Posted October 12, 2016
The reasons you give for this are all very valid, I do see an even more fundamental one though: Conspiracy faith has substituted conspiracy theory. There is not really a theoretical construct around those completely random accusations any more, it's just the accusation plus the quasi-religious belief that a person or group is Satan.
I've seen this develop in 9/11 truther circles more than a decade ago, and it was impressive to witness. You're supposed to collect moments of doubt, any moments of doubt, mere artifacts that poke holes in whatever is passed as established truth, and you're supposed to pass those moments around as pieces of a puzzle – a puzzle that you're never meant to assemble. If you did that, you'd have to discard hundreds of individual accusations that you hold dear, but that do not sensibly fit the puzzle/theory.
In other words, the scientific nature of gathering actual evidence and making a sensible complex theory that incorporates all the observed events is detrimental to the conspiracy faith, which is sacrosanct.
Or maybe the kids nowadays just don't have no creativity any more.
I've seen this develop in 9/11 truther circles more than a decade ago, and it was impressive to witness. You're supposed to collect moments of doubt, any moments of doubt, mere artifacts that poke holes in whatever is passed as established truth, and you're supposed to pass those moments around as pieces of a puzzle – a puzzle that you're never meant to assemble. If you did that, you'd have to discard hundreds of individual accusations that you hold dear, but that do not sensibly fit the puzzle/theory.
In other words, the scientific nature of gathering actual evidence and making a sensible complex theory that incorporates all the observed events is detrimental to the conspiracy faith, which is sacrosanct.
Or maybe the kids nowadays just don't have no creativity any more.
Post edited October 12, 2016 by Vainamoinen