An attempt to figure out just why people who believe in conspiracy theories are so reluctant to accept alternative explanations.
Have you read the comments section for
this article on ShoutWire? It fascinates me just how ready some people are to believe that the US government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. After all, no matter what your opinions on George W. Bush and the current administration, it's a bit of a stretch of the imagination to see them destroying one of their most famous symbols of capitalisim just to gain a little public support. Such is the nature of many of the far-fetched conspiracy theories. But where do all these conspiracy theories come from? Why are some people prepared to go to any lengths to find alternatives to the accepted stories? And do these people have grounds for their beliefs?
Now I'm not going to spend any time looking at any specific conspiracy theories or trying to find any conclusive answers to any. The point of this article is to examine why these stories appear around events such as 9/11, the moon landings or the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Type "conspiracy theories" into Google and you get around five million results, so it's clearly a pretty big deal among certain types of people. But why is it such a big deal? And why do the people that come up with and follow these theories simply refuse to accept any offical explanation?
Perhaps some people are just naturally cynical about governments and the like and so are always inclined not to believe anything they say. This idea doesn't appeal to me because, as anyone who's ever met me will testify, I am one of the world's great cynics and yet I still find many of the famous conspiracy theories simply ludicrous. So it's not natural skepticism alone which turns people into conspiracy theorists. There must be something else.
I've given the matter some thought, and I've come up with two reasons why people choose to believe these wild, often completely unfounded theories. The first of these is simply a desire for knowledge, or more specifically a desire to know something the rest of the world doesn't. This hypothesis seems fairly easy to bear out as, when you talk to someone who is a devout believer in a particlular conspiracy, they always seem to take a great deal of pleasure in telling you how gullible and easily led you are. They also seem to find great delight in informing you just why they're right and you're wrong. And so confident are they in their knowledge, no matter what evidence you challenge them with that contradicts their theories, you're still wrong. Getting an admission they might be wrong about one of two things as well is as painful as repeatedly hitting your head against a brick wall and about as productive.
But dismissing all these otherwise perfectly intelligent people as deluded snobs with superiority complexes seems a little simplistic. And the second of my reasons for conspiracy theories is a little less straightforward. After much thought, I've come to the conclusion it's all about comfort and security. In other words, people are uncomfortable, unhappy and in some cases even afraid of the reality that huge events in history can be decided by one or two individuals.
Take the JFK assassination for example. It's quite an unsettling thought that the most powerful man in the world could have been killed by one lone madman with a gun. It's far more comforting to believe that the assassination was the result of some deep mafia plot to gain control of the world. Sure it may have very frightening long term implications to have a world run by mafia suits, but at least it's far more organized and logical than a seemingly random attack committed by one lone individual who did it for no good reason.
It's the same with 9/11. It's easier for people to comprehend a deep, sinister government plot with the final intention of invading the Middle East than it is for them to understnad the reasoning behind the actions of a few individuals who seem to have no clear motive.
I'm going to ask that if you want to comment on this article, please don't start discussing whether or not a specific theory is in fact a conspiracy, as there are plenty of other places you can have that arguement and anyway, it probably wouldn't be worth your time. The only people you're likely to convince are other conspiracy theorists who already kow all the innermost details of JFKs post mortem, and when people start providing evidence to the contrary, the chances of anyone paying attention are minimal at best.