Why Conspiracy Theories?

[luka]

Obviously one of the fun things about today is the way the right are appropriating the weapons of the left. When I was in school we learned all about how the powerful men of the right are in control of the media and use it to disseminate their views and to control the narrative and the boundaries of the sayable.

now @vimothy says it's actually the left in control of the media and the right which is denied a voice. There are innumerable examples of this switch.

 

[luka]

The conspiracy crowd are obviously right in that most of us don't do 'research'. I certainly don't. The problem is the more someone does 'research' particularly as an amateur into any given topic, the more likely they are to be completely catastrophically wrong.

 

[luka]

I'd assume they will invent a clinical definition and an official title for this soon.

 

[kumar]

it does feel like the more middlebrow stuff is a relatively recent addition, something in between "respectable" investigative journalism on the contras or cia narcotrafficing and traditional crop circle paedo material. its especially weird, ive got an uncle who i think basically abandoned his theological phd to write footnoted treatise after treatise about the minutiae of the labour party antisemitism scandal to absolutely nobody. he's someone who didn't have a classical conspiracy education but instead got a twitter account in 2016 and has spent 4 years collecting irregularly time stamped tweets from times journalists to prove something that nobody in the world cares about whatsoever.

 

[luka]

I think that's right. What's new is the way it's infected the middle. That's what I like about today's world. The madness is everywhere, not just at the fringes

 

[luka]

I'd always advocate for feeling it, really getting close enough to feel the heat if you want to understand. It's like other profound mental disturbances in that sense, like love or religious fervour, you can't understand it by looking at it from the outside.

You have to fall in love, meet God, experience that paranoid mania in which all the dots suddenly join up. Get out there and do it.

 

[luka]

The other thing about research Barty mentioned the other day in relation to mixed biscuits, it indicates a need to bolster the position, constantly.

 

[luka]

Take a position like biscuits and you will be under attack constantly, you're a nutter they'll say, lol you idiot how can you believe that.

So you need to a constant stream of supporting material to hold firm against that attack. Hence why biscuits posts on the corona thread multiple times a day.

Either that or he's in the pay of enemy disinformation agents

 

[Mr. Tea]

I asked MB how cloth masks form a barrier to oxygen molecules but are useless at stopping virus-laden spit globules that are about a million times larger.



He hasn't got back to me yet.

 

[luka]

Please don't post the gifs though pleeeeeease

 

[john eden]

Obviously one of the fun things about today is the way the right are appropriating the weapons of the left. When I was in school we learned all about how the powerful men of the right are in control of the media and use it to disseminate their views and to control the narrative and the boundaries of the sayable.

now @vimothy says it's actually the left in control of the media and the right which is denied a voice. There are innumerable examples of this switch.

LOL are they fuck. Wait and see what happens when there are some public sector strikes and how that gets covered in the media.

 

[luka]

Well obviously I don't agree with him

 

[luka]

I believe what they taught me in school. It makes me sense.

 

[luka]

But that's not the point I'm making.

 

[john eden]

OK whatever!

It's widespreadness is fascinating (and troubling) for sure. Is conspiratoral thinking more contagious than COVID? Will it ultimately have a more detrinmental effect on our world?

 

[john eden]

Crossover with the election thread but this twitter thread of people observing the poll is remarkable.

 

[luka]

Ok whatever? What is that supposed to mean you weirdo

 

[john eden]

Ok whatever? What is that supposed to mean you weirdo

That this was not the point you were making, so let's drop it and talk about something more interesting. You weirdo.

 

[john eden]

 

[shiels]

I think that's right. What's new is the way it's infected the middle. That's what I like about today's world. The madness is everywhere, not just at the fringes

what’s new is the scale of how it’s been ‘weaponised’ that it’s now one of the, maybe THE move to make to cut through

even on the left. Look at how Corbin dropping the NHS docs on US trade were framed, the timing and tone