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Prester John - very good info. Thanks for posting it. Some years ago, I briefly bought into the AIDS denier conspiracy theory, but that was just my own ignorance at work. There was some mainstream-looking magazine with a woman on the cover who was absolutely positive that AIDS didn't really exist, and the irresponsible journalist covering the story was one of those "show both sides of the controversy" types who made this whacko viewpoint seem quite plausible. It just seemed so easy to believe that there was this massive effort at work to make AIDS into this big problem because... well, actually, I'm not sure why I thought anybody would want to do that. Grant money? All those hookers and blow that AIDS researchers get? I can't say it made me feel superior, but it did make me a little scared and want to do something to stop this awful injustice. Thankfully, that mindset didn't last that long once I'd investigated. I suspect that the further away we get in time from 9/11, the weirder and more extreme the nutters involved in the conspiracy theories around 9/11 are going to get. At this point, so removed from that date in time as we are, it feels like the truthers are saying stuff that would never have found traction right after the attack. Maybe the attack itself is now of secondary importance.
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Sep 14, 2013 21:21
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Prester John - I had a very similar experience as you growing up, though I didn't get into the Icke/9-11 crowd as a result. Not to go all r/atheism or whatever, but I don't think outsiders really understand just how quick to believe fundamentalists can be about conspiracies; it's a weirdly seductive mindset. Even now, years after I left that religion, little has changed; the second someone says he or she believes in Creationism and thinks that "evilution" is some kind of vast conspiracy perpetrated by mean ole evil scientists for... somethingmutteredsomething, that tells me where that person stands on a whole variety of other conspiracy theories. It's like one big package deal. I've been starting to connect the dots lately between the authoritarian power structure and total powerlessness on the one side of the equation, and inability to critically evaluate claims like birtherism and creationism on the other, but I hadn't been aware till now that anybody'd formally studied the beast. I tried to find the study referenced, but couldn't. All I found was this, which was neat in and of itself. I, too, would love to see the one(s) Sergg mentioned.
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Sep 24, 2013 20:46
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