Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?
A while ago, I made a video about illiteracy, and one of the comments on the video was that the opening statistics were incredibly depressing, even for me. Ahem 10% of Americans believe that the Earth is possibly flat. 12% of Americans believe that the US government is mandating fluorescent light bulbs because they make people easier to control. 35% of Americans believe that the FDA and the drug companies in America are sitting on the cure to cancer.
So what causes some people to be more susceptible to belief in conspiracy theories? There appear to be a number of cognitive, social, cultural, political, and historical factors involved. As ever, it's complicated. Here, I explore some of the scientific research on these factors.
Intro 00:00
Current Statistics 00:52
conspiracy or Conspiracy Theory? 01:45
When Conspiracy Theories are dangerous 06:22
Who is susceptible? 09:45
Economic/cultural factors 10:16
Evolutionary factors 10:40
Personality, cognition, group cohesion 12:43
Anxiety, lack of control 17:22
Pattern recognition 19:20
Conclusion 24:50
Patreon: / georgrockallschmidt
Twitter: / grockallschmidt
Sources:
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
www.npr.org/20...
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
journals.sagep...
arstechnica.co...
www.independen...
pforlife.com/b...
journals.sagep...
books.google.c...
psycnet.apa.or...
www.sciencedir...
www.apa.org/ne...
www.apa.org/pu...
www.sciencedir...
www.sciencedir...
www.psypost.or...
www.psypost.or...
www.scientific...
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
www.psychologi...
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Пікірлер: 1 200
This video has been demonetized (limited or no ads). Apparently KZread cannot tell the difference between conspiracy theory content and this video, which discusses the science behind conspiratorial belief. Rather than chopping out large portions of the video, I have decided to upload the entirety, as I think this topic is important. If you'd like to support the channel, please consider checking out my Patreon: www.patreon.com/GeorgRockallSchmidt Cheers, Georg
@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI
10 ай бұрын
State of the art algorithms at their finest...
@razzbender3385
10 ай бұрын
Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.
@IdleRain
10 ай бұрын
Conform better.
@JacobSantosDev
10 ай бұрын
Why I don't believe people when people say AI will destroy us or take over the world. Maybe by mistake. AI can't even tell when a video is legit about why conspiracy theories are bad vs actual conspiracy theory.
@jooseppielleese7156
10 ай бұрын
My conspiracy theory is that you knew this would happen and would be the perfect way to promote your patreon.
The Best conspiracy theory is the one from south park. That the US government is supporting conspiracy theories because it makes them seem more capable then they really are.😂
@gabedom_
10 ай бұрын
Makes sense
@caidurkan2916
10 ай бұрын
Most conspiracy theories are based on the idea that a government could run FEMA death camps or plant a camera on every sparrow if they so wanted to without someone speaking out. When in all reality, they could barely run a FEMA camp program if they tried and someone would leak knowledge of it(probably on accident). The FEMA death camp theory is a perfect example of how a conspiracy theory forms. The theory started when someone posted a photo of white train cars with slats on the side, vaguely reminiscent of a cattle car. They surmised that these must be for people (thanks to the air slats) and that they were putting god loving Patriots into death camps in order to kill all the gun toting free thinkers to leave a more easier to control population. The white train cars in question are for transporting automobiles, and the air slats are so that whoever drives the automobile into the train car doesn't die from lack of ventilation. It takes literally zero evidence to create a conspiracy theory. South Park hit the nail on the head.
@Mitchell_is_smart._You2bs_dumb
10 ай бұрын
that's literally what we did in the cold war, we talked about starwars defense systems, going to the moon, building super massive super colliders, and all sorts of things that we tried to get Russia to compete with in an attempt to outspend them and dismantle their stability. we did. but the national debt got out of control here and... well thank goodness we don't have any budget issues to this day.
@bovinityleak2066
10 ай бұрын
No doubt
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
In my opinion the Chinese weather balloon that was sent to spy on America is the funniest
It is hard to fool a person. But it is much harder to convince that person that they have been fooled.
@earthsmoke9450
10 ай бұрын
You mean “it’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them they’ve been fooled”. Mark Twain.
@speggeri90
5 ай бұрын
@@earthsmoke9450 Tomato tamato.
I think the problem with conspiracy theories is that every example is lumped together. There is a huge difference between concerns of government-sponsored criminality and modern tall tales. The crazy ones get the attention or divert from related concerns. But that's just a conspiracy theory.
@JohnSmith-mc2zz
10 ай бұрын
A conspiracy theory that's proven is simply called a conspiracy.
@circularanemone
10 ай бұрын
Did Big Conspiracy pay you to say this? I enjoy grassroots conspiracies, not the artificial ones THEY are feeding you
@MattyEngland
10 ай бұрын
Yep, it's page one of the CIA/Mossad handbook. Create nonsense like flat earth and lizard people, to discredit the stuff that is true.
@Shabo0117
10 ай бұрын
I whole hearted believe Q anon stuff was signal boosted by media to make the Epstein business seem more farfetched by association. Sure, Epstein was real and real important people went to his island, but the crazy Q people who believe the vaccine kills you and that the rich eat babies also believe it, so, y'know.
@TheMysteryDriver
10 ай бұрын
Well pushing the term conspiracy theory was to lump it all together and muddy the waters
I’m sceptical of conspiracy theories. After all, they were invented by lizard people.
@Ei-mx1we
10 ай бұрын
This, but unironically. When the facts challenge power, the only option is becomes to convince us that they're fake.
