Years ago I made fun of "conspiracy theorists" in a therapy session. My therapist (old, old-school, hard-ass, based) said "When I see people telling me not to pay attention to 'conspiracies,' that's where I know I need to look." This is the same therapist who told me that the quality a person needs to have to get past childhood abuse is "the ability to tolerate and understand that everything they thought they knew was wrong."
"The loss of illusory certainty is difficult for us. It provokes fear and anxiety. More, it shows us how limited our certainty and knowledge really is."
I think that is key. Too many people must have certainty in their lives, even if the 'certainty' is promoted by charlatans. I'd rather be uncertain about the many things I don't know, and reserve certainty for the things I do know.
Some people are 'certain' that there was no election manipulation in 2020 that would have affected the outcome of the election. They are so much in need of that certainty that they were willing to believe, just a day or two after the election, that there was no fraud, even though there had been no time to even investigate. We now know that there was massive election manipulation, much of it right in front of our faces. But many people just don't want to deal with the uncertainty, so they deny it. Then they call the people who question the results 'deniers'.
I can relate to all of this. I used to get my news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." I thought the regular news was depressing, so if I was going to be informed, I wanted it to be in a funny format.
At one point, I went down the rabbit hole of Pizzagate. I looked into why people thought what they did, and found corroborating evidence for their claims. I became convinced that it was true. One day I was watching The Colbert Report and I watched Colbert tear up the people who believed Pizzagate was real, saying it was an "alt right fever dream." I felt something drop in my stomach. Here was this guy I liked defending pedos and calling those of us who care about children names.
I realized that the most effective way to get people not to listen to something was to make fun of it. No one wants to be the person being made fun of. Those shows are hard-core propaganda, but I had been blind to it. It makes me wonder what else I'm blind to, even now.
A lot of the people I know who are “conspiracy-minded” tend to be the engineering types. The viewpoint they have is that within complex systems, everything ends up obfuscated and that you have to go ahead and debug through it. Their belief in conspiracy is an understanding about how things practically work, and about the failings of the system as it exists.
I find that the anti-conspiratorial viewpoint is one for those that are abstracted away from all the complexity laden within the system. They desire thought termination as a means to sanely operate. In their mind, it is good enough to hone in and dismiss, as it makes them feel better. It makes them feel that everything is fine.
It is not hard to feel out for the anti-conspiratorial worldview in this respect. The world is unfortunately complex and ideas are unfortunately half-baked laden with emotional sentiments. I try to be humble yet stern, mainly because my ideal viewpoint has been invented yet; that is my job to figure out. I feel for those who want to avoid doing this as it is hard, but comfortable self-aggrandizement and good do seem to be antonyms.
It started with 9-11 and then later with the crash of 2008. It began to dawn on me that our leaders that run around screaming gay, gay, gay (like the moronic teachers in Broward County FL) were full of crap. Then I had a rough path financially (caused by said crash) and realized that our public welfare system wants desperate people surviving on minimal handouts. Then TDS and it’s related complication MAGA phobia and BTW I’m no fan of Trump. The COVID scam and the “trans child” movement verified my change in thinking. Anyone that wants to put you up on a pedestal simply because you like a big cock should be immediately distrusted. You are nothing more than a tool to their own self glory and adulation.
After lifelong leftward-ness, recent years’ developments (mainly Covid) disillusioned me, though I’m not sure this makes me more right-leaning, except in the desire to downsize (corporate) government and uphold individual sovereignty.
As for certitude: skepticism prevents me from trusting anything/anyone that I don’t have serious knowledge about. This means that dispelled illusions aren’t easily replaced by confidence in newer, wiser beliefs, only that I’m better off knowing what’s not true, rather than clinging to mistaken ideals out of fear -- fear of uncertainty, which is the enemy of truth unfortunately.
