[ENTP] Are Conspiracy Theories Irrational?

[Anna Jorovic]

To some point, they are to the other they are not... They are always based on some real facts, but the way they present them is manipulative and nonobjective. They give you just one side of view...It's funny because conspiracy theories try to convince you, they are less manipulative and more objective, than the facts that are presented in mainstream medias, but they do the exact opposite. I think the true is always somewhere in between...

It's because all conspiracy theories are invented by, like, corporations so they can sell us magazines about conspiracies and shit like that, man. They're trying to brainwash the general public so we'll just buy more and more of their magazines. I need to get rid of these magazines...

 

[Emperor Enigma]

I'm pretty susceptible to conspiracy theories. For example, while watching The Desolation Of Smaug yesterday, during the introduction I saw a sequence where the image of a pyramid was followed by a complex design with a conspicuous eye. My first thought was, "Holy shit! Is it the Illuminati? Why isn't anyone reacting?"

There's something inexplicably fascinating about them.

 

[hjgbujhghg]

It's because all conspiracy theories are invented by, like, corporations so they can sell us magazines about conspiracies and shit like that, man. They're trying to brainwash the general public so we'll just buy more and more of their magazines. I need to get rid of these magazines...

My words! It's nothing more, but spreading paranoia in general public. Total brainwashing. They are able to make conspiracy theory by literally everything...like this baby has blue eyes, so it's connected with devil! They just abuse generally known and popular symbols to make them a scarecrows. I also think this is all about money...someone created bullshits about illuminates to take away our attention from real social problems. I just think we are manipulated...but there are no super secret associations that sound so interesting and attract the attention of general society, there are just people...like me and you...who have a lot of money and know how to use them.

 

[Emperor Enigma]

I find conspiracy theories entertaining. I can stay up all night reading or watching about them just for my personal amusement. I'm not susceptible to believing in them, but I have a habit of making them, either to amuse my friends or to amuse myself. What bemuses me is the clarity with which I present them. It's almost as if I'm unconsciously believing in them, and I'm not a great actor either. I can convince even a skeptical soul about a conspiracy theory I may have concocted a couple of minutes ago, or at least get them talking about it. I once suggested the idea of what we perceive as ghosts being arbitrary and fluctuating apparitions of inexperienced time-travelers to someone, and he actually took it seriously.

 

[Anna Jorovic]

I find conspiracy theories entertaining. I can stay up all night reading or watching about them just for my personal amusement. I'm not susceptible to believing in them, but I have a habit of making them, either to amuse my friends or to amuse myself. What bemuses me is the clarity with which I present them. It's almost as if I'm unconsciously believing in them, and I'm not a great actor either. I can convince even a skeptical soul about a conspiracy theory I may have concocted a couple of minutes ago, or at least get them talking about it. I once suggested the idea of what we perceive as ghosts being arbitrary and fluctuating apparitions of inexperienced time-travelers to someone, and he actually took it seriously.

Haha I do the same sort of thing sometimes! When I was 9 I managed to convince my friends that Father Christmas was an alien lizard from a moon of Jupiter. People believe anything if you use enough technical terms!

 

[Debaser]

That's what they want you to think!

Maybe Jay-Z does all the signals precisely because he knows people think he's in the Illuminati. In other words, he's the ultimate troll.

 

[Anna Jorovic]

My words! It's nothing more, but spreading paranoia in general public. Total brainwashing. They are able to make conspiracy theory by literally everything...like this baby has blue eyes, so it's connected with devil! They just abuse generally known and popular symbols to make them a scarecrows. I also think this is all about money...someone created bullshits about illuminates to take away our attention from real social problems. I just think we are manipulated...but there are no super secret associations that sound so interesting and attract the attention of general society, there are just people...like me and you...who have a lot of money and know how to use them.

You can have those words, because my post was a joke.

 

[statuesquechica]

I'm very open to most ideas and will contemplate the validity and possible "reality" of what anyone says. I'm never really shocked by peoples' ideas and theories so I keep my mind open and consider the endless possibilities. I don't know who caused Sandy Hooke. I don't know who caused 9/11. I don't think everything on the news is true and we can never be sure what the govn't is hiding. I'm not really paranoid or suspicious of everything but I am open to the possibility that anything could happen. There are some people who think that conspiracy theories are completely out there and anyone who even considers them are crazy and mentally ill. AM I CRAZY AND MENTALLY ILL?