@TheMysteryDriver
10 ай бұрын
I'm skeptical until a few months later when they're proven true
@retributionangel5078
10 ай бұрын
Lizards People is a allegory Becaus the are Cold Blooded aka ruthless killers Lizards also have Cold Blood
@parsoniareigns
10 ай бұрын
Lizard people. As if. Everybody knowsssss they are sssssssnake people.🙂 Before you ssssssay , snakes are lizardsss. That's what the snake people want you to think.😊😊😊😊😊
@JohnSmith-mc2zz
10 ай бұрын
@@TheMysteryDriver Most of them aren't proven true because they're insane. Did you even watch the video?
Disturbing studies show that studies are disturbing.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
It just means you are probably wrong, even if you could be right
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
That joke isn’t tired AT ALL.
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
Watch out for that Chinese weather balloon. And don't forget Russia is out to get you!
@2guys1cliplol
9 ай бұрын
Im inside of youre walls
@johnmoore9862
9 ай бұрын
That’s exactly what they want you to think.
I don't care about the shape of the earth, because whether it's round or flat, I still have to pay my rent this month
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
Don't forget you still have to pay your taxes to fund your warmogering in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria and China. Now get back to work and carry on thinking about how dangerous conspiracy theorists are.
@ryanhegseth8720
2 ай бұрын
Your a deep thinker, you must be a teacher or scientist.
Conspiracies happen all the time, it's just when they're finally aired out they get rebranded as corruption.
@TacticusPrime
10 ай бұрын
The problem is that wackos with idiotic beliefs get lumped in with people who believe that conspiracies exist. Like, Flat Earthers, Creationists, anti-vaxxers, etc., are psychos with idiotic beliefs. Believing that oil companies are colluding to raise gas prices and stymie the implementation of green energy is just the cynicism of experience.
@emanym
10 ай бұрын
Truth 😂
@billhicks8
10 ай бұрын
Not really, most of the time. Actual corrupt things that happen tend to just bore people, usually. You have to put in something spicy like the military, aliens, or erm, Jews to get folks really swivelling their eyes and shrieking.
@Mr_Boifriend
10 ай бұрын
Yep - great point!
@mydogslikeboiledeggs7094
10 ай бұрын
Thank you.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That's how it goes Everybody knows
Socrates would be a conspiracy realist
Great content. I've always felt so compelled to pursue the greatest interests of mankind, to wit. A way to be influential, powerful and protected. The need for a singular world order. The inner me is gasping to find out knowledge about the human race and about the things that not everyone is destined to know. I wish to blossom into the enlightenment that our forebears wanted so desperately for us to gain.
@Margart526
10 ай бұрын
That feeling is understandable, it's just you being an advanced human. If you really seek enlightenment you can achieve that and so much more by joining the Illuminatus Brotherhood. I know it sounds mythos, but there are ways to get in.
@bartholetbay412
10 ай бұрын
hi, is it even possible to join? i always thought it's meant for certain people in the upper class.
@Margart526
10 ай бұрын
Well it is, there are ways you can actually get in. It's not just open to everyone, but then you can always try to know better and inquire whether or not you are eligle. anyways, you can inquire into Anthony Rogers Szymon online, will probably help you understand better.
@bartholetbay412
10 ай бұрын
Fascinating. Thanks so much for the reference, I just looked him up and left him a message already.
I’m 3 minutes in but I feel like it’s not a good start to draw distinctions between “conspiracy” and “conspiracy theory” and then boldly define conspiracy theory in such as negative way. On its face, and by using the fucking English language, I am perfectly capable of deducing the meaning of the term “conspiracy theory”. And somehow, he ends up doing it in a disingenuous way, by weaving his arguments into his own definition, while presenting it as objective or scientific.
Regarding the idea that there is clear enough distinction between real and imaginary patterns to use as an independent variable in research. That is just demonstrably silly. Every arrangement of things has a pattern and none of them are more real or significant on their own. Pattern become significant only via interpretation. There are a great many patterns of color and shape in every visual image of the jungle. The ones that say "Tiger!" are no more real than those that don't but they are a lot more significant to prey. So what the research shows, if anything, is that people who interpret in uncommon ways are more likely to also find significance in patterns that look like conspiracies. What marks conspiracy beliefs us irrational is not that they are acquired in a special way - they are not, they are acquired using the same epistemic practices we all use all the time - but how they are justified or not. And being about a conspiracy is not enough to warrant that a belief is epistemically unjustified. To see this, just remember Iran-Contra, the gunpowder plot, planned obsolescence and the documented fact that actors in the petrochemical industry have known about the climate catastrophy since at least the 70ties and worked to keep this out of public discourse.
Also, how can you have religious beliefs and belittle people who believe in bizarre conspiracy theories? Is it not just a difference of degree? But in that comparison, at least conspiracies are somewhat based in reality.
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
Because he's a hypocrite
Hello! Could I get the sources for your opening statistics?
@Laotzu.Goldbug
2 ай бұрын
You won't, because they're made up.
20:40 i find it incredibly funny that birds formed what essentially is a cargo cult
@ravenlord4
10 ай бұрын
I was looking for this comment. Well done! :)
@Laotzu.Goldbug
2 ай бұрын
Is it a cargo cult or is it pavlovian conditioning? Can something really be considered a cargo cult if it is entirely irrational but it actually results in the outcome that you want?
I like that Intro in the style of the "No jacket required" album by Phil Collins.
I don’t know if I agree with this. None of the religious people I know believe in conspiracy theories but all my Atheist friends do except for two. Real crazy stuff too like Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece all happened during the Middle Ages, the late Middle Ages
What follows my comment is a stream of conspiracy enthusiasts offended because they think that their particular favourites are being 'lumped in' with flat earthers. Oh, the amusing lack of self awareness.