I find it quite surprising how ready and willing people are to stake a position on a news event--usually a tragedy--immediately after it is reported when material facts are not known. This is representative of the left-brain dominated culture of absolute certainty that has taken over society. No room for the right hemisphere's open-mindedness and search for meaning. Just utter confirmation bias. Borrowing from Iain McGilchrist here. Your reader and fellow SSer @meghanbell has mentioned McGlichrist's work here https://thecassandracomplex.substack.com/p/the-drama-of-the-gifted-children
I think the reluctance to entertain ideas mocked as "conspiracy theory" is like a line from the brilliantly odd cult movie "Buckaroo Banzai." If you're not familiar -- Buckaroo is a Renaissance Man seen through a cheesy matinee-serial filter: particle physicist, race car driver, comic book hero, rock star, and neurosurgeon. In that last role he and colleague Dr. Sidney "New Jersey" Zweibel are mucking around in a patient's cranium when Buckaroo admonishes:
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
If your ability to keep putting one foot in front of the other and trudging through life depends on believing that those who hold power over you are at worst inept and lazy and, whatever their faults, they are not malevolent...you do NOT want to tug on that. So badly do you not want to tug on that that you will feel contempt and hatred for anyone who suggests that you should.
Calling people 'conspiracy theorists' for things like 'natural immunity is a thing' is just part of the abuse arc. Gaslighting and destroying reputations are what narcissists do, and I think it's safe to say our governments have more than their fair share of narcissists.
How do we know what we think we know? How can we distinguish between truth and falsehood? These are eternal questions made more imperative during the last eight years or so. Given that we live in a mass media "matrix" determined to persuade us that "the narrative," is true and any criticism of it is a "conspiracy theory," more people than ever are I think, asking some of the questions you raise.
Given that we cannot know the absolute truth, we must accept a level of uncertainty in our lives, while simultaneously striving to approximate it as closely as possible. I compare it to the role of a juror trying to determine the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. First and foremost, reach no conclusions until all the evidence, or as much as you are going to get, is in. Then, make a judgement based upon your experience, and a preponderance of the evidence--or whatever the appropriate legal standard is.
Second, understand that the truth cannot harm you--not in politics or in life. Therefore, do not allow your prejudices or passions to interfere with your judgement. Third, accept that, in life and politics, if not during a jury trial, you can always modify or even totally reverse your judgement given new evidence or a persuasive new perspective. It's all tentative. It's all subjective. Nevertheless, one can make judgements about how likely it is that something is true or false.
Another consideration is that many people, especially those who are most intensely engaged in political causes, define themselves in terms of those causes. Accordingly, the intensity with which a certain conspiracy theory is embraced, is often indicative of emotional investment rather than objective thought. Since emotion often subverts thought, beware when you encounter ideas linked to great passion. None of this is to contend that conspiracies do not exist. All one can do is exercise good judgement.
That said, I was burned by the embrace of various conspiracy theories when in high school. The experience inoculated me against most since then. Then most conspiracies emanated from the right. But that was a long time ago. Since the Kennedy assassination, most, like the Trump/Russia hoax have emanated from the left. Always ask yourself, who benefits most if the public believes in a given conspiracy theory.
Keep in mind that those who have lied to you in the past, or were simply wrong, may very well be wrong again.
Finally, in response to your question, as one who has moved from the far left in college to the right, I can attest that it is easy to be a leftist. It takes courage and self confidence to move to the right--especially in the contemporary university environment.
Me? I find myself envious of your huge writing talent. You've nailed it again, and have won your place as my favourite, alongside the equally witty and clear-headed James Delingpole.
Critical thinking skills are the only thing that has ever helped me analyze current events in a way that I feel allows for genuine "accidents", "bad apples" and "people with good intentions making mistakes". I don't assume these things a priori and I actually never did. My trust in authority and therefore government has been quite low since about the age of 12. This matches my trust in my father, who was abusive and emotionally distant. I believe these early childhood attachment styles wire us for interaction with government and other authority figures later in life, since our parents' and caregivers' unique flavor of dominance and control over us is an indicator of how safe the world is.
A good definition of propaganda is: a statement intended to end a conversation topic without disputing or debunking its premise.
