What's Wrong With Conspiracy Theories
With the disappearance of flight MH370 it has been happy time for the conspiracy theorists. The latest one to do the rounds is a claim that MH370 landed on Diego Garcia where there is a “secret” US air base. There is an air base on Diego Garcia operated by the US Air Force and leased from the British government who “own” the island. However it’s about as secret as Heathrow Airport.
It’s an extremely badly researched claim, full of errors of fact that a ten year old child can spot a mile away, but of course that won’t deter the conspiracy theorists. You see, there is a Catch 22 at work here. If anyone points out the flaws in the argument then the conspiracy theorists will immediately claim that the person is part of the cover up, so a “no win” situation emerges. The best one can do is smile politely and ignore them. Rational argument just won’t work.
What is it about conspiracy theorists that make them believe that the Illuminati are sending probes back from the future to capture people and take them into the future to enrich a failing gene pool? That by the way is just one of the battier theories attached to MH370. You can read more on any one of a number of conspiracy theory websites. This is one of the more amusing http://gawker.com/5886988/a-comprehen...
There is a clear leader in the world of conspiracy theories. Mr David Ike, I do mean you. This former Coventry City goal keeper turned sports broadcaster turned self-proclaimed exposer of the dream world will tell you why just about anything in the world is part of a conspiracy and cover up. From the Royal Family being giant lizards in disguise to the disappearance of MH370 David will tell it how it is. If you want a bit of a laugh then a visit to his website is well worth it. http://www.davidicke.com/
Of course conspiracy theories have been around for a lot longer than David has, but he is the Crown Prince of the art form. The Daily Telegraph published a list of the top 10 conspiracy theories http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newst... Unsurprisingly 9/11 is on there, as is the assignation of JFK and the faking of the moon landings by NASA. I wonder which one they’ll take off the list to accommodate MH370. The thing is, someone sits down and creates these myths and then moulds the facts to fit their whacko theories.
Psychologists have done studies on this phenomena and about 6% of the population truly believe this stuff. What is more disturbing is that up to 50% of the population will give it some credence even if they aren’t total believers. The psychologists found that if you believe one of these conspiracy theories to be true then you are likely to believe another one if its told to you. How did they demonstrate it? They asked people which of the most popular ones they thought might have some truth in them, then they told the person a complete lie about something else being a conspiracy. If the subject believed in one of the theories then they were more likely to believe the lie. Even more worrying, when they were then told it was a lie many of the subjects refused to accept it and continued to profess belief in it. Scary!
So, my top ten reasons why conspiracy theories don’t work.
1. To have a conspiracy you need conspirators. People just can’t keep secrets that well. Politicians are particularly bad at it. Our MPs couldn’t keep their expenses fiddles a secrets; Bill Clinton couldn’t keep his sex life a secret; so how the hell are those sorts of numbskulls going to keep something as big as a the JFK assassination a secret?
2. Sometimes shit just happens. It doesn’t mean that there is anything sinister behind it. People make mistakes. Things break. There are nasty people out there that want to harm us. It doesn’t mean the US government killed its own people just so they can start a war.
3. The truth is sometimes difficult to believe. That doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. The truth is often more boring than the alternative explanations, but that still doesn’t mean it’s not the truth.
4. Not all questions have an answer. We may never find out what really happened to MH370. But that doesn’t mean it’s been hijacked to Diego Garcia or taken into the future by the Illuminati.
5. You may think the US government is responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world, but that doesn’t make it true. Any country that can breed politicians like Sarah Palin and George W Bush is going to struggle to control the world.
6. Scientists, journalists, academics, lawyers. These people are clever. If they don’t think there’s any truth behind these conspiracy theories then there probably isn’t. The Illuminati, even if they existed, couldn’t silence everyone.
7. What people claim to be a secret very often isn’t. You can read all about Area 51 and Diego Garcia on the internet and I mean on reputable websites, not the ones written by conspiracy theorists. I’ve known about the existence of an airfield on DG for at least 40 years and I’m not privy to many secrets.
8. The Americans, Russians, Chinese, French and British all have surveillance satellites. One of those will always spot something on the ground if there is anything to spot. The spooks may keep their discovery to themselves for a while for political reasons, but at the right time they’ll reveal what they know in order to embarrass another country. This is one of the biggest flaws in the “NASA didn’t go to the moon” theory. The Russians were able to track the Apollo missions. In 1969 Brezhnev would have loved to have been able to expose the Americans as liars if he could. He didn’t though, did he?
9. Science doesn’t yet have all the answers. Maybe it never will have them. But that doesn’t mean you can make up your own and expect people to believe you.
10. If you’re that clever, if you know so much, why aren’t you, the conspiracy theorist, running the show? Oh, sorry, I forgot, there’s a conspiracy to stop you. Be careful, there may be an Illuminati assassin right outside your door at this very moment, waiting to silence you. Only you know the truth.
The truth is out there, and its probably quite boring.
