Why conspiracies are so popular — and what we can do to stop them

FireDragon76 said:

As amusing as that narrative is, it's basically biological reductionism,

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Indeed it is.

FireDragon76 said:

and negates the effects of human culture, economics, and human psychology.

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It doesn't negate them, per se, as much as it attempts to allow for alternate contingencies. Most of the time that rustling in the bushes is just the wind, and most of the time that new vaccine is perfectly safe, but humanity has evolved to avoid the hazards of complacency by always having some idiots running around yelling the sky is falling.

And if they're loud and annoying it's because they're supposed to be.

It's not a design error, or a psychological flaw, it's the system doing exactly what the system has evolved to do. Now as a theist you might wonder why a God who expects us to make a rational decision about our eternal souls would intentionally design people to be irrational, but evolution has no such qualms. So long as we survive, evolution doesn't care whether we're rational or not.

Hence we have theists and atheists, liberals and conservatives, geniuses and nut cases, because the combination of the two makes us better survivors.

partinobodycular said:

that new vaccine

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It is safe for whoever has an immune system that does not react badly to it.

But, in case a person is capable of a bad reaction . . . these days' vaccines have more ability to cause a strong response. So, if we respond well, this is strongly. If someone reacts badly, it is a strongly bad reaction.

So . . . about how to reduce the conspiracy stuff. I think of how there are humans who believe that certain giant rocks are the bones of their gods who died in battle with each other. Humans are capable of believing this stuff.

And we can see how humans can believe quite a variety of religious items.

So, you need to stop being human . . . right?

com7fy8 said:

So, you need to stop being human . . . right?

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Of course not, what we need to do is to recognize that those conspiracy theorists serve a purpose. As you yourself just alluded to when you said the following:

com7fy8 said:

But, in case a person is capable of a bad reaction . . . these days' vaccines have more ability to cause a strong response. So, if we respond well, this is strongly. If someone reacts badly, it is a strongly bad reaction.

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We don't want everybody to just blindly follow the crowd. We need the outliers. The one's who are gonna question the status quo. They're our canaries in the coal mine. And if they seem more vociferous today than they've ever been before perhaps it's because they have more to be vociferous about. We live in a rapidly changing world, so it shouldn't be surprising that the chickens are running around the barnyard screaming their heads off. If global warming isn't gonna kill us then AI will. Or fentynal, or Covid, or wokeism, or moral extremism, or who knows what. Everybody seems to have something to scream about, and a worldwide stage on which to scream it.

So what are we supposed to do? Simple... listen. Don't just dismiss the other side as being crazy, or immoral, or delusional. They might actually have a point, if you can just get past their maniacal din and listen. Be a cooler head.

The other side isn't the devil incarnate... they're people. If we can just get past the urge to be just as fervent in defense of our position as they are in defense of theirs, then maybe we can get back to worrying about whether giant rocks are the bones of gods, the earth is flat, or Neil Armstrong really walked on the moon... you know, the important stuff.

One thing we can do to stop conspiracy "theories" is stop referring to them as theories. Theories are supported by the best available evidence, while conspiracy "theories" fly in the face of the evidence. Conspiracy "theories" should be referred to as what they actually are.....conspiracy RUMORS.