How do conspiracy theories start?

I’m assuming some wackadoodle post it online and some people spread it as a joke and eventually you get someone famous or some new rag repeating it and it grows to the point where people start to believe it. Especially if the actual facts are inconvenient to their lives or they are looking for a distraction and need people to focus on anything else but the truth.
Of course sometimes things can start out as sarcasm or a joke.

I don’t know how many times Satire from the (New Yorker) Horowitz Report has been taken seriously. Even with it being labeled Satire. So I would have to add stupidity also plays a role in it, because there seems to be an awful lot of people who do not understand the meaning of Satire.

Some people are not possible of using critical thinking

…or they hear something that “harmonizes” with their POV

…or it fits their perspective

…or one of my Facebook friends “My minister on Sunday said it was so. . . .” !

Some of it’s intentional disinformation.

Some of it seems to make sense.

Some of it does make sense.

With mal-intent they are created to do damage to some person or group.

The Illuminati poison the drinking water with floride to make your brain soft enough to believe such things.

Well I think it’s first starts off with the failure of mainstream news media. Trust in mainstream news media is at an all time low (and for good reason) so people tend to look for their news from independent websites and shocker, a lot of them are peddling complete bullshit.

It’s a secret.

I have no idea. I often wonder about that myself. The 91 thing has been floating around for a while. I do believe that the Government knew the attacks were coming, and allowed them to happen to have an excuse to get into never ending wars in the Middle East. I know that warnings came from Israel, Great Britain, France and even Russia, prior to the attacks, With that many advance warnings from Allies and even foes, there is no way in hell they wouldn’t have time to act. Unless they didn’t want to.

@Nomore_lockout Everyone is allowed their beliefs. However, I will personally never believe that our government allowed so many deaths just to stay in war in the Middle East. I believe that is a bullshit conspiracy theory.

@chyna Of course you can believe what you want. But prior to the attacks, they had a scenario in place, called Project for a New American Century, or something to that effect, wherein it was stated that what we need is a “New Pearl Harbor”. There has been speculation for decades that Pearl Harbor was allowed to happen, as a back door into the war against Hitler. So, maybe elements of the Government know something we don’t. It seems at least, feasible and possible to me. As opposed to whacked out crap like “Israel is causing forest fired with laser beams”, and shit like that.

Conspiracy theories? You mean there are no frog-monkey-vampires from Saturn?

@Yellowdog No, they’re from Mars. Guess you missed the meeting.

Frog-monkey vampires? are they the ones firing the Jewish space lasers at California?

Actually they are Jesuit Vampires, obviously you didn’t attend the meeting either.

Some of it is probably generated by anarchists.

Anarchist werewolves from Zeta Reticuli. You guys need to pay more attention at these briefings, or I’ll report you to Big Q.

Conspiracy theories often have an element of truth and then people begin to trust the person telling the theories and once trust develops the person can say almost anything and they will be believed. The theories play on people’s fears. Lots of people seem to want to be afraid.

Conspiracies are usually based on the assumption that the official story or the government account is very likely to be false. This type of scepticism of the government is quite common.

I guess they probably start off on forums dedicated to “uncovering the truth”, where they begin as sort of speculative alternative explanations, and some may be confected by mischievous individuals out to manipulate the credulous (like QAnon likely is).

People are attracted to community and like-minded individuals, so they end up reinforcing each other’s beliefs and forming new conspiracy theories.

I’ve no idea how anyone came up with Jewish Space Lasers though.

Hey @Kropotkin Maybe the Jewish people are punishing Californians for not raking the forest floor?

LOL! @SQUEEKY2

Oddly enough, conspiracy theorists sometimes become subject of their own conspiracy. My Austin, Texas home boy Alex Jones, who perpetuated the Sandy Hook / False Flag BS, is now the center of a theory that he is actually comedian Bill Hicks, who supposedly died over two decades ago. Hicks was (is?) a leftist comic from Texas, and the theory goes that he was recruited by some shadowy government agency to fake his death and be remade as a whacko far right shock jock, “Alex Jones”, to make the patriot movement and Tea Party types look ridiculous. To add fuel to the fire, he has actually had several guests on his show call him “Bill” by mistake, causing many an “Ah Hah” moment on the part of the theorists. You can’t make this shit up.

