pinball1970 said:
This is the article. This is not the usual sort of study I read but given the last 16 months, I thought I would post and see what pf guys thought of the method and conclusions.
The line of best fit in the results seemed a bit random to me but let's see what you make of it.
https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/new-study-indicates-conspiracy-theory-believers-have-less-developed-critical-thinking-ability-61347t
This is the paper
https://psyarxiv.com/8qhx4/
Actually, I was involved with grassroots politics as a teenager, in an organization full of mostly adults. And later on I read Tocqueville's "The French Revolution" which explained that societies that lack political freedom end up with populations that don't even know how to exercise political freedom if they had it.
The grassroots politics I was involved in was a small business owners/home owners association protesting pretty onerous regulations and we eventually succeeded at our aims.
Were we a "conspiracy?" Yeah, kind of. And so is politics full of "conspiracies" as well. And business lobbies are full of "conspiracies." Sociology and social studies would seek to study how society works SYSTEMATICALLY.
People get together, they form groups of like minded people, and they conspire against outsiders.
And then you do have the mafia and organized crime. A whole other level.
Maybe it would be more accurate to argue that "conspiracy theory believers" are really people who believe in unrealistic conspiracy theories, or who characterize "conspiracy" in a way that's unrealistic and not really what goes on, and is inaccurate. And, as such, they would also be ineffective people because you have to identify a problem right in order to take it on and solve or influence it.
But what of Tocqueville saying people who lack political freedom for long enough lose even the ability to know how to exercise it if they had it? This pertains to society working via group activity and group effort. With people having the wisdom and experience to know how to make such group efforts work right. What's the difference between successful and productive group efforts based on cooperation versus "conspiracy?" Likely "conspiracy" is something that is unrealistic and is not going to work or will eventually backfire or is illicit, in some way.
Me personally, I have a lot of problems with most conspiracy theorists because, on their face, I know they are unrealistic. Maybe these individuals saw something about society that was partly accurate, noticed there is corruption there, in business lobbies and government, and tried to "connect the dots" wrong, or tried to extrapolate too much. As a member of a former small business association, I know big business lobbies all the time. As a member of a former realty company, I know realtors "plot" to extend the reach of their business. Neither party thinks they are engaged in some "vast conspiracy."
The very word "conspiracy theory" is a stigmatizing label. So much of what DOES go on in business and politics could be called "a conspiracy" simply by applying that label and using the right awe inspiring tone, but people would laugh at you doing that.
Maybe most "conspiracy theories" out there could be described better, in an academic way where one speculates as to the inner workings of our vast business world in this country, and asks whether certain phenomena in society might not be partly influenced by their lobbying? Always with an eye towards "does this make sense" and not insisting it might be true, or insisting you know for sure.
For instance, Mass Incarceration in America perhaps could be examined with respect to what business lobbies might have been behind it, or benefitted from it financially? And thus might be pushing it, and perhaps did something about advancement in technology or global economy and trade somehow make it all end up happening, perhaps not as an intentional conspiracy by anyone particular person, but still as a trend that was systematic even if no human beings got together as a group and said "we want to now raise incarceration rates ten fold."
Another question to ask about conspiracy theories is, maybe it's good and even responsible to err on the side of conspiracy theory, including with respect to such programs as mass incarceration, even if one is wrong. Fighting it effectively may well require that one BE a conspiracist. You need to figure out what groups are propping it up with their complacency and proceed to make them uncomfortable. Then they will want change and change will happen.
They may not have thought they were unintentionally supporting an evil system, but in politics, human beings often do so without realizing it. They will figure it out only when people agitate against it right.
