I wonder if this is one outcome of the distrust of the government?
Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
61–70 of 94 posts
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the current incarnation, sure. But the real "problem" is the internet where people with niche ideas can find like-minded people and let their ideas and followers grow from there. Sometimes the results are benign. Sometimes they aren't.
People could always find like minded people and communicate, it might have been less efficient but conspiracy groups have always magazines in news stands, published books in stores and libraries, international newsletters, less formal letter based communication and conventions. You were probably less likely to come across them because it took a little more effort and you were in a "mainstream bubble" (I don't mean th…
Speed, scale, accessibility, and the ability to target susceptible people without geographic proximity make it a novel problem.
A person handling out pamphlets (asserting something like "Liberal politicians run a pedophilia ring, look for the Pizza code!") can communicate with on the order of 10^1 people per day, and can persuade on the order of 10^1 people per year. The medium is sketchy, the messenger can't be abstracted from the message, one would have to be physically near the messenger, and the messenger would have to be actively trying to communicate with you when you came into proximity.
A person posting links to a (fake news) site (asserting something like "Liberal politicians run a pedophilia ring, look for the Pizza code!") via FB can reach on the order of 10^6 people in a day or two. And FB promotes that content to the people who are more susceptible.
Ideas couldn't spread like this ever before.
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Guilty pleas aren't necessarily evidence of guilt. Innocent people can be coerced. Coercive Plea Bargaining Has Poisoned the Criminal Justice System. https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/coercive-plea-...
This is a poor argument for white collar crimes.
Why? There are many ways prosecutors can coerce people, and not all of them involve money.
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#64Am I the only one who thinks that this is largely the fault of the social media giants?
People have been believing wildly untrue things since before the dawn of civilization.
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#65Only 72% of Americans trust that their country landed on the Moon in 1969. The Republican Party ought to take a long, hard look at where their campaign against facts is leading them. It’s not even the party of Nixon anymore.
One has nothing to do with the other, but you misspelled the Democrat Party.
Rightism and stupid are very well correlated and aligned.
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#66Only 72% of Americans trust that their country landed on the Moon in 1969. The Republican Party ought to take a long, hard look at where their campaign against facts is leading them. It’s not even the party of Nixon anymore.
What do you mean They know very well where they've wanted it to lead. Do you think otherwise?
So dictatorship was the rightist plan all along then?
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#67Considering how many people believe "critical race theory", "intersectionality", and other crackpot conspiracy theories, this doesn't surprise me. "Increasingly, people are willing to say and believe stuff that fits in with their view of how the world should be, even if it doesn't have any basis in reality or fact," That's leftism in a nutshell.
By "critical race theory" do you mean that there's only one human race? This isn't a crackpot conspiracy; TBH, it makes the belief in multiple races look crackpot. Similarly, by "intersectionality" do you mean the advances in civil-rights law that let us recognize when women of color are being discriminated against? This isn't crackpot, but basic set theory being applied by lawyers.
Imagine being a country which doesn't feed everybody, house everybody, clothe everybody, give health care to everybody, but does have plenty of time to explain how skin color matters a whole lot and can fund police which will enforce skin-color policies. That's rightism in a nutshell.
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#68Only 72% of Americans trust that their country landed on the Moon in 1969. The Republican Party ought to take a long, hard look at where their campaign against facts is leading them. It’s not even the party of Nixon anymore.
One has nothing to do with the other, but you misspelled the Democrat Party.
This is DARVO [0]. You're attempting to copy the fascism of the Republicans onto the Democrats. This might have worked better if it weren't for the Republicans' neglect over the past executive term; with hundreds of thousands of Americans dead or rioting because they're tired of starving and being shot, it is increasingly obvious that the Republicans are incapable of leading.
Neoliberalism is terrible, yeah, but your conflation of neoliberalism with neoconservatism is puerile and unhelpful. (And your posting history makes it clear that, because you're wealthy, you don't really give a shit about other people.)
Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#69Re: Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon, Other Conspiracy Theories
#70Just seeing the threads on the origin of Covid-19 on HN shows that it is very easy to get sucked in conjectures not supported by any facts and to irrationally start believing that something is likely.