How to respond to an anti Conspiracy Theorist


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"You sound like a conspiracy theorist."
 
RESPONSE: "Conspiracy Theorist? Now tell me the truth, where did you hear that term...on TV? (Laugh.) ...So let me get this straight. Are you saying that men in high positions of power are not capable of criminal activity and telling lies to the general public? Are you really that naive?" (Laugh as you say this.)
 
"I'm not saying that governments don't lie, but a conspiracy like that would have to involve 100's of people. You can't hide something like that."
 
RESPONSE: "You're absolutely right. I agree with you 100%. It is impossible to totally cover up a conspiracy so massive. That's why I know about it! What you must understand is that they don't have to cover it up totally. Even a bucket that has a few  leaks can still do the job of carrying water from here to there! They only need to fool 80% of the public, which isn't hard to do when you control the major networks and newspapers. The 10-20% that do figure it out (and the fewer still who will dare to speak their minds about it) can be very easily marginalized with the propaganda label "conspiracy theorist." The 80% +  never take us critical thinkers seriously because they want to be part of the majority. This is known as groupthink. (*Note: When saying "conspiracy theorist", always hold your two hands up as you make sarcastic quote marks with your fingers.)  

(The Ridicule Trick) "That's ridiculous (as he rolls his eyes). Do you really believe that nonsense?"
 
RESPONSE: "Can I ask you an honest question?" (Wait for "yes") Do you consider yourself an open minded, critical thinking person - yes or no? (Wait for "yes")  Then how can you possibly ridicule an opinion when you haven't even done 10 minutes of research into the matter? That's kind of ignorant don't you think?" (Wait for response.)
 
"Not everything that happens in the world is a conspiracy!" 
 
RESPONSE: "Not everything is a conspiracy, but nor is NOTHING a conspiracy either. Wouldn't you agree that we should evaluate each case independently and with an open mind?" (Wait for response.)
 
"Governments are so incompetant that they can't even deliver the mail on time or balance a budget. They couldn't conspire their way out of a paper bag!".

 

RESPONSE: "Don't confuse your incompetant, dim witted Congressman or Senator with the shadow government. The dark covert elements who stage these events are very skilled at carrying out, and concealing, their plots. Take for example the Manhattan Project. Hundreds of the world's top scientists were holed up in a desert for months as they worked on the Atomic Bomb. More than 100,000 people, each sworn to silence, worked on the project in 3 secret cities. A test bomb was even detonated in the the desert and not one word was said about it! This conspiracy was so secretive, that when FDR died and Vice President Truman became President, FDR's advisors had to inform him of the Project's existence! So you see, the shadowy intelligence element of the government is VERY capable!"

 

 

 

 

The source.

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And in the same manner, those people that consider themselves "normal", and anti-conspiracy theorists parrot the same views and ideas as found the mainstream media and from each other.

 

"The government aren't spying on us",

 

"Terrorists are coming to murder us in our beds - we must give up our freedoms with these new sweeping laws",

 

"We must bomb these middle eastern countries - its our duty as citizens of <insert country here>"

 

"Conspiracies don't happen"

 

"We live in a democratic country" - except we live in countries with the illusion of democracy as evidenced by governments doing whatever the hell they like regardless of the will of the people of that country!

 

"We live in the West, we're free, we're not slaves, we don't live under oppressive regimes"

 

etc...

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What amuses me, are the people who think conspiracy automatically means 'it must be false', 'some nut just made it up'. :laugh:

 

Conspiracies can and do happen.

 

Being unaware of what is really going on in the world can cause you a lot of grief.

 

Some organized and hidden bad events can cost you your job, your home, your health, your freedom, and possibly even your life.

 

Not every 'conspiracy theory' should be simply laughed off.

 

 

And I submit to Neobond, that this section of Neowin should be retitled to something more accurate and less misleading.

 

It's A Conspiracy! only promotes scoffing and ridicule. ;)

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What amuses me, are the people who think conspiracy automatically means 'it must be false', 'some nut just made it up'. :laugh:

 

Conspiracies can and do happen.

 

Being unaware of what is really going on in the world can cause you a lot of grief.

 

Some organized and hidden bad events can cost you your job, your home, your health, your freedom, and possibly even your life.

 

Not every 'conspiracy theory' should be simply laughed off.

 

 

And I submit to Neobond, that this section of Neowin should be retitled to something more accurate and less misleading.

