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What Drives People To Conspiracy Theories 9

Conspiracy Theories:

Here's What Drives

People To Them, No

Matter How Wacky

Continued from Page 8

Real conspiracies

Of course, sometimes conspiracies turn out to
be real.
President Nixon tried to cover up the
Watergate break-in; the Reagan administration
sold arms to Iran to illegally fund the Contra
rebels in Nicaragua, and the CIA really did test
LSD on unwitting U.S. citizens.
Of course, one thing those conspiracies
have in common is that they all came to light.
And that is almost certain to be the case with
any large plot like those imagined by conspiracy
theorists. horrified people witnessed the planes fly into Irrational conspiracy theories can lead
Yes, conspiracies exist, but the real ones the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, hasn't people to not vaccinate their children, to deny
usually don't fit the Hollywood mold of films stopped conspiracy theorists from insisting the the scientific evidence of climate change or to
like The Parallax View, The Manchurian towers collapsed because of a controlled dismiss mass shootings like the one at Sandy
Candidate or Oliver Stone's JFK. demolition. Hook Elementary as "false flag" operations
They imagine "a secret government And what do you say to the people who meant to spur gun control.
employing hundreds of people that operate with still aren't convinced we went to the moon or A wildly irrational conspiracy theory
supreme efficiency, everybody having the that the Earth is flat? that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was
capability of James Bond and never making an "I’ve learned that is there no such thing connected to a child-sex ring that was being run
error," said Gerald Posner, author of Case as evidence that persuades a conspiracy out of a Washington pizza shop even led to a
Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the theorist," Posner said. "It’s sort of a psycho- man opening fire in the restaurant with a semi-
Assassination of JFK. Posner began the book a religious belief, in part. They just know it’s true automatic rifle. Fortunately, he shot at the
believer that the mafia was behind the even if they can’t quite prove it." ceiling and not the patrons.
assassination, but his research led him to Van Prooijen also called conspiracy Van Prooijen believes such
conclude that the Warren Commission was right theories a "form of belief." conspiratorial thinking can undermine
and Oswald acted alone. "It doesn’t matter how much evidence to democracy because it sows distrust and leads to
"After 54 years, you say, 'Where’s the the contrary you raise, these hardcore groups perceiving each other as enemies.
deathbed confession?'" Posner said of the conspiracy theories will discredit the source of Oliver does not believe conspiracy
Kennedy assassination. "Where’s the guilty the evidence," van Prooijen said. "It’s very easy theories have a major impact on politics as
person with a guilty conscience who comes out? to dismiss evidence as being part of the much as they are symptomatic of problems with
Where’s the diary that’s been left by somebody conspiracy, being part of the coverup. So it’s the political system.
that has now been unearthed? very hard to disprove a conspiracy theory." "It’s less about the conspiracy theories
"Are there some out there that we never themselves and it’s more about kind of the flight
found out about? I’m sure," Posner said. "But at Is social media making it worse? from reason in political discourse," he said.
the level of assassinating the president of the "American democracy is a product of the
United States, with the level of complexity and Social media is often the scapegoat for many of Enlightenment, it’s a very explicitly rationalist
the number of people that would have had to contemporary civilization's ills, but surprisingly enterprise."
have been involved, for that to have worked? there is not yet evidence it is increasing the And if people reject rationality to
No." number of conspiracy theory adherents. embrace what they believe over what they can
The long-awaited release this year of "I’m not yet persuaded that the number prove, that Democratic enterprise could begin to
nearly 2,900 previously classified records of people who actually believe in them has unravel. []
related to the Kennedy assassination also failed increased due to social media," said van
to produce any evidence of a conspiracy to kill Prooijen, adding that people believed in
the president. But a few documents remain conspiracies in huge numbers long before the
classified, which is more than enough mystery arrival of Facebook and Twitter.
to keep the conspiracy theories around the But van Prooijen and Oliver think those
assassination alive. sites, as well as anonymous platforms like
4Chan, have increased the number of
An act of faith conspiracy theories out there and allowed them
to spread more quickly.
The absence of evidence never got in the way of "It was harder to get conspiracy theories
a good conspiracy theory. No matter how to your doorstep 50 years ago than it is now,"
unlikely a given imagined conspiracy, and no said Oliver.
matter how many facts are produced to disprove A person who might have been handing
it, the true believers never budge. out fliers on a street corner to get their ideas out
For example, even when Obama in the past might have 200,000 followers on
released his birth certificate many "birthers" social media today, Oliver said.
were still certain he was not a natural-born
American citizen. The fact that multitudes of So, what's the harm?