Calling something a conspiracy theory fits neatly into that definition.
"The loss of illusory certainty is difficult for us. It provokes fear and anxiety. More, it shows us how limited our certainty and knowledge really is."
I think that is key. Too many people must have certainty in their lives, even if the 'certainty' is promoted by charlatans. I'd rather be uncertain about the many things I don't know, and reserve certainty for the things I do know.
Some people are 'certain' that there was no election manipulation in 2020 that would have affected the outcome of the election. They are so much in need of that certainty that they were willing to believe, just a day or two after the election, that there was no fraud, even though there had been no time to even investigate. We now know that there was massive election manipulation, much of it right in front of our faces. But many people just don't want to deal with the uncertainty, so they deny it. Then they call the people who question the results 'deniers'.
Banger. Great respect for your self awareness and changing your mind. Fear is the mind killer, humor is the mind expander.
I can relate to all of this. I used to get my news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." I thought the regular news was depressing, so if I was going to be informed, I wanted it to be in a funny format.
At one point, I went down the rabbit hole of Pizzagate. I looked into why people thought what they did, and found corroborating evidence for their claims. I became convinced that it was true. One day I was watching The Colbert Report and I watched Colbert tear up the people who believed Pizzagate was real, saying it was an "alt right fever dream." I felt something drop in my stomach. Here was this guy I liked defending pedos and calling those of us who care about children names.
I realized that the most effective way to get people not to listen to something was to make fun of it. No one wants to be the person being made fun of. Those shows are hard-core propaganda, but I had been blind to it. It makes me wonder what else I'm blind to, even now.
A lot of the people I know who are “conspiracy-minded” tend to be the engineering types. The viewpoint they have is that within complex systems, everything ends up obfuscated and that you have to go ahead and debug through it. Their belief in conspiracy is an understanding about how things practically work, and about the failings of the system as it exists.
I find that the anti-conspiratorial viewpoint is one for those that are abstracted away from all the complexity laden within the system. They desire thought termination as a means to sanely operate. In their mind, it is good enough to hone in and dismiss, as it makes them feel better. It makes them feel that everything is fine.
It is not hard to feel out for the anti-conspiratorial worldview in this respect. The world is unfortunately complex and ideas are unfortunately half-baked laden with emotional sentiments. I try to be humble yet stern, mainly because my ideal viewpoint has been invented yet; that is my job to figure out. I feel for those who want to avoid doing this as it is hard, but comfortable self-aggrandizement and good do seem to be antonyms.
It started with 9-11 and then later with the crash of 2008. It began to dawn on me that our leaders that run around screaming gay, gay, gay (like the moronic teachers in Broward County FL) were full of crap. Then I had a rough path financially (caused by said crash) and realized that our public welfare system wants desperate people surviving on minimal handouts. Then TDS and it’s related complication MAGA phobia and BTW I’m no fan of Trump. The COVID scam and the “trans child” movement verified my change in thinking. Anyone that wants to put you up on a pedestal simply because you like a big cock should be immediately distrusted. You are nothing more than a tool to their own self glory and adulation.
Conspiracy theories locate power. The explanations are most often rubbish, but the location of power is decribed accurately.
You have an awesome ability to articulate what a lot of us feel but can’t explain. I thoroughly enjoy your work brother.
After lifelong leftward-ness, recent years’ developments (mainly Covid) disillusioned me, though I’m not sure this makes me more right-leaning, except in the desire to downsize (corporate) government and uphold individual sovereignty.
As for certitude: skepticism prevents me from trusting anything/anyone that I don’t have serious knowledge about. This means that dispelled illusions aren’t easily replaced by confidence in newer, wiser beliefs, only that I’m better off knowing what’s not true, rather than clinging to mistaken ideals out of fear -- fear of uncertainty, which is the enemy of truth unfortunately.
