Conspiracy Theories

[Jdsk]

Thankyou

That takes us nicely onto effective countermeasures...

Jonathan

[Stevek76]

Fairly sure I have seen the odd thing on twitter about palantir that's sliding into the shadowy elite, control the population style theories rather than just concern over privatisation & data protection.

I'd agree that lack of openess in government policy can encourage this sort of thought process and tends people towards that idea of an actually organised 'elite' rather than the usual mix of incompetence, self interest and low level nepotism/revolving doors that's normally behind this sort of dubious decision making.

I think more broadly in terms of data presentation and technical matters there can be a tendency to oversimplify things for public consumption. My experience in staffing public consultation drop ins is that having the detailed data and models available really helps defuse the kind of amateur data scientist who may lack the expertise of the specific subject area but is certainly smart enough to dig into the details. There's an tendency for people to assume the worst about what 'warts' in the data/models may not be being shown. Far better to be open about such things from the start in my view though some in my profession take the opposite view.

[borisface]

If someone starts spouting a consipracy theory I always agree wholeheartedly adding 'that's what the government wants you to think'.

[slowster]

The pinned tweet on the public relations' Twitter account of the Death Star is a good illustration of disinformation and how it can work.

https://twitter.com/DeathStarPR

NB The link works without having to sign up to Twitter to see the tweet.

[Mike Sales]

If you are not listening to Things Fell Apart, Ronson's series on Radio 4, then I recommend the latest episode about the crazy conspiracy theory about 'The Great Reset.'
This theory brings together bus lanes, fifteen minute cities, insect eating, pod housing, Davos, and more.
I was waiting for cycle lanes being thrown in as another way that THEY are going to force us into a repulsive way of living.

[Nearholmer]

Countermeasures?

Beats me!

Steadily dripping facts into the mix, teaching critical thinking, and asking adherents who benefits from their beliefs sort-of help, but I’m not convinced they help much in the short term.

I’m becoming increasingly Cugelistic over this subject, but I suppose if you look back at the history of delusions, they usually unravel through a combination of the naturally sceptical or critical-thinking not believing them in the first place, and accumulating experience on the part of the devotees of whatever it is not coming to pass, evidence slowly stacking against the mad proposition being true.

But, by golly can they do a lot of damage in the meantime, and by golly can the devotees wreak some havoc at the moment of final unravelling.

My brother-in-law worries me. He’s no mad theorist, but he is like a sponge when it comes to subtle misinformation, seemingly no framework within which to critique what he hears, and far happier to watch a half-hour of some dodgy you-tuber or non-mainstream news channel as a form of “infotainment” than he is to read basic economics, or listen to a proper analytical programme. I think he’s quite representative of “the ordinary non-political person”. He swallowed the whole of Putin’s line in the Tucker Carlson “interview” without question, for instance ……. He didn’t even really spot that the format was as dodgy as a dodgy thing.

[Jdsk]

Countermeasures?

Beats me!
...

There'a a lot of research on who's at risk and a fair bit on countermeasures, both societal and individual. On interventions for individuals this Wikipedia section is probably the consensus position: stay factual and don't challenge the victim's identity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspirac ... erventions

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

Countermeasures?

Beats me!
...

There'a a lot of research on who's at risk and a fair bit on countermeasures, both societal and individual. On interventions for individuals this Wikipedia section is probably the consensus position: stay factual and don't challenge the victim's identity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspirac ... erventions

My experience of this forum is that handles *conspiracy theories pretty well, and the Moderators did an excellent job during the recent outbreak.

Jonathan

* And much better than many other fallacies.

[Nearholmer]

From the Wikipedia article:

Another approach is to intervene in ways that decrease negative emotions, and specifically to improve feelings of personal hope and empowerment.[45]

This is the nub of why we’re in a mess with conspiracy theories and misinformation currently, IMO.

Some of the very things that spawn the bonkersness are actually very “personal hope and empowerment” destroying: pandemic, wars, cost of living, and above all climate crisis. Add that lot to various societal change-pressures, especially around equality (which is a huge threat to some people), and the ever-decreasing need for human physical, and now mental, labour, and a heck of a lot of people feel fearful, useless and hopeless to varying degrees.

If people have actual, genuine hope, a faith in a positive future, they are far more resilient.

[cycle tramp]

From the Wikipedia article:

Another approach is to intervene in ways that decrease negative emotions, and specifically to improve feelings of personal hope and empowerment.[45]

This is the nub of why we’re in a mess with conspiracy theories and misinformation currently, IMO.