@cordlefhrichter1520
10 ай бұрын
Seriously. People who think that covid was manufactured in a biolab in China think they're somehow better or more serious than people who think the world is flat.
Clever misdirection, Georg. Don’t think we don’t see the Jon Voigt double negative denials. We all know in our hearts that you live in Jon Voigt’s woods and are on the take to cover up his involvement in 9/11.
@xyaeiounn
10 ай бұрын
Well, this changes everything...
@350125GOW
10 ай бұрын
Indeed the jig is up. @@xyaeiounn
@ArcanePath360
10 ай бұрын
Always hide in plain sight. I once made a joke about wearing my bosses knickers to the guys at work. It made me laugh because little did they know....
@ThePricipleOfParsimony
6 ай бұрын
lol @@xyaeiounn
your choice of footage is always really great. many quite beautiful/bizarre clips.
@aleisterpook1730
10 ай бұрын
Yeah, he kind of pinched it from Adam Curtis but I'm sure even Georg would admit, it's better than watching 30 minutes of Georg. Excellent work Georg. Thanks as always.
Building 7 fell down for no reason at all.
The book “Roswell inconvenient facts” by Karl Pflock, utterly debunks the “case”, with receipts. It’s very useful in that it demonstrates the format or template, which all popular conspiracy theories follow. That of conflation, innuendo, lie by omission, misinterpretation, subversion, Cold War propaganda, and outright BS.
Fascinating as always Georg. Thank you for what you do.
@jamesabernethy7896
10 ай бұрын
I've pointed this out before. Even though I really like all of his stuff, I really love when he uses old-timey footage to explain or to set the tone.
I would not have expected such a wholesale dismissal of conspiracy theories and "conspiratorial thinking", and particularly of medical conspiracy theories, from the same Georg who also notably covered the American opiod crisis. Which was also a medical conspiracy theory, before it was medical conspiracy fact. Maybe it's not really so absurd or foolish to sometimes see malevolent agency in governments and corporations and medical institutions.
@MattyEngland
10 ай бұрын
Yeah I came to this channel from the video about Teflon, that video also proved that the government and corporations conspired to hide the truth. Georg is a boomer trapped in a younger body.
@banjotoothlessbill
10 ай бұрын
The american opioid epidemic is not a conspiracy, its just white collar crime. Like industries using asbestos even years after it was proven to cause cancer, or the soda industry constantly lobbying to make people think that fat is bad for their health while in reality its sugar. Its just crime disguised in business interests.
@TheMysteryDriver
10 ай бұрын
Watching George turn into controlled opposition
@barbyonabike
10 ай бұрын
This isn't the real Georg. He was replaced by an android.
@alecmiddleton1842
10 ай бұрын
In the video, Georg did describe the difference between conspiracy and conspiracy theory.
A: Is it a Pollock ? B: Nah, just my shed's floor.
It doesn't take conspiracy theories for me not to take some drug the FDA approved on emergency measures. Especially if you've ever heard of Thalidomide. Or read the statistics on how many drugs get their approval rescinded (close to 60%).
@MattyEngland
10 ай бұрын
Thalidomide is safe and effective 😂😂
@davidgjam7600
10 ай бұрын
Well I don't see anyone mass-dying from the COVID vaccine, so I guess this was the 40% that worked..
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
How about after the drug has been out for years, with good results both in studies and in real-world use? Or is it still unacceptable?
@Herodotus999
10 ай бұрын
@@mrjones2721 which drug? Define "years". Look up thalidomide at least if you want to be less ignorant.
People believe in conspiracy theories because there are many theories that were considered conspiracy theories that we now know are real, theories are form from experience. Never mysterious forces..
@trpdrspider8372
10 ай бұрын
@@yerabbitMK Ultra
@ramseyrosario3126
10 ай бұрын
@@yerabbit 🤣🤣 seriously?
Conspiracy Theories are fun until someone becomes a terrorist or bully because of them
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
Or until they subvert an entire political party.
@enochianwolf
10 ай бұрын
Or until they wake the dumb masses up from their mass brainwashing
I like the idea of a pigeon thinking it's manipulating Skinner to feed it by performing a certain action. The crazy thing is, it worked from the bird's perspective. I do A, I get B.
@thwiftlythwept7023
10 ай бұрын
That's just what the pigeon wanted Skinner to think. The consensus view of the scientific community today is that the pigeons successful conspired to contaminate BF's data but he rejected that conclusion because he wasn't aware of the secret power of the Columbia livia community.
@ArcanePath360
10 ай бұрын
Pavlov's dog.
The pigeon study reminds me of a 70's young adult book called "House of Stairs" where the pigeons were teenage orphans in a dystopian future
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
I loved that book! It’s been so long that I don’t remember the details, but they started by getting food pellets for doing simple, logical things, then the unspoken requirements got harder and harder. Eventually every member of the group had to do a different, nonsensical thing at the same time to get the machine to dispense any pellets. Meanwhile, they got fewer and fewer pellets, and the hunger started doing things to their minds.
Twirling, Twirling, TWIRLING!!!!!!!
@Planag7
10 ай бұрын
My favorite!
@ZeroCiero
10 ай бұрын
“It doesn’t matter which of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed”
@toppersundquist
10 ай бұрын
A refreshingly frank response there from senator Zero Ciero!
Knowing that there where and still are many real conspiracys throughout history does not mean that one thinks the world is a disc!
@kyledutton6550
10 ай бұрын
Right. Tell someone about Operation Northwoods or Operation Mockingbird and people will look at you like you're crazy but the American Gov have admitted to these. Not to mention MK Ultra.
