Which is more frightening: that conspiracy theories are true or that conspiracy theories are false?

I would be more freaked out if they turned out to be true, because the implications are a lot more… profound I suppose.

I prefer living in a sometimes absurd world where there is only chaos.

*does not believe in most, if not all conspiracy theories.

Great question buddy. but for me it’s a case by case. I think too much as it is – so I try not to think about the big ones – or I’d get a massive headache.

I’d be more disturbed if the bigger, more serious, conspiracy theories were true.
I’d rather live in a society that is more chaotic than it believes itself to be.

I would say ‘true’.. By realizing this, it would definitely make you shudder to know these same conspirators are still in power, still operating.

The idea of God is the biggest conspiracy theory and I am undecided whether it is true or not. Which is the scariest? That there is a God or that there is no God? Again I am undecided.

@flutherother My answer would depend on which god(s) you are referring to.

I am thinking of the idea of God, not of any particular god.

If a lot of the more infamous conspiracy theories were proved to be true, then it’s one fucked up world we’re living in!

@hawaii_jake I think you have hot on why people believe in conspiracy theories exactly. But I do find it very frightening that so many people can have their thinking manipulated in this way.

I think overall it’s not too disparate with belief in them being somewhat more fearful. People who experienced/witnessed Kennedy’s death or 9/11 were probably frightened the same. The difference comes with “seeing” the first conspiracy (or the first few), because that is also frightening, but the seeing is usually a distinct and separate event.

The tragedy happens irrespective of belief. In the aftermath of 9/11, some fear the terrorists and some fear the government. (Maybe some fear both.) Belief along these lines is about assigning blame. If there is less fear in the conventional explanation, it is because we are given an enemy to hate, and we can turn our focus (reinforced by a collective) to hating the sanctioned enemy. If the enemy were simply unknown, that probably would be most frightening, because we wouldn’t be able to focus on a person or group and instead would flinch at everything remotely alarming in anticipation of the next hit.

There’s psych literature that talks about belief in conspiracies being a defense or coping mechanism for making amoral tragedies meaningful. So, yes, I think there’s an element of refuge seeking among some people.

What I would add to this discussion is that there is significant space along a continuum between a “total control” conspiracy and total chaos. Intention or observation or belief are perhaps what give shape to “pure” chaos. If you can control or harness more than your share of intention, observation, and belief, then perhaps you’ve transformed chaos into something else. I guess I just want to point out that this is not necessarily an all-or-nothing dynamic.

@marinelife, many a conspiracy theorist also finds it frightening that so many people can have their thinking manipulated a certain way, FWIW.

Conspiracy theories in general provide a psychological function: allowing people with privilege who are starting to figure out how fucked up everything is to not have to evaluate that privilege and its role in creating and maintaining the fucked up circumstances. It allows people to displace blame from critical analyses of systemic injustices and instead place it on secretive cabals.

The biggest thing the 9/11 Truthers do is make the government seem more intelligent and infallible than it really is. As someone who hates this system and wants to see it fall, that is the scariest possibility: that we can’t win.

That they exist.

In any case most are just fiction but some become true.

It’s scary that so many people are into conspiracy theories.

@hawaii_jake, this isn’t to call you out or be a jerk, but I’m surprised you would assert “there is only chaos” unless I am misunderstanding other positions of yours.

I believe in collecting enough information until I can make some kind of conclusion or put it on hold until more information becomes available. I want the truth and not what the media or anyone else thinks is the truth. I will know the truth myself when enough information is in and not from a rag-magazine or politically correct mass-media. As far as conspiracy-theories, most individuals on this planet feel, that something is not quite right, but have no idea of what it involves. If I have learned anything in life and mostly out of the box is, that there is much more going on than meets the eye and that most of us on this planet are currently aware of.

@obvek : I’m just stating a case for 2 opposing camps in the OP. I don’t necessarily believe that all is chaos, though it seems that way on some days. At the same time, I am no conspiracy believer. It’s my personal opinion that most things rock along as they are as part of larger machines that don’t actually know they are machines. I believe the connections of all things, the web of existence, it too complex for us.

I don’t believe in an overarching hand directing events. I believe in a web of events that affect each other in unexpected ways.

@flutherother In that case, either one would be disturbing to me.

It’s all the Stonecutters
Hey. Sometimes the truth comes from ridiculous sources.

Well, I wouldn’t want to go on record as embracing the idea that there is no such thing as a conspiracy. It seems probable that somewhere, sometime, conspiracies do occur. So people who have theories about those conspiracies are (theoretically, at least) within the realm of the plausible.

That said, however, I am made more uncomfortable by people who see conspirators behind every arras than I am by the notion of actual conspiracies out there in the wicked world, where they are probably rivaled by counterconspiracies while keeping company with every other sort of human mischief.

I realize I didn’t answer the question (which is an excellent one). I have a relative who is technically very intelligent, Mensa member, well spoken and believes whole-heartedly in every conspiracy theory that he encounters or dreams up himself.
The moon was created by alien life, it is hollow and serves as their base for Earth invasions. People who know this include George Lucas who used it as a blueprint for the Death Star knowing that creating an elaborate fiction would distract people from knowing the truth.

This relative governs his life with distrust and fear of everything and he is also an atheist so he finds no comfort in the idea of an afterlife. He’s probably the most miserable and exhausting person I know. If somehow all of his theories could be disproved, I suspect he would be just as miserable in an unordered world. That isn’t likely though. He would busily replace the old conspiracies with new ones.

@Blueroses, being a Mensa member proves nothing at all. It isn’t even a guarantee of smart thinking. I have found just about every kind of oddball you can think of among the many Mensans I’ve known, including true believers in all kinds of nutty things. The authors of Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time call out Mensa by name and devote special attention to the phenomenon of smart people who believe in illogical things such as superstitions and paranormal activity. Essentially the authors’ explanation is that we don’t arrive at such beliefs by rational means but that we put our rational powers to work—and the smarter we are, the greater the powers—to defend the beliefs we already have.

That book, incidentally, pairs nicely with this one by Carl Sagan to shed light on the larger question of what scientific knowledge is and why it hasn’t defeated widely held but unsupportable beliefs.

@Jeruba Why People Believe Weird Things is among my favorite books. Michael Shermer is awesome.

People believe in conspiracies for the simple fact that they can’t trust those in charge.. The theories, whether right or wrong have a basis when it comes to covert operations that only benefits a few. I was THERE when Kennedy got shot and things that were later proven as fact did not ring true in my physical witnessing.. My cousin, who was close to the grassy knoll actually heard what she thought was a high pitched back-fire coming from that area.. she reported it, no one EVER followed up on her witness. Some do seem outrageous, I admit, but in this case the proof was as bogus as the commission who summed it up.. And there were TWO conflicting official conclusions but whoever was in charge deemed the one we hear about was the only true one.. Myself? I’m tired of trying to find the ‘real’ truth on anything as it will always be hidden (just as history is always written by the winners).