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Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

nature.com

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Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#91

Post by tim333 »

adleyjulian wrote: post #83
tim333 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the first example they gave: >Conspiracy theories undermined global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic was maybe ironic. Listening to the people at the start who said it was likely a lab screw up rather than dismissing them as conspiracy theorists might have led to better efforts to contain it. (for those interested here's the then head of the US CDC talking about being blocked from g…

1. I don't see how a zoonotic vs lab leak origin should really impact containment efforts. If it had been a lab leak and Chinese officials knew, I don't see how or why they would have been more open to outside help. 2. The first death from the virus was in January and it was less than 2 weeks later the first confirmed case was in the US. I think we forget how fast this thing went from novel pneumonia in Wuhan to pote…

I'm not sure it really a good example but the Chinese authorities who I'm guessing knew it was a lab leak went for a zero covid elimination strategy while the non Chinese governments were a bit like it's just the flu bro. I remember one of the top Chinese scientist saying if other countries had followed their policies the whole thing could have been stopped in a few months. I think if it had been announced it was a lab virus and nasty the non Chinese politicians may have followed the Chinese policies. But who knows.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#92

Post by b33j0r »

ChainOfFools wrote: post #41
b33j0r wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't resonate with me, but it strangely does because that timeframe just had these weird artifacts. I rejected the conspiracy theories and machismo-empowerment waves of 2016 and 2019, and found myself completely isolated. My conservative friends said "join us" and my liberal friends said I wasn't woke. Kinda thought that was a fever that would pass, but besides my closest friends and family, that restaging wa…

A big contributor to the problem is that the word conspiracy has become too broad to be useful as a test or label anymore. Everything novel in the world arises as a result of a recursively self-propagating memetic function, one that could be characterized in its earliest phases as a conspiracy: namely that one, two, and then a handful of people settle on a common notion about something universal that needs to change,…

We can’t even call news that is literally “fake news,” anything short of a mini-speech anymore. That’s the power of language as a very tangible example within your lifetime of a pretty straightforward concept becoming impossible to name in a culture.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#93

Post by therobots927 »

macintux wrote: post #7
therobots927 wrote: post #4

During Covid I lived alone after I had moved away from anyone I knew. I didn’t mind it too much but one of the effects was that I fell down a conspiracy rabbit hole. Looking back on it I find it hard to understand what my thought process was. On one hand it makes sense but on the other it doesn’t anymore (because I don’t believe in it). Without anyone else around you can talk yourself into believing some pretty wild…

Kudos for finding your way out. It's very, very easy to rationalize your beliefs once they take hold.

Thanks but I really just feel bad for people still in the cult. I never posted anything myself so my conscience is clear that I didn’t egg any of them on, but just reading it was enough for me to feel like I was a part of something. Really weird stuff and it’s unfortunate to see people still locked in that mindset, of thinking that any day now huge amounts of wealth will be yours and you won’t have to worry about money again. It’s kind of cruel and I’m lucky that I had a high enough income that my losses in the stock didn’t impact me.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#94

Post by linearrust »

krapp wrote: post #63
linearrust wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The question I ask with these studies is "what is a conspiracy?" Everyone here seems to be missing the 'essence' of the study and article. Do these conspiracy theorists influence global pandemic policy? Do flat earther conspiracy theorist affect global climate change policy? That's what the article and the 'study' is ultimately implying. That lonely conspiracy theorist flat earthers are controlling global policy. S…

No one is claiming that "lonely conspiracy theorists living in their mom's basements are secretly controlling the world." But it is obvious that some conspiracy theories such as replacement theory, the trans "groomer" panic and COVID conspiracy theories have become mainstream within certain political demographics. QAnon actively hampers real efforts to combat sex abuse with their phantom fears of leftist sex-slave ca…

> No one is claiming that "lonely conspiracy theorists living in their mom's basements are secretly controlling the world."

The article and the study is.

> But it is obvious that some conspiracy theories such as replacement theory, the trans "groomer" panic and COVID conspiracy theories have become mainstream within certain political demographics.

And certain conspiracy theories like 'lonely conspiracy theorists in living their mom's basements are secretlly controlling the world' have become mainstream within certain politcal demographics.

That's my point. Neither side are 'lonely conspiracy theorists'. Both sides are part of major political parties.

> Pretending all conspiracy theorists are just "lonely" and harmless people who have no real effect on the world is simply naive.

Yes. So stop being so naive. Most of these conspiracy theories on all sides are being pushed by major media outlets like nature and major political parties.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#95

Post by jasonlotito »

roenxi wrote: post #31
jasonlotito wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: That's the final five questions in a 38 question survey with 33 primer questions about specific conspiracy theories. It wasn't just 5 questions.

Are you sure? The Conspiracy Theory Questionnaire is 38 questions but the CMQ is 5 questions. Today's HN link talked about the CMQ. And figure one lists 5 observed indicators which I took as a hint. You can grep for "The 38 items administered in this study [dubbed the Conspir-acy Theory Questionnaire (CTQ) by Darwin et al., 2011] con-tained 33 items measuring the belief in specific conspiracy theoriesand five items a…

> Are you sure?

Yes. What I said was accurate.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#96

Post by mistermann »

Animats wrote: post #64
ikawe wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a lotta links to a lotta documents in this world, and this one is a few dozen pages longer than I can quickly peruse. Anything in it you want to highlight?

No. I'd prefer that people read what they actually wrote, without emphasis.

The platforms (and actual performance) of all parties should be carefully and skilfully critiqued (but then we'd have two problems).

Not so popular, but more proper.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#97

Post by mistermann »

nsguy wrote: post #62
HyulianGrader wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

9/11 deniers can tell you in great detail how it's impossible for airplanes to have brought down the towers and all sorts of other nonsense. The conspiracy theorists ignore the actual reality while making stuff up. It's not that the other people have never heard of stuff made up and would suddenly change their minds if they have. It's really about what version of reality explains the totality of known facts, and then…

> the actual reality

> what version of reality

This seems paradoxical. Thoughts?

> What is true is that the sense of trust has been eroded.

I agree. Do you think it is optimal that it should have been there in the first place?

Something seems...off about this whole conversation, and lots of others, almost like Humans are missing something fundamental.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#98

Post by mistermann »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #68

Why does a submission like this get flagged. One can only guess. Maybe HN users with flagging privileges do not like the conclusions of paper published or summarised in Nature so they flag it in an attmept to stop others from discussing the submission.

> Why does a submission like this get flagged.

To minimize chances of it being used as ammunition in the future perhaps....that would be a pretty specialized motivation though.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#99

Post by mistermann »

greentxt wrote: post #90
greentxt wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. But it's good to know Nature isn't good anymore. Maybe it never was? I always held it in pretty high regard.

I got downvoted but I'd point out two things: the featured "study" is psychology, it would never pass muster in one of the flagship psychology journals-- and that says a lot! Maybe it's correct in its conclusions. Who knows. The "method" in "scientific method" does all the work. Otherwise all you get are "claims" which some may agree and others disagree with. You can't just make assertions without proof, without oper…

> The "method" in "scientific method" does all the work.

Not technically it doesn't: the method is a guideline, it is implemented by Humans, and even science has done extensive investigation into how unreliable Humans are.

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