Reddit reviews Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories

I could insult you, because you're worthy of insult, but I'm going to take a different route today.

I'm going to suggest to you a book to read, if you can read this book and still maintain your current worldview, more power to you.

https://www.amazon.com/Suspicious-Minds-Believe-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/1472915631

> is that what people say now when they dont have a real response

If someone walks up to you and says "lizards control the moon" and you don't respond, is that the same thing as having no response, or is it realizing the person in question is so far gone, so detached from reality it isn't worth even attempting to reason them back into the real world?

> usually youre pretty logical but believing the most convenient thing ever from cnn is a dumb move man

Funny how every single right-wing attempted terror attack, or foiled terror attack is totally a false flag and "convenient."

> dont you think its weird how alex soros had an op ed ready to go like half an hour after it supposedly happened

[citation needed]

> or how all the reports said the things went to the obama and clinton households when you literally cant post things to people under secret service protection

[citation needed]

> or how the postal service moved at 100 times its usual pace to return packages

[citation needed]

> or how the stamps show objectively that the packages were never posted

[citation needed]

> or how the timer on the "bombs" doesnt have an alarm

[citation needed]

Even if this were true, it doesn't disprove anything.

People mail "fake" stuff like this fairly often. Was the fake anthrax mailed to Trump and his retarded friends also a false flag?

> but no totally believable youd have to be insane not to take that dumb shit at face value amirite

See above.

> some of you are so easy to trick sometimes its kind of alarming

I'm going to suggest a book to you, because this is common with conspiratards. They're some of the most gullible, profoundly misinformed people on earth.

But they've convinced themselves the opposite is true, it's a vicious cycle.

https://www.amazon.com/Suspicious-Minds-Believe-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/1472915631

The psychology behind this is very interesting. For example, this is why people such as yourself tend to be the most gullible to authoritarians or fake news.

https://www.amazon.com/Suspicious-Minds-Believe-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/1472915631

I couldn't agree with this more, I often see conspiratorial thinking when larger concepts or ideas are expressed in exaggeration and over-simplification (like this video). The belief that there is a complete consensus among academia fits that framing.

For those of you actually interested in Social Engineering with a focus on Conspiracy theorists, I high recommend reading Suspicious Minds. It breaks down why people fall for conspiracies and posits that most of the general population buys into them to one degree or the other. A particularly enterprising/amoral individual could test these theories in really life.

Check out Rob Brotherton's (2015) Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories. He specifically focuses on the psychological components.




Another book worth checking out is Michael Shermer's (2012) The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies--How we Construct Beliefs and Reinforce them as Truths. While the book touches on a wide number of topics beyond conspiracy theories, it addresses much of the psychology underlying the belief in conspiracy theories.

Some materials to try to understand it:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180124-the-enduring-appeal-of-conspiracy-theories


https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201801/why-do-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5724570/

https://www.amazon.com/Suspicious-Minds-Believe-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/1472915631