I’m not sure, but I think I see an opportunity – Stay posted for shocking revelations from JFamous.

’ ’ How do conspiracy theories start?’
All one has to do is cause doubts in everyone’s minds and it carry’s on .

Isn’t that what Trump did all the time…give a complete different view on something then cause doubts to what is true and what is false?

This would get his supporters thinking on it and wondering.

Then as President , his supporters would think that if it came from the President it must be true?
That is how manipulation works.

The below are not conspiracy theories as far a I know. You all can correct me if I’m wrong.

Back in the 70’s there was a big to do about a swine flu scare that never became an epidemic but the government pushed people to get vaccinated. Cases of GBS were reported and it was probably the first time the public became aware of the possibility of that side effect. It was portrayed as a government cover up.

@SQUEEKY2 Clearing the ground of fallen branches and trees and other tree debris is a real way to prevent massive forest fires. I think I learned about it when I was in 6th grade. I don’t know exactly what Trump said, but I don’t understand why people think that’s a big joke. Unless the theories have changed about it. There have been worries that smaller fires haven’t been cleaning the lands for years, and so that means bigger fires can take hold.

@chyna I think it’s fairly established that we stayed in Vietnam when the president knew we were losing, believed the war was not winnable, even though our men continued to be killed. Johnson kept sending in troops, he didn’t want to be the president who lost a war, looks bad. Better to continue the war and let soldiers be killed. Regarding Iraq people believe the US went there for the oil.

@JLeslie For parks and municipal land I agree,picking up dead branches and scrub is a real way to cut down on fire .
But come on look at a picture of a huge forest how pray tell are going to rake the floor of thousands of acres of bush, some have no road access many miles from any kind of town?
Kinda unrealistic .

^^I thought they do small fires to prevent large ones.

They do controlled burns from time to time, but they have a habit of getting away quite often.

^^Ok, so if I understand correctly what Trump said wasn’t as outlandish as portrayed maybe, but the big problem was he used it politically as a red state blue state thing to again increase divide in the nation and I’m guessing whatever he said wasn’t quite realistic. He took a concept and oversimplified like the using bleach for covid thing.

Pretty much,oh and remember when he said the states should practice better forest management, I googled it and the state California owns roughly 3% of the states forested land,private ownership owns around 29%leaving the rest owned by the federal Government,so with those numbers when is the fed going to start proper forest management ?

@SQUEEKY2 I just think the Democrat reaction isn’t productive either, because when they say Trump is being completely ridiculous, when there is a grain of truth, it just leaves opening for conspiracy theories and his followers to come to the defense of Trump.

It seems like it would be better to me to explain the difficulties and realities. Although, many people on the left who just listen to left biased media who simply go along with anything they say, most don’t know anything about the theory of controlled burn to prevent forest fires, want to hate Trump and Republicans, and so they just accept Trump is being an idiot and liar again, while his supporters probably are being fed the information about keeping the woods clean to prevent forest fires, and both sides are just undereducated, it’s all oversimplified, and most of the public seems to seek the division. It baffles me except that it seems to work politically.

Most start as social questions in fluther.

@JLoon Fool us once, can’t fool us again. We know that you were recruited by the CIA to go on radio as JFamous, right wing commentator. But you are, in fact, JLoon, who disappeared from Fluther under mysterious circumstances. Fess up, you’re busted.

@Nomore_lockout – Damn! You’re too clever for me, agent N.

@JLoon Shhhhh!

Here is another great one by our Q friends JFK jr’s plane was brought down by the Clintons.
What gets me is people actually buy into this crap.

Some people never met a conspiracy theory they didn’t like. But don’t get me to ranting about Operation Jade Helm again. In passing, I’ll only mention that I have heard from reliable sources, that it was the Clintons who knocked Humpty Dumpty off of his wall. But that is only speculation at this point.

Hey @Nomore_lockout if it is repeated enough most right wingers would only be to happy to blame the Clintons for Humpties demise as well..

LOL Sad but true I’m afraid.