@pajanightbadger1713
10 ай бұрын
NASA fund the flat earth society
@darkcoeficient
9 ай бұрын
That's the trick tho. Oh you talk about MK Ultra? YOU MUST THINK THE UNIVERSE IS ON A TURTLE
@lootwigvanwegen
9 ай бұрын
@@darkcoeficient What do you mean? Of course it's on a Turtle! How else whould it move through the turtleverse?
@darkcoeficient
9 ай бұрын
@@lootwigvanwegen easy! Turtle on Turtle action!
It's crazy how conspiracy theorist are so much about not being manipulated by political agendas but not realizing how politically biased these conspiracy theories are
The research on inducing superstitions in pigeons is my 2nd fave bird study set. Nixon mask-wearers disturbing corvid nests to see if/how the social warning spreads to adjacent bird territories + generations is #1.
Fun fact: the clip of Jon Voight dancing at a gay night club comes from an, as of now, upcoming, unreleased film project of Georg's. Another fun fact: the scene containing the clip is 24 minutes long.
@nicholasflanders9814
9 ай бұрын
It's from the TV Show Ray Donovan.
We allow ourselves to be lied to politely, euphemistically and often. I often see the argument that its all down to correct education and information, censorship of bad ideas, but I rarely see institutional betrayal trauma as a factor. It's obviously the largest factor, if all experts are unqualifiable and epistemically a person is relying on the trust one has in another's knowledge, which is all nonexperiential information- And your institutional forces are inaccurate and untrustworthy....it's all on the table...Nietchze is saying god is dead and the train means that we should take a second look at seances because science is magical and the future is terrifying and maybe just maybe alchemy can make a come back.
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
Except expertise exists. The system to recognize it is imperfect, but vastly better than what you see among people who have decided none of the systems for certifying expertise work. This is a side effect of demagoguery. When people are convinced to accept nonsense as truth, then learn they’ve been fed nonsense, they don’t return to the systems that worked for them until the demagogue came along. They slump into a state of, “What is truth, anyways? Who can tell what’s real? It could all be real. None of it could be real.” Then they fall for any BS that appeals to their emotions, and everything slides downhill for a generation or two.
@WhatdidtheCountessdo
10 ай бұрын
@@mrjones2721 You have never studied epistemics? I think that you don't understand the issue is that experts exist and we do rely on other people's specializations for knowledge and at some point when that trust is broken- We don't trust "experts"- Science becomes scientism. And what of all the experts who believe inaccurate things which exist outside of thier area of expertise? That's a fundamental issue with people being required to trust people who have highly specialized knowledge, break the trust and fail to be accurate- and it is entirely unsurprising when people choose the comfort of a demagogue. The political inferrance and the common sense wisdom don't qualify your perspective as elegantly as you intended, it's actually offensive.
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
@@WhatdidtheCountessdo Soooo you and I agree. I’m not sure what your beef is.
@WhatdidtheCountessdo
10 ай бұрын
@@mrjones2721 Epistemically, there are two kinds of knowledge - second hand and first hand knowledge. All second hand knowledge is based on trust of the interlocuter. I can be extremely well educated and considered competent in my specialization and that will not make me qualified to accurately gage anything outside of that locus. This is a problem when the issue is reduced to how well someone is educated, or simply leaning on the idea of expertise without any context. If I say I know gravity exists- that's technically a lie- I don't and even if I were a physicist I would have to take a lot of space here writing about how gravity is presumed and not proven but there's a massive gap between that accurate statement and how as a physical being I instinctively want to say I feel gravity and am experiencing it. Aka most "knowledge" is contextual and is deeply social. If everyone in my local town decided while I was in a coma that gravity is entirely an incorrect concept- It would be entirely arbitrary to me to simply agree to that new framework for physics- and I would until I left my town and found out that beyond my immediate local community everyone else still believed in gravity. My bug a boo is that intelligent well educated people can believe incredible things like the Austro-Hungarian empire should be won back at the cost of genocide, but everyone ignores those guys and thinks that if this one counterintelligence officer had gotten into Art School WW2 wouldn't have happened. Very smart specialized people are no less susceptible to joining cults and I see the mistake made rhetorically over and over to claim the ignorance of working class people is why a bad person was elected or people do not understand how to practice safety in a pandemic, and it just gives those with a growing sense of persecution fuel, doesn't hold the experts accountable for why they are no longer held as credible.
01:45 I would never believe such an unrealistic prospect.
The Zombie Apocalypse analogy: almost all my life I wanted to convey exactly this. Amazing job as usual you rock
The Conspiracy Theorie I like the most is that one saying "Earth is not the center of the universe and spin around the sun, but the powerful hide it to the people for their own benefit"
@onesiege7025
7 ай бұрын
lmao
Conspiracies exist. Conspiracy theories tend to generate entropy.. Conspirators seek to maintain secrecy. Conspiracy theorists seek recruits to spread the theories(entropy) Mind control seeks to limit freely generated thought. Thought travels at the speed of light if not faster. (Just a thought🤔). It resonates to frequencies that manifests into possibilities. That said, I was never here and this comment was never posted. The algorithm won't allow it.😎
It must be comforting for them to believe someone is actually in charge of this shitshow
The ludicrous ones obfuscate the real one. Convenient to brand people as crazy to keep doing shit behind the curtains.
@Lilybun
10 ай бұрын
And worst of all the crazies do it for free - even in the comment section of this video without realising what they're doing. Its tragicomic really.
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
The real ones are discovered by proper investigation.
@SPTX.
