Eric Newhill
New
Again I pretty much agree with that, except that, as I was trying to point out before, that leaves the need for some other word (quasi-conspiracy?) to cover a related phenomenon.
A quasi-conspiracy is something where large numbers of people know the truth, but somehow act as if it were not true, and genuinely deceive many others:
1) The concept of CO2-induced climate change.
2) The fact that those gas attacks were not perpetrated by the Syrian state, and may not have been real at all.
3) Assorted other scientific supposed facts that people in the know realise are just for public consumption.
4) Even benign quasi-conspiracies, like Father Christmas!
David
David,
Well, apropos to this site, what you're suggesting really leads to questions like "What is reality and how do we know?". People obviously have different standards and different levels of caring.
Some people here seem happy to conclude that 911 was a criminal act by the US govt against it's own people and/or that "the Jews" did it. Many people are convinced that the world is heating up and that we're all going to die if we don't do something and many think the whole thing is a hoax or delusion. Pick a topic, any topic, and there are large numbers of people who have radically different perspectives as to what the correct narrative is.
One man's "evidence" and "reason" is another's "Lies", "junk science" and "Faulty logic".
To make matters more complicated, with social media, there is no end to the number of outlets serving as propaganda, for right or wrong/better or worse for a myriad of positions on any topic. This is also true of more official media outlets.
What you decide is real all comes down to personal psychology, prior experience/conditioning, what people similar to you and with whom you are in contact are saying (peer pressure/social modeling) and how intelligent you are.
So I think there is no need for a new word like "quasi-conspiracy" because I don't think you could get enough people to agree that are large numbers of people who know the truth, but somehow act as if it were not true, and genuinely deceive many others.
There are many people who have never been to Syria, never studied the history of the region, know nothing about chemical weapons and their deployment, etc, etc who, if you ask them, will tell you, with certainty, that Assad is the butcher of Damascus of course he kills his own people - just as others in this same group will tell you, with certainty, that Assad is hero who loves his people and would never kill them, let alone use gas on them to do so.
Both camps will argue their position tooth and claw.
People love to talk out of their asses.
I only made a big deal over the conspiracy theory thing because it seems like a lot of people here are into to those and I think it is unfortunate because it detracts from and undermines some of the important discussions around "paranormal". Coupling studying the reality of the afterlife and psi with "THE CIA IS TURNING US INTO ZOMBIES AND KILLING US LIKE CATTLE WHENEVER NEEDED TO FURTHER PLANS OF WORLD DOMINATION" doesn't paint a good picture of the type of people interested in paranormal topics - "THE JEWS DID IT" even less so.
Of course if you are convinced that the CIA and the Jews really are up to all of this horribleness, then you think I'm the idiot dupe in the room (or maybe the CIA sent me to try to turn minds away from The Truth). But more people see things the way I do, which, of course, by itself, doesn't mean that I'm right about 911 or anything else. It does however mean that I have a point with regards to undermining promotion of psi, afterlife studies, etc
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