Conspiracy theories are the result of alienating, confounding cultures that hide the machinations of power from their people and have tragic, murderous results
this stuff is so depressing to me, especially when you consider the widespread religious theories and myths that are fully accepted as fact and truth, to the point of forcefully fighting any effort at rational and skeptical (a.k.a. scientific method) thought and discussion. Churches have prepared the soil their of followers minds. and enriched them with their very best fertilizer, so that faith trumps all and nothing presented or sold to them is scrutinized or considered, but just accepted and followed. Religion, or at least the majority of religious leadership, have nearly eliminated any advantage the human species has over non-rational species. This started thousands of years ago. Sorry for the rant. Excellent article Jared, thanks for sharing.
This great summation reminds me of the book on surveillance capitalism that Cory Doctorow published in Medium last summer: " What if the trauma of living through real conspiracies all around us — conspiracies among wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as “corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?"
"The stories actually take justified anger at the wealthy and powerful and redirects and capitalizes on it." This is what I wish more people understood! The 'America First' platform that Trump ran on in 2016 was really attractive to people who'd seen globalization destroy their good-paying jobs and their local economies. Of course he was lying, because he didn't even bother manufacturing his own products here, but making those claims made him really stand out to conservatives looking for a hero. Now what's left of all that?
"As material conditions worsened, people felt more and more despair. As communities collapsed into individualism, they felt more and more alienated. As the nation fell in disrepair, they felt more and more frustrated and confused." This is so true.
this stuff is so depressing to me, especially when you consider the widespread religious theories and myths that are fully accepted as fact and truth, to the point of forcefully fighting any effort at rational and skeptical (a.k.a. scientific method) thought and discussion. Churches have prepared the soil their of followers minds. and enriched them with their very best fertilizer, so that faith trumps all and nothing presented or sold to them is scrutinized or considered, but just accepted and followed. Religion, or at least the majority of religious leadership, have nearly eliminated any advantage the human species has over non-rational species. This started thousands of years ago. Sorry for the rant. Excellent article Jared, thanks for sharing.
This great summation reminds me of the book on surveillance capitalism that Cory Doctorow published in Medium last summer: " What if the trauma of living through real conspiracies all around us — conspiracies among wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as “corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?"
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
"The stories actually take justified anger at the wealthy and powerful and redirects and capitalizes on it." This is what I wish more people understood! The 'America First' platform that Trump ran on in 2016 was really attractive to people who'd seen globalization destroy their good-paying jobs and their local economies. Of course he was lying, because he didn't even bother manufacturing his own products here, but making those claims made him really stand out to conservatives looking for a hero. Now what's left of all that?
"As material conditions worsened, people felt more and more despair. As communities collapsed into individualism, they felt more and more alienated. As the nation fell in disrepair, they felt more and more frustrated and confused." This is so true.
Yikes. That's crazy that you go through all of that with the mail.