 

It's A Conspiracy! only promotes scoffing and ridicule. ;)

 

 

 

I second this motion 

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What amuses me, are the people who think conspiracy automatically means 'it must be false', 'some nut just made it up'. :laugh:

 

Conspiracies can and do happen.

 

Being unaware of what is really going on in the world can cause you a lot of grief.

 

Some organized and hidden bad events can cost you your job, your home, your health, your freedom, and possibly even your life.

 

Not every 'conspiracy theory' should be simply laughed off.

 

 

And I submit to Neobond, that this section of Neowin should be retitled to something more accurate and less misleading.

 

It's A Conspiracy! only promotes scoffing and ridicule. ;)

 

It works both ways. People who are into this stuff see a video on YouTube with some epic music unearthing the worlds dark secrets and automatically think it's true... 

 

Does it really matter? is it worth your time? All these conspiracy nuts do is make youtube videos and post on Facebook... not exactly changing the world now is it, what will be will be and us regular folk powerless to stop it, just live your life because it doesn't matter if it's bomb making terrorists or government plots, its still going to happen..

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sometimes the conspiracy come true, say prism etc.. 

 

The problem is that some can get lumped in the extreme, the uk royal family are intergalactic lizards. 

 

I don't think it hurts to question things and not blindly accept everything we see. 

 

I do believe we landed on the moon

 

I don't believe aliens have landed on earth or if they have they have done it without our knowing (i.e. i don't believe area51/roswell is for alien ships, i believe it's for research/development but not aliens).

 

I don't believe Princess Diana was assassinated

 

I don't believe that 9/11 was committed by the US government or any western government and was done by terriorists

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More than 100,000 people, each sworn to silence, worked on the project in 3 secret cities.

 

 

 

100,000 people weren't all aware of what we being developed. This is a typical misdirection by theorists: take something that is factual, make a seemingly reasoned point, but obscure vital pieces of information to confuse or mislead the listener.

 

 

 

 "Can I ask you an honest question?" (Wait for "yes") Do you consider yourself an open minded, critical thinking person - yes or no? (Wait for "yes")  Then how can you possibly ridicule an opinion when you haven't even done 10 minutes of research into the matter? That's kind of ignorant don't you think?" (Wait for response.)

 

Open minded is not something I associate with conspiracy theorists (hereafter CT). Considering they think they know all and describe everyone else in society sheep do you think that is an example of open mindedness?

 

The second part is also nonsense. Plenty of people who counter CTs actually do real research and offer sensible responses to the claims CTs make. CTs have so much invested in some ideas they immediately dismiss contrary evidence. They've created a narrative and they'll be damned if some facts and rational inquiry will get in the way.

 

 

Want to win over an anti-CT? Offer clear, irrefutable evidence. Not claims of shadow governments, secret society, mass cover-ups and the like.

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I do believe we landed on the moon

 

I don't believe aliens have landed on earth or if they have they have done it without our knowing (i.e. i don't believe area51/roswell is for alien ships, i believe it's for research/development but not aliens).

 

I don't believe Princess Diana was assassinated

 

I don't believe that 9/11 was committed by the US government or any western government and was done by terriorists

 

 

LoL - Foolish sheep! You have been brainwashed by the shadow government which is controlled by the illuminati! We all know intergalactic space aliens came from their moon base to assassinate Princess Di because, in reality, she was wanted on her home planet for espionage against the Zamaxian government! But now they are here their spaceship won't fly because it is out of fuel so the U.S. government decided help them procure the fuel they need from the Mid East by toppling their own buildings as an excuse to start a phony war to cover this fact.

 

 

It's all here on my poorly maintained, incoherent website which has a style from the early 90s

 

 

www.some-random-guy-on-the-internet-who-lost-his-meds-knows-the-truth.net

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Skepticism is a natural response to conspiracy and its the healthiest response.  However, whenever presented with evidence, anyone should be able to believe in it.  Without evidence though, I have a hard time wasting brain power on many of these conspiracies. I don't find them the least bit intriguing when we have a zillion other things we have a firm basis of knowledge of that we can explore deeper. I'll leave conspiracies to the nutjobs :D

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Scepticism is a good word. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

The conspiracy theorists are sceptics in regards to the official propaganda, "the evidence" distributed by the mainstream media.