10 ай бұрын
@@juanausensi499 but still get discard as crazy ramblings. Which is why the actual crazy shit is given all the attention. That's the point I was making.
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
@@SPTX. You can't discard a conspiracy theory as crazy ramblings if sensible evidence is provided.
@SPTX.
10 ай бұрын
@@juanausensi499 Why not? Seeing the world we live in, it appears to me that evidence is irrelevant.
A conspiracy theory is just a claim of potential corruption our criminal behavior going on. Depending where you look they can either be extremly nonsensical to extremely sensical.. which made it hard to talk about it cause they tend to have a very bad reputation becouse of the first one.. its also important to mention that at times conspiracy theories are part themselves of conspires trying to push agendas . So its also important to never let them get to your head even when they dont sound crazy
@WhatdidtheCountessdo
10 ай бұрын
A very favorite fact of people who promote both credible and incredible political corruption claims is that the FBI and CIA invented and popularized the term conspiracy theory during the Warren Commission as a pr move. There's a lovely memo about it.
@mydogslikeboiledeggs7094
10 ай бұрын
So, you're saying the conspiracies are real, but the theories aren't accurate.
@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
10 ай бұрын
No, a conspiracy theory is a specific _type_ of claim about a specific _type_ of corruption or criminal behaviour. "Conspiracy theory" is a sociological technical term with an accepted definition. Not every hypothesis-that-there-is-a-conspiracy is a capital-C Conspiracy Theory.
@kieranhurst8543
10 ай бұрын
Cool story bro Still waiting on evidence the election was stolen
@cwg9238
10 ай бұрын
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs let me guess, you conveniently decide which is which, so you can selectively dismiss arguments.
Oh sure. Maybe no flat-Eathers *YOU* know fell off the face of the Earth..
Another factor that some might relate to (especially younger people imo), is the very human quest for penetrating the -Grand Mystery- and hidden truth. I certainly felt that that was what I was doing when "researching" (read: believing at a glance) conspiracy theories at 16-19. I think this is what draws myself and others toward genres like cosmic horror and weird fiction.
The problem with "conspiracy theory" is who determins what is a conspirqcy theory and what is actual coruption. People calling everything a conspirqcy theory is really stupid. Its like coruption möno longer exist, so just stop it.
Because a secret grand plan is more comforting than accepting the reality, which is Chaos.
@BlazingOwnager
10 ай бұрын
Reality isn't chaos. Reality is rich and powerful people doing what's best for rich and powerful people. Posted it early but I think George Carlin had this figured out 100%. There's no grand conspiracies, just wealthy and powerful vultures who will always choose to do what's best for wealthy and powerful vultures.
@davidgjam7600
10 ай бұрын
At least for a certain type of person
@TheMysteryDriver
10 ай бұрын
They don't want you to know that one man with a gun really can make a difference
Great stuff, Georg!
18:25 now that's headgear
"Conspiracy theory" is an unfortunately chosen technical term. Because conspiracy theorists will take it literally and point to the fact that real conspiracies exist, and that people have theories about those, as evidence that being a conspiracy theorist is legitimate. In Germany at least we've taken to calling them "conspiracy myths" instead, which I think better encapsulates the function they have for believers, too. They explain complicated messy reality in an emotionally engaging moral narrative with villains etc., the same way traditional mythology does.
@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
10 ай бұрын
@@GloomDept Please refer back to the definition of the technical term "conspiracy theory" given in the video. I am specifically talking about capital-C Conspiracy Theories. Not simply any hypothesis about the existence of a conspiracy. Capital-C Conspiracy Theories employ a specific kind of narrative that's _intrinsically, by its nature and structure_ worthless at actually explaining reality. That's why they aren't a legitimate point of view.
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
@@Eet_MiaBecause Deutschebank was corrupt as fck, and some agents were more corrupt than others. Although I’d like citations on their having the same agent, because that’s the kind of detail conspiracy theorists add to stories.
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
@@Eet_Mia Oh dear. Was my explanation too commonsense?
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
@@Eet_Mia Do you have something that’s not a video? I like having facts laid out in a way I can read at my own pace, not wait for the narrator to get around to telling me.
I really enjoy your essays. Informative, interesting, educational and mostly without prejudice. Intellectual without patronism. With plenty of humour of course too. I'd be interested in your education. Of course, you have no need to share this but you are a natural communicator which I have the utmost respect for. Best. K
Nice little Russell brand cameo there...
21:33 I'm happy you featured our Rob and Dean :)
What I want to know is whether they chose the name "PLOS ONE" for their journal specifically because it sounds so much like "plus-one". Why would they do that? Has anyone looked at their funding/motives?
Another great video. I appreciate the wide gamut of topics you were able to cover and the truly indiscriminate range and demographics conspiracy theorists could apply to. Keep it up.
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
Actually he looked at a tiny spectrum. He made virtually no mention of the conspiracies from governments such as the Assad gassing his own people, Russian election interference, Chinese weather balloon, Gulf of Tonkin etc etc. He just listed a load of trivial bizarre ideas that hardly anyone actually believes and that cause no harm, whilst ignoring endemic corruption.
"Theory" implies a tested hypothesis. I call them "conspiracy suppositions".
7:48 The box literally says don't let it come into contact with your skin! What are we supposed to do against that level of willful ignorance! Superman couldn't make that carry!
A cool thing you can do with conspiracy theorists when they’re actually right is make them believe false conspiracies then you can disprove the false one you created and make the conspiracy theorist lose all credibility.
@Machiave11i
10 ай бұрын
What the hell do you think the news media has been doing for the last one hundred years?