I find it quite surprising how ready and willing people are to stake a position on a news event--usually a tragedy--immediately after it is reported when material facts are not known. This is representative of the left-brain dominated culture of absolute certainty that has taken over society. No room for the right hemisphere's open-mindedness and search for meaning. Just utter confirmation bias. Borrowing from Iain McGilchrist here. Your reader and fellow SSer @meghanbell has mentioned McGlichrist's work here https://thecassandracomplex.substack.com/p/the-drama-of-the-gifted-children
I think the reluctance to entertain ideas mocked as "conspiracy theory" is like a line from the brilliantly odd cult movie "Buckaroo Banzai." If you're not familiar -- Buckaroo is a Renaissance Man seen through a cheesy matinee-serial filter: particle physicist, race car driver, comic book hero, rock star, and neurosurgeon. In that last role he and colleague Dr. Sidney "New Jersey" Zweibel are mucking around in a patient's cranium when Buckaroo admonishes:
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
If your ability to keep putting one foot in front of the other and trudging through life depends on believing that those who hold power over you are at worst inept and lazy and, whatever their faults, they are not malevolent...you do NOT want to tug on that. So badly do you not want to tug on that that you will feel contempt and hatred for anyone who suggests that you should.
Calling people 'conspiracy theorists' for things like 'natural immunity is a thing' is just part of the abuse arc. Gaslighting and destroying reputations are what narcissists do, and I think it's safe to say our governments have more than their fair share of narcissists.
How do we know what we think we know? How can we distinguish between truth and falsehood? These are eternal questions made more imperative during the last eight years or so. Given that we live in a mass media "matrix" determined to persuade us that "the narrative," is true and any criticism of it is a "conspiracy theory," more people than ever are I think, asking some of the questions you raise.
Given that we cannot know the absolute truth, we must accept a level of uncertainty in our lives, while simultaneously striving to approximate it as closely as possible. I compare it to the role of a juror trying to determine the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. First and foremost, reach no conclusions until all the evidence, or as much as you are going to get, is in. Then, make a judgement based upon your experience, and a preponderance of the evidence--or whatever the appropriate legal standard is.
Second, understand that the truth cannot harm you--not in politics or in life. Therefore, do not allow your prejudices or passions to interfere with your judgement. Third, accept that, in life and politics, if not during a jury trial, you can always modify or even totally reverse your judgement given new evidence or a persuasive new perspective. It's all tentative. It's all subjective. Nevertheless, one can make judgements about how likely it is that something is true or false.
Another consideration is that many people, especially those who are most intensely engaged in political causes, define themselves in terms of those causes. Accordingly, the intensity with which a certain conspiracy theory is embraced, is often indicative of emotional investment rather than objective thought. Since emotion often subverts thought, beware when you encounter ideas linked to great passion. None of this is to contend that conspiracies do not exist. All one can do is exercise good judgement.
That said, I was burned by the embrace of various conspiracy theories when in high school. The experience inoculated me against most since then. Then most conspiracies emanated from the right. But that was a long time ago. Since the Kennedy assassination, most, like the Trump/Russia hoax have emanated from the left. Always ask yourself, who benefits most if the public believes in a given conspiracy theory.
Keep in mind that those who have lied to you in the past, or were simply wrong, may very well be wrong again.
Finally, in response to your question, as one who has moved from the far left in college to the right, I can attest that it is easy to be a leftist. It takes courage and self confidence to move to the right--especially in the contemporary university environment.
Very lucid with amazing insight and personal perspective. Thank you for sharing this Josh.
Me? I find myself envious of your huge writing talent. You've nailed it again, and have won your place as my favourite, alongside the equally witty and clear-headed James Delingpole.
You are such a good writer. Jesus!
Critical thinking skills are the only thing that has ever helped me analyze current events in a way that I feel allows for genuine "accidents", "bad apples" and "people with good intentions making mistakes". I don't assume these things a priori and I actually never did. My trust in authority and therefore government has been quite low since about the age of 12. This matches my trust in my father, who was abusive and emotionally distant. I believe these early childhood attachment styles wire us for interaction with government and other authority figures later in life, since our parents' and caregivers' unique flavor of dominance and control over us is an indicator of how safe the world is.