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I don't like to dismiss anything outright i like to see actual evidence, something said by some random person does not count as evidence.

 

If you just believe anything its no different than guilty until proven innocent.

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Scepticism has to have a rational basis. If evidence for a proposition exists and someone rejects that evidence, that isn't scepticism, that's denialism. Scepticism is the reaction to a claim that lacks proof. 

 

People who deny the holocaust aren't sceptics (or historical revisionists), they're denialists. People who reject the evidence for climate change aren't sceptics, they're denialists. People who reject evolutionary theory aren't sceptics, they're denialists. One thing I can never forgive Conspiracy theorists for is ruining the word sceptic.

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I don't like to dismiss anything outright i like to see actual evidence, something said by some random person does not count as evidence.

 

If you just believe anything its no different than guilty until proven innocent.

Eye witnesses count in a murder trial. ;)

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I lived with a conspiracy theorist for years (still a good friend of mine), but it was all him and his girlfriend would talk about.  At some points when I was just fed up with the conversation I would ask "Well, that may be true but what exactly are you going to do about it?"

 

Really, what can you do about it?  Waste your life away talking about it.  Its only an interesting subject to a point.

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Ugh, I thought this article was satire until I checked the source. This is sad.

 

And I submit to Neobond, that this section of Neowin should be retitled to something more accurate and less misleading.

 

It's A Conspiracy! only promotes scoffing and ridicule. ;)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

The term "conspiracy theory" is used to indicate a narrative genre that includes a broad selection of (not necessarily related) arguments for the existence of grand conspiracies.[3] Less illustrious uses refer to folklore and urban legend and a variety of explanatory narratives which are constructed with methodological flaws or biases.[4] Originally a neutral term, since the mid-1960s it has acquired a somewhat derogatory meaning, implying a paranoid tendency to see the influence of some malign covert agency in events.[5] The term is sometimes used to automatically dismiss claims that are deemed ridiculous, misconceived, paranoid, unfounded, outlandish or irrational.[6][page needed] A proven conspiracy theory, such as the notion that United States President Richard Nixon and his aides conspired to cover up Watergate, is usually referred to as something else, such as investigative journalism or historical analysis.[7][8]

 

 

That's just what the term means. It's derogatory and points to extraordinary claims on insufficient rational basis. 

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...

 

There are some factual mistakes about the Manhattan Project in that post. And that bothers me, when someone grabs some true story, adds lies to it and posts everything as a whole truth.

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Video related

 

 

sometimes the conspiracy come true, say prism etc..  

No that was an entirely different claim now with sufficent evidance.

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Scepticism is a good word. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

The conspiracy theorists are sceptics in regards to the official propaganda, "the evidence" distributed by the mainstream media.

 

Isn't that kind of like saying Christans are just skectical of all other religions?

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Whenever i suspect that someone is a conspiracy theorist i treat them normally until they go into crazy mode at which point i simply walk away.

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One way of thinking that I always use is the analogy of the judicial system.

 

Everyone knows and expects that the judge/jury would hear the cases presented by both the plaintiff and the defendant, and make a ruling based on the evidences presented.  Once careful analysis of the evidences have come to pass, the verdict is to be expected.

 

So with anything in life, I think it would be wise to always carefully consider the case (it could be anything) presented to you; weigh the evidences (if any) and judiciously make a fair judgement.  

 

Can you imagine the outrage, no matter where you are in the world, if a judge/jury listened to only one side without given the other side the chance it needs to present their case?  Yet people are so quick to dismiss an idea/theory that's contrary to what the government/media outlets are telling them.

 

It's easy to just take someone else's word for something that happened--it requires little thought or time to research.  Only when we start challenging (in a civil, well-mannered way of course) things that are presented to us in life will we find the truth, and the truth shall set you free from the bondage of ignorance!

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Eye witnesses count in a murder trial. ;)

 

 

 

Eye witnesses corroborate other supporting evidence, on their own though they are very weak in terms of evidence. Just look at the Zimmerman trial, multiple eye witnesses, along with multiple conflicting stories.  ;)

 

 

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Isn't that kind of like saying Christans are just skectical of all other religions?

 

 

Pretty much. Although, religious people from one faith who offer sceptical analysis of another usually don't realise they're creating a blueprint which can be used to critically analyse their own. Example: a Christian dismisses Islamic miracles because of a lack of evidence.

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