But Jackson Pollock's paintings couldn't be truly random because he's a human being, making artistic decisions.
@JohnSmith-mc2zz
10 ай бұрын
Psychology studies and concepts in general have a million things wrong with them.
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
Even if 'random' could be not the best word to describe the paintings, the fact there are statistical differences on how we perceive them means they are different. If you don't the word 'random', maybe we could use 'unstructured', 'noisy', 'chaotic', or 'whimsical'.
@mrbeast85
10 ай бұрын
Have you ever seen Jackson Pollock actually painting? While his intent might not have been random, the technique he used most certainly led to random results. Its a bit like saying that the buckshot holes in a road sign aren't random because someone aimed the shotgun.
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
@@GloomDept Imagine two paintings: one done by Leonardo da Vinci, and another one by Pollock. Both of them have a out-of-place (that is, it wasn't what the artist intended) brushstroke. In which painting would that error be most obvious? Randomness, In the physical sense of the word, is not a binary property. It exists in a continuum. In that sense Pollock's paintings contain more randomness. The colloquial use of the word 'random' (as opposed to 'deliberate', instead of 'structured') maybe the culprint here
@juanausensi499
10 ай бұрын
@@GloomDept I'm equating to phsycal randomness, because that what it is. I'm not making value judgements: i'm not saying randomness is bad, or that one artist is better than the other one. Randomness has a precise meaning in physics, that links entropy and information theory. There are more macrostates of brushstrokes on a canvas that correspond to Pollock's paintings than to a Da Vinci's paintings, and that's equivalent to say that Pollock's work has more entropy (and information) than Da Vinci's work, and that's equivalent to say Pollock's paintings have more objective randomness (that is not the subjective randomness of intention). Of course, Da Vinci's paintings have less entropy because he was more limited because realism. But i'm not making any unfair comparison because i'm not judging the aesthetic value or merit of those paintings. I'm just evaluating the information put on display. If you converted a Da Vinci's painting into a digital picture and compressed it, the result would be smaller than if you do the same with a Pollock's painting.
Dude. It's because they're often true. But you can't get as much ad money from a thirty second video huh?
@deehlgrm9379
Ай бұрын
no they're not
The truth is that everybody knows there are unstoppable cabals that they can't defeat but they need to justify their role in it by planting themselves as the heros.
Operation Northwoods, Operation Mockingbird, MK Ultra, Operation Paperclip and the Tuskegee Experiments are some of the reasons people believe in conspiracy theories.
@kieranhurst8543
10 ай бұрын
Well documented events in history are reasons why we should believe the earth is flat?
@kyledutton6550
10 ай бұрын
@@kieranhurst8543 I never said the Earth is flat. What I was insinuating was that our government has lied to us and has perpetrated some pretty evil actions against the populace. Giving black people syphilis and telling them that they just have bad blood is evil. Wanting to kill Americans in a false flag to justify going to war with Cuba is evil. Actively controlling the narratives in the media is evil. Working with Nazis is evil. We don't even know all the crazy evil shit that went down with MK Ultra because the records were destroyed for national security. So can you show me a point in time were the government stopped lying and stopped being evil? The same shit is most likely still going on.
@kieranhurst8543
10 ай бұрын
@@kyledutton6550you'll hate the government right up until someone you like is in power And then when someone you don't like is in power, you'll go straight back to hating them
@Halbared
10 ай бұрын
All good ones.
@harmionaniki
10 ай бұрын
Also one of Kennedy's speech before he was killed warned people about a shadow government but I guess that didn't happened jk
Sorry KZread screwed you over on this one. Your work is some of the best on this site, whether you're talking movies, serious topics, or ribbing Damian about the shit bucket.
I don't trust ppl who aren't conspiracy theorists.🤷🏻
Curious is anyone has a link to the chart showing beliefs on different ends of the political spectrum?
And George Owell was a conspiracy theorist.
@hastekulvaati9681
10 ай бұрын
What, specifically, are you referring to?
@lemdixon01
10 ай бұрын
@@hastekulvaati9681 for the book 1984 can be seen as the direction we are going towards, what with all the Orwellien double-speak, newspeak, mass surveillance, memoryholing of the past, mass servalience, removal or freedoms, mass brainwashing and general propaganda. Orwel called it.
@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
10 ай бұрын
@@lemdixon01 Right, so you're saying Orwell wrote a dystopian novel whose themes you find prophetic. How does that make him a "conspiracy theorist" though?
@lemdixon01
10 ай бұрын
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs because the things which occurred in the novel involved intention to conspire whether an open conspiracy or otherwise if propaganda disguised the intent and the fact that these things in the novel which are coming true would suggest the same intention of leaders in the non fictional real world. Orwell had no concrete evidence so he had just theories that the ruling class would conspire in the way outlined in the book. He achieved this with something called intuition, which is something that a normie, NPC aka one of the sheeple would not posses or suppress or mistake for instinct.
Conspiracy theories almost always rely on the motte-and-bailey fallacy, where a collection of plausible or even empricially accurate claims are held up to defend and justify a much larger collection of increasing implausible or irrational ones. The consequence of this is that practical issues are transformed into more abstract ideological ones, and it becomes much harder to work towards reforms that could actually address the real issues that might be a part of the overarching theory.
@Flint-Dibble-the-Don
10 ай бұрын
I'm sorry but did you just mansplain conspiracy theories to me sir? The nerve of people.
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
Like China sending a weather balloon over to spy on America or Russia buying an election. Just how dim do you have to be?
Never expected to hear a conspiracy theory analogy about dentist John Voight.
