I have known one. It was this guy I met at a reddit meetup who I hang out with a couple of times after the meetup. He was really into sneakers and he said his life changed when someone on a train gave him the movie, Loose Change which opened his eyes to the 9/11 truth movement and conspiracy. On facebook, I always see him posting conspiracy theories but that Loose Change story was the only time I heard him talking about conspiracies in real life. He said he went from a republician and believing in the war in Iraq to a conspiracy theorist after seeing Loose Change. That's the only person I can think of that I know in real life that believes in conspiracy.
Unfortunately, yes. I'm in a homeless shelter in Toronto. There are a couple who believe them, but the guy who was my roommate (before I asked staff to move him out because he was fucking terrifying me) absolutely believed them. I can't even have a conversation with another person and mention Clinton without Pizzagate being screamed, or any other such nonsense. It's... stressful.
First off, pizzagate is real apparently. He was very insistent on that. Barack Obama is not an American, Michelle Obama is transgendered, 9/11 was perpetrated by the Democrats to make Bush look bad (first time I ever heard that), gays are a conspiracy started by the Nazis in the 30s (I'm gay. He knew this), Hitler isn't dead, Nazi moonbase is real, Trudeau is the son of Castro, Stephen Harper actually was an android, etc. Seriously. Imagine every weird damn thing you could possibly come up with. If he heard it before, he repeated it. If he had any inkling, he came up with his own theory. It was fucking terrifying to be surrounded by that day in and day out.
The theory that Michelle Obama is transgendered is weird and really out there even for conspiracy theorists but I have heard it before just a couple of months ago.
Just let it roll off of your back as best you can. I'm sitting around a campfire, and one of my friends starts up, "so you're a physics guy, don't you think that the Earth could be hollow?". I offered to give him a list of reasons why 99.999% of scientists don't believe that particular theory, but he genuinely wasn't interested. He started attacking the "framework in which our scientific theories were entrenched". Like, it's cool that you're trying to poke holes in shit, but you're not going to get anywhere without "stooping" to stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us, as they say. I guess anti-science-establishment-ism would make more sense to me if the technologies governing our daily lives weren't progressing primarily due to scientific research. It's a really weird disconnect some people have.
This happens everywhere. I'm a lawyer, and we hear all kinds of craziness (and not just from Sovereign Citizens, although that's my personal favorite brand of crazy). But there's also less systematic forms, more like common misconceptions...for example, the idea that an undercover police officer has to identify themselves as such if you ask. When I first started learning Biblical Greek, my textbook said something that amounted to "if you think you've come up with an alternate translation that will fundamentally change Christian theology, the odds are good that you're wrong." I can only imagine the e-mails he gets.
What are those? Which breaks the point of "undercover" in half, washes it in salt and eats it for breakfast. Any reasonable-sounding base for that one?Sovereign Citizens
for example, the idea that an undercover police officer has to identify themselves as such if you ask.
Oh, you're in for a treat. They are the centerpiece of a broad category of nonsense. Think snake oil, only applying to English-derived legal systems (they seem to be most prevalent in the U.S., Canada, and the UK). Broadly speaking, they believe based on various logical leaps and historical inaccuracy that the government doesn't actually have any authority to them. Where it often comes up is in the case of income taxes and traffic stops. Basically, they have various theories about how they're not really subjects of the federal government. Sometimes it's that they're only citizens of their state. Sometimes it just applies to courts (which is where they usually end up); for example, the idea that federal courts can only sit in admiralty (i.e. maritime law), and so have no jurisdiction outside of that. Usually it's more about how these courts don't have any jurisdiction over them. The IRS is a frequent target. There are a lot of ways they go about this. Some try to selectively renounce their citizenship, for example. They're also big believers in the idea that if you write something a certain way in a court document, this has different effects (whether it's a different color, using odd punctuation, whatever). They also like to cite to the Uniform Commercial Code a lot (odd since the UCC itself has no legal effect whatsoever). Usually they're just cooks, but every once in awhile they can be dangerous. There have been instances of these folks attacking police or using violence on others, and of course the most famous example is the Oklahoma City Bombing, where a couple of anti-government types set off a car bomb at a U.S. government office building, killing 168. None as far as I can tell. It's something I've seen on TV a lot, but I think that's a response to the trope rather than the cause of it.Sovereign Citizens
Any reasonable-sounding base for that one?
They still use the government-funded social advantages like medicine or schooling, correct?Broadly speaking, they believe based on various logical leaps and historical inaccuracy that the government doesn't actually have any authority to them.