Some of the very things that spawn the bonkersness are actually very “personal hope and empowerment” destroying: pandemic, wars, cost of living, and above all climate crisis. Add that lot to various societal change-pressures, especially around equality (which is a huge threat to some people), and the ever-decreasing need for human physical, and now mental, labour, and a heck of a lot of people feel fearful, useless and hopeless to varying degrees.

If people have actual, genuine hope, a faith in a positive future, they are far more resilient.

It's one of the key reasons why, I suspect we all advocate travel by bicycle... After all, here is a tool which allows you to travel with minimum ecological offence, minimal personal expenditure, and with the minimum of government required paperwork and with very little reliance on energy resources from unfriendly states... its the perfect tool on which to feel utterly empowered... and also helps balance your emotions as well!

[hujev]

Here in the land of conspiracy theories, one of them anyway: years ago; 15 maybe 20 or 25 now (my, time flies!), I used to say, facetiously of course, that [b]space aliens must be secretly pumping some sort of gas into the atmosphere above americaland to drive us crazy,[/b] as that was the only [i]possible [/i]explanation for why they're behaving so irrationally & self-destructively. Then I started saying it must be escaping now to other countries because they're starting to act as weird. Now it seems like the [i]least [/i]outlandish conspiracy theory compared to the 'main' ones!

It's all like one of those frightening (formerly seen as cheesy) horror stories where people start getting taken over by [space aliens, demons, plants, mushrooms, robots] and one guy figures it out, but can't convince others who also one by one get taken over ([i]usually there's some dramatic scene wherein a former confidant who almost believed gets taken over unbeknownst to the protagonist, then soon thereafter uses that trust to try to 'get' the protagonist[/i]) until one day protagonist wakes up also subsumed.

[b]Seriously, every day I'm thankful that I'm not yet subsumed[/b] (or so I believe); others I knew and was friends with for years have gradually been lost - seriously - old friends who were smart, independent thinking people; lawyers (that's barristers I guess), teachers, professors...

It is as weird, frightening, and apparently unstoppable as those horror stories, but real.

[pwa]

Perhaps not quite conspiracy theory, but rubbish anyway, is the notion of ley lines. For anyone not familiar with the idea, these are basically straight lines drawn on maps, between ancient sites of spiritual significance (Stone Henge for example), and locating yourself or other things on those lines is supposed to be auspicious in some way. I once worked with a bloke who espoused that stuff and he tried it on me one day. He started off explaining to me how we were working close to a ley line, and why he thought it important. I didn't want it to go on for too long so nipped it in the bud by interrupting him and saying something like, "Chris, you do realise, don't you, that this is all b......t", which stopped him in his tracks and he never raised the subject again. Sometimes you have to tell it like it is.

[PDQ Mobile]

Perhaps not quite conspiracy theory, but rubbish anyway, is the notion of ley lines. For anyone not familiar with the idea, these are basically straight lines drawn on maps, between ancient sites of spiritual significance (Stone Henge for example), and locating yourself or other things on those lines is supposed to be auspicious in some way. I once worked with a bloke who espoused that stuff and he tried it on me one day. He started off explaining to me how we were working close to a ley line, and why he thought it important. I didn't want it to go on for too long so nipped it in the bud by interrupting him and saying something like, "Chris, you do realise, don't you, that this is all b......t", which stopped him in his tracks and he never raised the subject again. Sometimes you have to tell it like it is.

There are, thank goodness, a few mysteries out there.
Some things we don't fully understand.
Particularly but not only regarding the "natural" world perhaps.

It is my view that the campaign to Leave the EU should be viewed as a conspiracy.
It's not even a theory!

Have a gander at this below.
Seven minutes in deals with immigration if one cannot stomach the rest.

Tell it like it is?
Some of the comments do.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oL4di32phXw

[Psamathe]

More madness as the US (through social media) is now starting to view the Baltimore bridge disaster as a Black Swan Event.

Online conspiracy circles galvanize to proclaim Baltimore bridge collapse a ‘black swan event’

Although reading the article names of those suggesting deep state created it are "the usual suspects". Amazing that these people have any credibility left.

Ian

[Nearholmer]

Cui bono?

Russia, China, Trump, and that is just the start of the list of who can benefit from making an accident seem like the result of a plot. Credibility isn’t important to them, sowing the seeds of doubt and disharmony is. Then there are mad people.