Strange how people derive control from being among a select few that know about something that they can't control Interesting video
@JohnSmith-mc2zz
10 ай бұрын
Can't control? I always see them trying to exert control, albeit in delusional ways like Borax baths.
@charlescumming9019
10 ай бұрын
Don't people also derive control by knowing that things are the way they are and there is nothing more to the story?
@Cunnysmythe
10 ай бұрын
@@charlescumming9019 Absolutely, I was just considering the contradiction in how some conspiracy theorists operate, I'm certainly not claiming that that's the only way people try to maintain control of their realities
those five rules are self evident 1 the idea of thigs being caused by something else is a theory 2 obviously the thing is deliberate, that's what conspiring is, planning 3 obviously its multiple people, one person hatches a plan, two people conspire 4 if it wasn't a threat, the conspirators would likely not hide it. and if it's deceptive for other reasons its still not known. if its not hidden or just out there as knowledge, you would not theorize, you would know 5 again, you cant theorize a well known fact, all you can do at that point is repeat common knowledge. bonus add on 6 yeah, obviously if it were done by your in group, you would know about it and therefore not theorize. the fact that you're theorizing puts you on the outside of that group that is conspiring. lay of the hep tang, these videos are getting to be myopic.
My favourite part was the coded messages in the lava lamp telling me that Zoe Ball is the last matrilineal descendant of Mary Magdalen.
the whole borax thing fills me with mirth. how low can one go in being a complete crackpot?
Only OGs know we've been to John Voigts woods before
The study about Jackson Pollock paintings and supernatural belief is kind of blowing my mind rn
I drive past an Evangelical church every day that has a large banner hanging outside: 'The end of days is here! Are you ready?' Weird parnoid beliefs can last thousands of years, it's just that we call them religion when enough people buy in.
@joinedupjon
10 ай бұрын
Yeah end times... And that they often believe there's a super intelligent devil at large who's always trying to trick them but also leaves lots of cryptic clues in plain sight. I guess if you bring enough people up in that sort of environment a lot of them are going to be primed to see hidden conspiracies everywhere when they're adult.
Isn’t there a thing about pollock paintings tho where he intentionally makes fractals?
21.33: I didnt expect to see Rob Morrison and Dean Hutton from The Curiousity Show! I loved that show as a kid.
a human problem that exacerbates this, is that people generally believe they have more control over there decisions/believes than they really do in practice. we are all susceptible to persuasion (not always a bad thing), but its not helpful to assume you had all the power in choosing
@donnydogpiss4533
10 ай бұрын
People seem to generally have a hard time being mindful of, recognizing, and acknowledging just how flawed their personal perception of a situation can be. They also generally don't want to accept that they might've been tricked or deceived into taking on particular world views.
@smugmode
10 ай бұрын
Well yeah we're pigeons
@onemorechris
10 ай бұрын
@@smugmode to be clear, i see a lot of data from web/app usage. i interview people for user testing. its humans and pigeons
@onemorechris
10 ай бұрын
@@donnydogpiss4533 agreed. I think. i think this extends to general life too (not conspiracy theories, but on a more basic level, how you pick between one thing and another). it’s less that people are being tricked and more that the way you make decisions is a combination of many factors and the individual in the middle is only a small part of that. (i have seen a lot data from marketing/advertising, it’s remarkable how many people were reel off the tagline of an advert and claimed that it’s an idea they came up with themselves for example)
I think George Carlin was generally right about conspiracies. They aren't real, exactly, but people in similar positions of power have like interests and they will always work to advance those interests. The famous "It's all a big club and you ain't in it," routine. If you assume the worst about people in general, you're rarely proven wrong and it's way more plausible to believe that people are vultures who capitalize on tragedy rather than form ludicrous conspiracies to inflict it.
Concerning 9/11 all i want to know is where is all the cctv footage of the pentagon being struck by a plane
Thank you for taking the time in doing this video for the public. I find that these days I actually have to ask new people I meet whether they believe in conspiracy theories, to see if we will get on. It saves a lot of hassle in the end. One thing I do find scary though, is that conspiracy theorists are not open minded. I always say, yes sure show me the proof. I don't mind being wrong. And the people I have met who are can't. Or the proof they have is already from a source which has been discredited. And ontop of that when you show them respect as a person and agree to disagree they just turn on you. No open mindedness at all. It's alarming and sad. Life is already hard enough, why bother with the rest of these conspiracies?
@varvarvarvarvarvar
5 ай бұрын
That's such an American thing to say, it's like you worship open mindedness in a closed-minded fashion. "Open mindedness" is a stupid trait to admire anyway. You only respect open mindedness when you actually fear intelligent people, and you fear intelligent people when you're afraid you're dumber than them. "Reputable sources" become an ersatz Bible. We all saw how public cancelling works in a bunch of crude examples lately.
@speggeri90
5 ай бұрын
What conspiracies you mean specifically and what would constitute as a conspiracy that would be a no no? I assume if I say don’t tend to believe in shapeshifting british alien royalty, I would pass your gauntlet, but if I say I think theres something bizarre about World trade center building 7 am I out of your radar then?
Because through incompetence or deceipt, nothing is as it seems, or as we're told.
@CarrotConsumer
10 ай бұрын
Seems to whom? Told by who?
@HeretixAevum
10 ай бұрын
Nothing at all? Not only is that demonstratably false but geez, imagine going through life as an unironic contrarian to everything, you'd be absolutely insufferable to be around. It's just not healthy.
Wait, it's a conspiracy theory that Bush knew there was no WMDs in Iraq? I thought that was commonly accepted fact now. The interviews they had Chaney giving up until the start of the war were absolutely absurd.
