17
How did we get so casual about conspiracy theories? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
46 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

How did we get so casual about conspiracy theories?

I was talking with someone today about nutrition. This person has a PhD in material science. They mentioned eating beef daily and I asked about the cholesterol implications. The answer was about a vague 'they' wanted us to think that, but it wasn't true anymore.

I hear the vague 'they' so frequently now it's just a normal conversation. In truth, as soon as I hear the vague they I dismiss the speaker's credibility on the subject, but how did we get here? Vague they wanted us to think X is a valid counter argument by the most highly educated people in our society?

This sounds like more of a rant than a question, but I do truly want to know how this happened? Was it pop culture like the X Files that made conspiracy theories main stream? Was it social media? When will the vague they stop being an accepted explanation? Has it always been this way and I didn't notice?

Thanks, love you!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

No, but they helped get him elected

Sure, I mean people made the argument with Russia too for his first term. I still think it's absolutely insane to conclude that Russia controls western governments.

Any argument that the genocide in Palestine didn’t impact our election is not being honest

Of course, and I never made that argument. I can't give an educated estimate, but folks more knowledgeable than me on US sentiment and voting habits say that this one issue could have massively shifted the election. You could probably even made a case that the democrats would have been a better ally to Israel in the grand scheme of things.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    it’s absolutely insane to conclude that Russia controls western governments.

    Maybe not governments in general, but Trump and his party specifically, doesn't seem too insane.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I really don't see the need to try to see some dark unilateral control, when it's across the board the exact same thing we've identified for literal centuries: The shifting alliances of powers whose interests are aligned.

    The sad irony of conspiracy theorists is that it's not paranoia (alone) that leads them into those rabbit holes, it's naivety. They think that there are dark forces that hijacked their otherwise fine institutions, but refuse to recognize that those institutions were never meant to serve them in the first place. Trump and his entourage aren't a cancer on a previously healthy organ, they are a healthy part of a parasite.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm not suggesting that America before Trump was a paragon of virtue. But our corrupt leaders and wealthy oligarchs made America powerful to serve their own ends.

    Trump is not serving the ends of American oligarchs. He's serving the ends of Russian oligarchs.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Trump is not serving the ends of American oligarchs. He’s serving the ends of Russian oligarchs.

    He would honestly be dead if that was the case. He's in the white house celebrating how his friends made out like bandits out of the stock dips. Again, allegiances shift, it's a balancing game. He's serving oligarchs in general, the nationality barely matters these days, he's not supporting some Russian/Israeli/American local bourgeoisie, those are extinct. I don't know why you guys think nationality matters at all, they're allied to money. Imperialism is the current order, and modern capitalists are greater internationalists than your average commie.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent