You've given an excellent overview of motivated reasoning, but unfortunately wrapped it in a "conspiracy theory" about conspiracies. The label from it's conception was always intended to lump in valid concerns with shock porn and fantastic tales.
Its much harder to unwind than you present. It can both be true that people are abusing authority and those hurt in their lives are reeling at having to relive it.
The alternative would be praying that those who had the privilege to never experience abuse from authority would have to magically recognize and overcome it without any "external influence".
While there are many people hurting latching on to whatever they can find, there's also many crimes that people profit from maintaining. These are not mutually exclusive and can overlap.
Maybe people have also noticed "the blob" (as you write in your other piece) and decided it was better that it be dissolved than maintained. The real conspiracy is all the efforts the blob uses to protect it's existence.
I'm not really sure about the origins of the terms "conspiracy theory" or "conspiracy theorist." But I doubt they were created to lump together, and thus obfuscate, valid concerns about power groups, with crazy shit. Certainly though, in recent years, the term has become a pejorative, I agree. And, nowadays, people who talk about say Hunter Biden can become marginalized through being simply labelled "conspiracy guys" by MSM. That defo happens.
I'd say that there exist a lot of areas in our culture where it is very difficult to establish just what is true and what isn't. And that these areas tend to become populated by "conspiracy" narratives, because the situation provides a shelter for those memes to live and multiply.
But what you can do, in a situation where it's just hard to know the truth, is to examine your own mind and the stories you tend to implicitly believe as true. If you find bias, that doesn't mean that the story is necessarily false. But it does make it more likely that the reason you believe it is psychological rather than objective.
GLOBALISM. Multinational Corporations, Oligarchs and International Bankers have begun to meet regularly and introduce similar policies, such as ESG, globally. Those who point out that this is happening are labelled "conspiracy theorists" by the MSM.
These are obvious cases where the Mainstream Media and Establishment lied, no-platformed and slandered opposition as Conspiracy Theorists. It is little wonder that the public are now likely to believe conspiracy theories that are truly just conspiracy theories.
(Yes, obvious. There are perhaps 50,000-100,000 wild meat markets in East and South East Asia, what are the chances that COVID came from the market next to a virological facility that was known to be culturing and genetically engineering coronaviruses? That multinationals collaborate is publicised by organisations like the WEF - there is no conspiracy, they are doing what they say they are doing.)
People who have never thought for themselves tend to fall for everything when they first open to alternate realities. But only at first. It is a growing up process.
However....you missed a big one. How about when Public Health Officers tell you nonsense that 20 minutes of reading and thinking can debunk? And this happens over and over for years. 1. This virus can live outdoors on metal surfaces for up to three weeks. 2. Put blue and red arrows on floors to protect yourself. 3. Two weeks to flatten the curve. 4. Our immune systems have no way to fight this virus as it is ‘novel’. 5. Masks are essential. 6. Masks do nothing. 7. Masks are essential. 8. Natural immunity doesn’t work for this virus. 9. If you are seated in a restaurant you can take your mask off....provided you have a glass of water in front of you. I could go on and on. 3 and 1/2 years to flatten the curve. And then, public officials, my PM for one, Justin Trudeau, vowing to make life miserable for the unvaxed. Neighbours saying we should be jailed and or exterminated. WHAT REALLY WAS GOING ON? Irrationality abounds right now. Yet every newby at thinking for himself is supposed to be able to distinguish Ed Dowd from David Icke?
I mean, mixed messaging in the early days of Covid points more to a lack of conspiracy to me. Later on, the messaging from Gov, media, public health and pharm companies got much more harmonised, which would be expected in a health crisis.
About the demonizing, I certainly became aware, during the early days of Covid in the UK, that in reality people hadn't changed since medieval days.
Both. Historically, any country that possesses a power/knowledge differential with respect to its neighbours, will exploit that to invade and enslave them. Over time, two things happen to change this process...
1) the differential decreases allowing the invaded culture to push back
2) the invading culture gets so rich that a middle-class forms within in it. These guys become driven by guilt to try to both oppose their country's colonial activities, as well as trying to maintain their feeling of moral superiority by aligning themselves with supposedly worthy agendas.
No, these guys become driven by resentment over the status-quo (ever rising inflation + elite corruption and cronyism). These guys equipped themselves with pitchforks, torches and frying pans, as they had nothing else to lose.
I think that is valid outside of the Western world. Within the West, it seems to be mostly disgruntled guilt-ridden members of the middle classes that are obsessing on climate-chang to try to maintain a position of arrogant oversight of global affairs.
“During the previous Labour government, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were ardent Zionists because they accepted the justice of Israel’s cause, not because Labour’s chief fund-raisers were first the Jew Michael Levy and then the Jew Jonathan Mendelsohn (both are now members of the House of Lords). And during the current Conservative government, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson have been ardent Zionists because they too accept the justice of Israel’s cause, not because the Conservatives’ chief fund-raisers have been first the Jew Sir Mick Davis and then the Jew Sir Ehud Sheleg.”
You've given an excellent overview of motivated reasoning, but unfortunately wrapped it in a "conspiracy theory" about conspiracies. The label from it's conception was always intended to lump in valid concerns with shock porn and fantastic tales.
Its much harder to unwind than you present. It can both be true that people are abusing authority and those hurt in their lives are reeling at having to relive it.
The alternative would be praying that those who had the privilege to never experience abuse from authority would have to magically recognize and overcome it without any "external influence".
While there are many people hurting latching on to whatever they can find, there's also many crimes that people profit from maintaining. These are not mutually exclusive and can overlap.
Maybe people have also noticed "the blob" (as you write in your other piece) and decided it was better that it be dissolved than maintained. The real conspiracy is all the efforts the blob uses to protect it's existence.
I'm not really sure about the origins of the terms "conspiracy theory" or "conspiracy theorist." But I doubt they were created to lump together, and thus obfuscate, valid concerns about power groups, with crazy shit. Certainly though, in recent years, the term has become a pejorative, I agree. And, nowadays, people who talk about say Hunter Biden can become marginalized through being simply labelled "conspiracy guys" by MSM. That defo happens.
I'd say that there exist a lot of areas in our culture where it is very difficult to establish just what is true and what isn't. And that these areas tend to become populated by "conspiracy" narratives, because the situation provides a shelter for those memes to live and multiply.
But what you can do, in a situation where it's just hard to know the truth, is to examine your own mind and the stories you tend to implicitly believe as true. If you find bias, that doesn't mean that the story is necessarily false. But it does make it more likely that the reason you believe it is psychological rather than objective.
The deep problem is that MSM label anything that they do not like, or have been told not to like, as "conspiracy theories". Here are two examples.
COVID. The evidence is overwhelming that it was the lab in Wuhan that released COVID (See https://therenwhere.substack.com/p/covid-was-a-lab-leak-the-evidence ). The MSM call the lab leak hypothesis a "conspiracy theory".
GLOBALISM. Multinational Corporations, Oligarchs and International Bankers have begun to meet regularly and introduce similar policies, such as ESG, globally. Those who point out that this is happening are labelled "conspiracy theorists" by the MSM.
These are obvious cases where the Mainstream Media and Establishment lied, no-platformed and slandered opposition as Conspiracy Theorists. It is little wonder that the public are now likely to believe conspiracy theories that are truly just conspiracy theories.
(Yes, obvious. There are perhaps 50,000-100,000 wild meat markets in East and South East Asia, what are the chances that COVID came from the market next to a virological facility that was known to be culturing and genetically engineering coronaviruses? That multinationals collaborate is publicised by organisations like the WEF - there is no conspiracy, they are doing what they say they are doing.)
People who have never thought for themselves tend to fall for everything when they first open to alternate realities. But only at first. It is a growing up process.
However....you missed a big one. How about when Public Health Officers tell you nonsense that 20 minutes of reading and thinking can debunk? And this happens over and over for years. 1. This virus can live outdoors on metal surfaces for up to three weeks. 2. Put blue and red arrows on floors to protect yourself. 3. Two weeks to flatten the curve. 4. Our immune systems have no way to fight this virus as it is ‘novel’. 5. Masks are essential. 6. Masks do nothing. 7. Masks are essential. 8. Natural immunity doesn’t work for this virus. 9. If you are seated in a restaurant you can take your mask off....provided you have a glass of water in front of you. I could go on and on. 3 and 1/2 years to flatten the curve. And then, public officials, my PM for one, Justin Trudeau, vowing to make life miserable for the unvaxed. Neighbours saying we should be jailed and or exterminated. WHAT REALLY WAS GOING ON? Irrationality abounds right now. Yet every newby at thinking for himself is supposed to be able to distinguish Ed Dowd from David Icke?
I mean, mixed messaging in the early days of Covid points more to a lack of conspiracy to me. Later on, the messaging from Gov, media, public health and pharm companies got much more harmonised, which would be expected in a health crisis.
About the demonizing, I certainly became aware, during the early days of Covid in the UK, that in reality people hadn't changed since medieval days.
Maybe to be more clear lay out some actual conspiracy theories? Because right now the Conspiracy Theorists are about 12 and 0 on the season
"But this bloody, murderous process also allowed the widespread dissemination of knowledge, culture and power to each corner of the globe."
The French Revolution and the American Revolutionary War are the bloody, murderous processes that
allowed the widespread dissemination of knowledge, culture and power to each corner of the globe.
Not Euro-Brit colonialization.
Both. Historically, any country that possesses a power/knowledge differential with respect to its neighbours, will exploit that to invade and enslave them. Over time, two things happen to change this process...
1) the differential decreases allowing the invaded culture to push back
2) the invading culture gets so rich that a middle-class forms within in it. These guys become driven by guilt to try to both oppose their country's colonial activities, as well as trying to maintain their feeling of moral superiority by aligning themselves with supposedly worthy agendas.
"These guys become driven by guilt...."
No, these guys become driven by resentment over the status-quo (ever rising inflation + elite corruption and cronyism). These guys equipped themselves with pitchforks, torches and frying pans, as they had nothing else to lose.
I think that is valid outside of the Western world. Within the West, it seems to be mostly disgruntled guilt-ridden members of the middle classes that are obsessing on climate-chang to try to maintain a position of arrogant oversight of global affairs.
On a runaway train
Racing towards a cliff
Danger is present
It's hard to miss
But don't dare speak up
Or slam on the brakes
Conspiracy theories
Say conmen and snakes
“During the previous Labour government, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were ardent Zionists because they accepted the justice of Israel’s cause, not because Labour’s chief fund-raisers were first the Jew Michael Levy and then the Jew Jonathan Mendelsohn (both are now members of the House of Lords). And during the current Conservative government, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson have been ardent Zionists because they too accept the justice of Israel’s cause, not because the Conservatives’ chief fund-raisers have been first the Jew Sir Mick Davis and then the Jew Sir Ehud Sheleg.”
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2021/10/04/funding-both-sides-how-jewish-money-controls-british-politics/