatic experiences in being judged stupid?