Finally, whether you believe in a God or not, can I ask you to spare a thought for the relatives of the passengers and crew of flight MH370 in their hour of suffering.
For more of my writing please visit my website http://robertcubitt.com/index.html
It’s an extremely badly researched claim, full of errors of fact that a ten year old child can spot a mile away, but of course that won’t deter the conspiracy theorists. You see, there is a Catch 22 at work here. If anyone points out the flaws in the argument then the conspiracy theorists will immediately claim that the person is part of the cover up, so a “no win” situation emerges. The best one can do is smile politely and ignore them. Rational argument just won’t work.
What is it about conspiracy theorists that make them believe that the Illuminati are sending probes back from the future to capture people and take them into the future to enrich a failing gene pool? That by the way is just one of the battier theories attached to MH370. You can read more on any one of a number of conspiracy theory websites. This is one of the more amusing http://gawker.com/5886988/a-comprehen...
There is a clear leader in the world of conspiracy theories. Mr David Ike, I do mean you. This former Coventry City goal keeper turned sports broadcaster turned self-proclaimed exposer of the dream world will tell you why just about anything in the world is part of a conspiracy and cover up. From the Royal Family being giant lizards in disguise to the disappearance of MH370 David will tell it how it is. If you want a bit of a laugh then a visit to his website is well worth it. http://www.davidicke.com/
Of course conspiracy theories have been around for a lot longer than David has, but he is the Crown Prince of the art form. The Daily Telegraph published a list of the top 10 conspiracy theories http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newst... Unsurprisingly 9/11 is on there, as is the assignation of JFK and the faking of the moon landings by NASA. I wonder which one they’ll take off the list to accommodate MH370. The thing is, someone sits down and creates these myths and then moulds the facts to fit their whacko theories.
Psychologists have done studies on this phenomena and about 6% of the population truly believe this stuff. What is more disturbing is that up to 50% of the population will give it some credence even if they aren’t total believers. The psychologists found that if you believe one of these conspiracy theories to be true then you are likely to believe another one if its told to you. How did they demonstrate it? They asked people which of the most popular ones they thought might have some truth in them, then they told the person a complete lie about something else being a conspiracy. If the subject believed in one of the theories then they were more likely to believe the lie. Even more worrying, when they were then told it was a lie many of the subjects refused to accept it and continued to profess belief in it. Scary!
So, my top ten reasons why conspiracy theories don’t work.
1. To have a conspiracy you need conspirators. People just can’t keep secrets that well. Politicians are particularly bad at it. Our MPs couldn’t keep their expenses fiddles a secrets; Bill Clinton couldn’t keep his sex life a secret; so how the hell are those sorts of numbskulls going to keep something as big as a the JFK assassination a secret?
2. Sometimes shit just happens. It doesn’t mean that there is anything sinister behind it. People make mistakes. Things break. There are nasty people out there that want to harm us. It doesn’t mean the US government killed its own people just so they can start a war.
3. The truth is sometimes difficult to believe. That doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. The truth is often more boring than the alternative explanations, but that still doesn’t mean it’s not the truth.
4. Not all questions have an answer. We may never find out what really happened to MH370. But that doesn’t mean it’s been hijacked to Diego Garcia or taken into the future by the Illuminati.
5. You may think the US government is responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world, but that doesn’t make it true. Any country that can breed politicians like Sarah Palin and George W Bush is going to struggle to control the world.
6. Scientists, journalists, academics, lawyers. These people are clever. If they don’t think there’s any truth behind these conspiracy theories then there probably isn’t. The Illuminati, even if they existed, couldn’t silence everyone.
7. What people claim to be a secret very often isn’t. You can read all about Area 51 and Diego Garcia on the internet and I mean on reputable websites, not the ones written by conspiracy theorists. I’ve known about the existence of an airfield on DG for at least 40 years and I’m not privy to many secrets.
8. The Americans, Russians, Chinese, French and British all have surveillance satellites. One of those will always spot something on the ground if there is anything to spot. The spooks may keep their discovery to themselves for a while for political reasons, but at the right time they’ll reveal what they know in order to embarrass another country. This is one of the biggest flaws in the “NASA didn’t go to the moon” theory. The Russians were able to track the Apollo missions. In 1969 Brezhnev would have loved to have been able to expose the Americans as liars if he could. He didn’t though, did he?
9. Science doesn’t yet have all the answers. Maybe it never will have them. But that doesn’t mean you can make up your own and expect people to believe you.
10. If you’re that clever, if you know so much, why aren’t you, the conspiracy theorist, running the show? Oh, sorry, I forgot, there’s a conspiracy to stop you. Be careful, there may be an Illuminati assassin right outside your door at this very moment, waiting to silence you. Only you know the truth.
The truth is out there, and its probably quite boring.
Finally, whether you believe in a God or not, can I ask you to spare a thought for the relatives of the passengers and crew of flight MH370 in their hour of suffering.
For more of my writing please visit my website http://robertcubitt.com/index.html
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