I have heard of that theory before used in recent times. Alex Jones likes to use it.
MY CHECKLIST OF PEOPLE I('VE) KNOW(N) - The government is spying on you (pre-PRISM) ( I stopped counting ) [VALIDATED] - Western Civilization is going to fall because of the EuroZone crisis ( 2x ) - Obama is a Muslim / Not a citizen ( 1x ) - TUPAC IS ALIVE ( 1x ) - Vaccines cause autism ( 5x ) - The military did secret testing of chemical weapons on its troops during Operation Desert Storm ( 2x ) - ... which lead to the test subjects having children with autism ( 2x ) - Aliens are real ( 2x ) - Ghosts are real ( 3x ) ... I'm sure a couple of these also believe 9/11 was an inside job. _________________________________ I also had a friend go down to Dallas last year and spend a day checking out the historical sights to be seen from the J.F.K. assassination. His trip report when he got back? Some people still think there was a second gunman. Some people think it was the FBI, or the CIA, or the Cubans. Fuck the grass knoll. Fuck the FBI. Fuck the second gunman. You wanna know why? Because some times shit just happens. People want reasons for things. But you know what? Some times shit just fucking happens.
Validated long before Snowden, if not almost from the beginning of modern postal services. I'm not sure this one ever counted as a conspiracy theory.- The government is spying on you (pre-PRISM) ( I stopped counting ) [VALIDATED]
The 'Ghosts are real' bit is tricky. Depending on how you phrase the question, I'm sure you could get tons of people to admit they believe in supernatural entities as part of their religious beliefs. When does that cross over into 'conspiracy' thinking?
I have a friend from college who is pretty heavily into conspiracy theories, I rarely ever talk to him though, but it was getting extreme and I doubt that trend has stopped with the last few years. He did tell me to buy gold, and I regret not listening to him to be honest. My dad has started spouting conspiracies, he's upset with Android and sworn off of them because he had a bad experience from the cheap-ass tablets and phones he bought off of eBay. Well no shit Sherlock! He reckons Google is out to record everything about your life (they are), and that Microsoft are evil (they are), so he has come to the conclusion that Apple iPads are the only safe device out there (Oh dear, oh dear oh dear.) I don't live with him, but last I heard he has started spouting anti-vaxx rhetoric at my sister... Oh, and they live in Australia.
I have a colleague who shares a skeptical temperament with me, so we get on quite well. But he's more inclined to be skeptical of every source than I am. And this leads him towards paranoia and conspiracy thinking from time to time. Sometimes I see an odd phenomenon with him where the more obscure the source of information, the less skepticism it attracts, as long as the story challenges some formerly established narrative. Eventually it becomes a kind of inverse pyramid of justification: the impact of the single latest and most dramatic challenge overshadows the credibility of sources that have accumulated a reputation or cited their evidence, and the thrill of imagination overwhelms evidentiary reasoning. For the most part we have some pretty good conversations, but occasionally he goes way out there. I have heard him say the moon landings were faked and vaccines may cause autism, and if I point out the readily available debunking evidence, I get a shrug and "I'm not sure about that." (To be fair, he hasn't said the first of these for a while, and I stopped asking about the second.) One other thing I have noticed is that as we get older he becomes more reasonable and less certain of conspiracies. And I can say "you're being paranoid" and he doesn't reject me as one of "them". At the same time I find myself less certain of most things. I think this is a nice way for us to grow up.
Kid at my lunch table is convinced that Hitler was flown out to Argentina before the Russians got to him.
Did he believe anything else because that's pretty tame when compared to other stuff.
I guess I have a low batshit tolerance but I'll prod him tomorrow and get back to you.
I used to listen to Coast to Coast and I liked it a lot better when it was more about the Paranormal. I remember during the waning days of the Bush Era, people would come on and saw how Bush was going to introduce National ID Cards, make a North American Union and keep onto power by declaring martial law. None of that ever happened. I have never heard of Ground Zero by the way.
Yea. These guys are running a business, they need to sell adds and get people to fork over money at conventions and stuff. They need to alienate no one to keep the biggest audience they can. So they are open to exploring any issue but agree to nothing so they don't look like to fools to thouse who don't buy a particular conspiracy. Open to everything believing nothing too specific or whack. I remember Clyde talking the business side of the radio game, it's rough. You get a chance in a new market and if you don't perform your gone. Money isn't great in late night crazy talk if you aren't in a lot of markets. I'm sure threading the needle to keep as many nuts happy as you can is a fine art.