@outerlast
10 ай бұрын
you know, mainstream narrative governs all, or else you'll be silenced. or some conspiracy theory like that
@chronoplague
10 ай бұрын
Georg gives the Iraq WMD situation as an example of an actual conspiracy, contrasting it against a 9/11 theory.
@gavinr4214
10 ай бұрын
@@chronoplague 9/11 the coincidence theorists dream. From indestructable passports, building 7, all cctv cameras not working at the Pentagon and a statewide mock terrorist hijacking exercise happening on the exact same day. All a series of terrible coincidences ofcourse.
@x12are12x
10 ай бұрын
@@JS-oh2dpwell said, WMD conspiracy was a thing proven true and doesn’t need to tie into the twin towers falling or any other theory for it to be true. The definition used for conspiracy theory is the problem.
@JohnKobaRuddy
10 ай бұрын
@@chronoplague9/11 was clearly an inside job. Runs the gamut of allowed to happen to made it happen.
can anyone build an argument on how things are not connected?
@nataliehilton1537
10 ай бұрын
One could. If they were in denial.
@johnmoore9862
9 ай бұрын
Yes, but THEY won’t allow me.
Big topic boiled down and understandable. Great stuff.
Conspiracies can almost by like inception. And in some, there are so many layers and rabbit holes that reality starts to-if not already-unravel more and more, the more you can finding patterns that aren't really there. They're just coincidence. Weird, yes. A little too convenient, also yes. But still just coincidence.
If I believe and don't believe the earth is flat at the same time. Do I, or do I not belive the earth is flat?
But maybe the idea of conspiracy theories is a conspiracy theory to make people believe that everyone around them is into conspiracy theories 😂
@onesiege7025
7 ай бұрын
bruh 💀
short answer - a lot turned out to be true
Every theory is it's own thing. Maybe it's real. Defeating one theory, has no bearing on any other. All theories stand on their own merit and anyone who discards all information labeled as a theory, is not a serious person, worthy of debating on any subject.
@falgalhutkinsmarzcal3962
10 ай бұрын
Adrenochrome "theory" is idiotic. Humans have synthesized adrenochrome for decades. The cannibal cabal would be stupid to do anything so absurd as what Qtards believe.
@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
10 ай бұрын
You seem to have missed the part where Georg explains the definition of the sociopsychological technical term "conspiracy theory". Not every hypothesis about the existence of a conspiracy is a capital-C Conspiracy Theory. Reasonable people dismiss conspiracy theories (see definition in the video) because the are _inherently, structurally worthless._ They're mythology, not an examination of the facts.
@mrjones2721
10 ай бұрын
Soooo you didn’t watch the video. I see.
The woman holding the box of borax in the video looks like she might actually snort borax
Whoa there is a cure for Chemtrails!?
Because these days a lot of them seem to turn out to be true.
@deehlgrm9379
Ай бұрын
haven't seen any come true.
@aceofswords1725
Ай бұрын
@@deehlgrm9379 That is on you.
it's not happening and it's good that it's happening huh?
@TheMysteryDriver
10 ай бұрын
First it's "it's not happening you're just a conspiracy theorist" Then it's "it's happening but it's super rare" Last it's "here's why it's a good thing it's happening"
3:06 I see you Georg Rockall-Schmidt. I see what you did there. That little old clip of a young, now cancelled conspiracy peddling celebrity. Very sneaky. Love it.
Dunno man.. I'm conflicted regarding the medical conspiracies.. On the one hand we want to keep people safe. On the other - if you're dumb enough to trust some random tiktoker telling you to eat borax... maybe we should let the natural selection do it's thing
@randomperson-uj4bp
10 ай бұрын
Lmao true, but at the same time, not.
This video has perfectly described a family member of mine who has gone off the deep end of conspiracy theories. It’s like how a drug addict gets hooked with a tiny little dose which eventually becomes all consuming
@robertely686
9 ай бұрын
How did you feel about the majority of your family members that believed Saddam had nuclear weapons? Or the ones that believe China used a weather balloon to spy on them. Or that Russia are influencing their elections. Do you think that they are mentally ill, brainwashed, low IQ people worthy of your sympathy - or do you give them a free pass because they believe the same false stories that you did?
I tend to think that the lack of education in the philosophical basis for science, such as rationalism, and logic, tend to leave people without the tools needed to tell fact, from fiction. In the U.S., there is absolutely no education in our schools in these 2000+ year old formal fields of study.
@BlazingOwnager
10 ай бұрын
Critical Thinking is not what our colleges are about. They are flat out indoctrination, and that's not a conspiracy theory, that's just what's happening. There's been a bad shift in the education system the more privately funded colleges have become. I'd say like 75% of people online just cling to a Left or Right "sphere" of ideas and turn off their brains and let the masses tell them what to think on literally everything, and will then defend those beliefs like they are a religion.
@maplebob23
10 ай бұрын
That’s because lizard people don’t want an educated populace capable of resisting them. Just like the chicken farmer doesn’t want highly intelligent chickens.
@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
10 ай бұрын
@@BlazingOwnager Nah, that is a conspiracy theory.
@aceofswords1725
10 ай бұрын
Yeah it is terrible how distorted the version of reality presented by the mainstream media and powerful institutions with vested interests is and yet people take it all at face value.
@harmionaniki
10 ай бұрын
I'm from Europe and I'm about to get my diploma in Wildlife Conservation I do believe a handful of conspiracy theories but I do know that the majority is a huge bullsht fest I don't think it has much to do with education rather than beliefs because smart people can believe stupid things like a professor of mine doesn't believe in global climate change yet there's a plethora of proof that it's happening