My experience with those struggling with their grasp on reality has been, more often than not, that they blame various three letter agencies of the US government, not “the Jews”.
Of course, conspiracy theorist aren’t usually struggling with mental illness, but rather an overblown sense of self-worth and the inevitable result of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Insert a George Carlin quote about how stupid the average person is
What I was thinking of was more along the lines of “There’s a midget working for the FBI hiding in my attic and stealing my clothes while I sleep” - an actual statement from a woman who was hypoxic (and didn’t have an attic)
All of these were “conspiracy theories” when I was young and now we know they really happened. This is just off the top of my head. These are not really “tame” in my book.
Counterpoint: the “Jews” didn’t kill Texas kids in a flood, the local Texas government that stole federal funds from the flood warning system to give bonuses to sheriffs did.
those ones were “cool” and “pulpy” conspiracy theories (maybe not the syphilis one, that’s just gross), and made for good fiction at the time. What’s retroactively traumatizing tho is just how much of them actually weren’t fiction.
“Tame” like conducting experiments for chemical warfare on humans?
“Tame” like smuggling Cocaine into the US to help a Fascist terrorist group in El Salvador murder tens of thousands of people on the one hand and paying weapons to fuel a war between Iraq and Iran on the other hand with that money?
Conspiracists have been stranded to figure out their own chosen “other” to fear and hate since Israel stepped into the scene and the Republicans (and most dems) made any criticism of their genocide “anti semitism” in a playbook move straight out of internet trolling tactics.
So you can turn your back on “God’s blessed war against the Muslim beasts” OR you can suddenly start softening towards the idea that Jewish Cabals are running our whole country.
It’s been kind of spectacular to see the right splinter around the edges over this even before the Epstein stuff.
Too bad none of it will actually make a real dent in a political ideology that is already built on cognitive dissonance.
![[ButAJape] Conspiracies](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6af25158-df21-45da-afe5-988337e5ca77.png){kind=link}
My experience with those struggling with their grasp on reality has been, more often than not, that they blame various three letter agencies of the US government, not “the Jews”.
Of course, conspiracy theorist aren’t usually struggling with mental illness, but rather an overblown sense of self-worth and the inevitable result of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Insert a George Carlin quote about how stupid the average person is
A lot of things that were laughed at as being “conspiracy theories” surrounding three letter agencies later turned out to be true.
True.
What I was thinking of was more along the lines of “There’s a midget working for the FBI hiding in my attic and stealing my clothes while I sleep” - an actual statement from a woman who was hypoxic (and didn’t have an attic)
Not sure about a lot. Like a handful of the tamest ones.
All of these were “conspiracy theories” when I was young and now we know they really happened. This is just off the top of my head. These are not really “tame” in my book.
Counterpoint: the “Jews” didn’t kill Texas kids in a flood, the local Texas government that stole federal funds from the flood warning system to give bonuses to sheriffs did.
Pizzagate called Epstein’s island 3 years early.
those ones were “cool” and “pulpy” conspiracy theories (maybe not the syphilis one, that’s just gross), and made for good fiction at the time. What’s retroactively traumatizing tho is just how much of them actually weren’t fiction.
“Tame” like conducting experiments for chemical warfare on humans?
“Tame” like smuggling Cocaine into the US to help a Fascist terrorist group in El Salvador murder tens of thousands of people on the one hand and paying weapons to fuel a war between Iraq and Iran on the other hand with that money?
“Tame” like helping Saddam Hussein use chemical weapons? https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/26/215733981/new-details-on-how-u-s-helped-saddam-as-he-gassed-iran
“Tame” like the NSA spying on everyone and everything?
“Tame” like the NSA providing information on US citizens to Israel, while Israel is conducting targeted assassinations? https://theintercept.com/2019/05/29/israel-drone-strikes-intelligence-nsa/
Were these ever conspiracy theories or just revealed secret information?
Conspiracists have been stranded to figure out their own chosen “other” to fear and hate since Israel stepped into the scene and the Republicans (and most dems) made any criticism of their genocide “anti semitism” in a playbook move straight out of internet trolling tactics.
So you can turn your back on “God’s blessed war against the Muslim beasts” OR you can suddenly start softening towards the idea that Jewish Cabals are running our whole country.
It’s been kind of spectacular to see the right splinter around the edges over this even before the Epstein stuff.
Too bad none of it will actually make a real dent in a political ideology that is already built on cognitive dissonance.