I would agree that governments, the media and authority figures can be corrupt and hide facts, or outright lie. I am in agreement with you that it is important to remain open-minded until the facts are revealed, unfortunately those facts are often hidden or skewed by governments, the media (depending on the source) and authority figures.

Just because you are open to conspiracy theories doesn't make you crazy, they are after all theories, and there may/may not be truth to them but there has to be some criteria for determining their validity. Personally, I like the scientific method of a hypothesis, producing data and then a conclusion. And I prefer my data to come from an expert in the field, not a political pundit, CEO or a Washington think tank.

 

[BlackDog]

I would agree that governments, the media and authority figures can be corrupt and hide facts, or outright lie. I am in agreement with you that it is important to remain open-minded until the facts are revealed, unfortunately those facts are often hidden or skewed by governments, the media (depending on the source) and authority figures.

Just because you are open to conspiracy theories doesn't make you crazy, they are after all theories, and there may/may not be truth to them but there has to be some criteria for determining their validity. Personally, I like the scientific method of a hypothesis, producing data and then a conclusion. And I prefer my data to come from an expert in the field, not a political pundit, CEO or a Washington think tank.

I agree with you in theory, but in practice it can be so hard to tell whether or not the supposedly objective evaluator is biased toward picking selected facts to 'prove' that the conspiracy didn't happen, or did happen but happened a certain way, and so on.

Case in point: The JFK assassination. 61% of Americans in 2013 believed JFK was assassinated by someone else in addition to the 'lone gunman', Oswald. 13% believe it was the Mafia, and other culprits receive lower percentages of identification. (Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/165893/majority-believe-jfk-killed-conspiracy.aspx )

This, along with the Moon Landing Hoax Theory, is the mother of all conspiracy theories, and yet it receives widespread credence. This doesn't mean it has legitimate credence, just that many people find the established story lacking in conviction.

The thing is, with something as big as the JFK assassination, the interests involved in hiding the truth or inventing conspiracies are too big for us to ever be able to say "The guy who wrote this book is telling the truth and not lying for sales because of xyz". He might be lying for sales; on the other hand, the established story might be full of lies because the truth is too awful to be allowed to come out. How can we ever really know the truth?

I went to Dallas some years ago to see the Grassy Knoll, Texas Book Depository, and so on. While there, I ran across an older gentleman who declared that he was there on the day of the assassination (he kindly produced pictures of a little boy supposedly himself standing near the front of the line of people as JFK rode by) and he told us the straight line story, except that he swore up and down that there was more than one shooter; he himself couldn't say where the other shooter was or who he was. Speaking of the trees on the Grassy Knoll, he said, "Everyone always talks about those trees; let me tell you, I was there and those trees were exactly the same then as they are today". We went and looked at the official pictures, and sure enough, he was right. Maybe he was there that day... Or maybe not...

The point is that the truth is probably impossible to determine; pick your own version because one is as likely as another. I personally like the theory that LBJ was behind it because I've never liked LBJ, and the way he glowered at Kennedy in the pictures makes him look like a good Macbeth. I don't believe it, but I'd like it to be true...

 

[á´…eparted]

Not all of them, but in my experience the vast majority of them are. At least, the kinds I think of when someone says conspiracy theory. I take offence to a number of them, in particular many anti-science conspiracy theories (largely because I am a scientist). I've also grown really intolerant to them in the past several years because of my mother. She's gotten very deep into many of them and is beyond repair. I have tried for so long to try and get her to think critically about her stances. Even when showing her how her "theories" and others are wrong on every level, she still won't listen. It's truly maddening because she's my own mother, and many of the things she believes relate to the work I do. I can even try appealing to her emotions to get her to listen and take my credientials seriously. Although I suspect she likely now thinks my brain has been hijacked by the illuminati. Bah! I'll stop there.

In short, conspiracy theories that aren't based on sound fact and science are bunk. Ones I don't have enough background to defintively say they are false I will ignore (once in a while a conspiracy theory proves to be true. Example: what the NSA does). The fanatical ones aren't worth the time of day though.

 

[RaptorWizard]

The Devil leads people down rabbit chases with conspiracy theories, and makes those asleep live nightmares.