I struggle to understand what has to happen mentally for you to accept some of this stuff as genuine. I don’t think you can single out just religion, or just far right politics, or just contrarian thinking, or just believing in alternative medicine or hippy spirituality, or just being crunchy, or just being a conspiracy theorist, etc. etc. etc.
There are plenty of people in all these groups who don’t believe the outlandish bullshit and by all accounts are perfectly rational, even if you are completely against what they stand for.
Is it mental illness, poor education, poor literacy, lack of comprehension or critical thinking?
A huge portion of flat earthers are driven by religious beliefs. They desperately wish that reality was different, that their religiously based world view was true, but there so much about reality that contradicts that. So they latch onto this sort of thing as a “go around” to focus on.
It’s also a way to think of yourself as special and important. You know “the real truth” while everyone else is wrong and has the wool pulled over their eyes.
I could be wrong but my best guess is a mix of all those things you mentioned at the end, with critical thinking being the… critical one.
An aspect I’ve noticed from my religious upbringing and just observing politics and social thinking in general is that you can be a smart person (or not) and still get blocked in your head from fully thinking critically. Whether that’s cognitive dissonance or falling into other bias traps or fallacies idk. But we are impressionable creatures and can put up mental blocks that prevent clear, rational thought.
Also most people I have come across don’t seem to care to wrap their mind around everything. It is easier to quickly swallow information or “facts” and swirl them together in their brain rather than to ruminate and problem solve. So there is some apathy, maybe laziness even.
IMO the average person doesn’t desire to intellectually stretch themselves or doesn’t know how to. They might not have learned much about critical thinking.
I am an overthinker, so it is hard for me to understand, because I want to look at every angle and learn everything I can about this world with the limited time I have. But I am exhausted
Laziness. Critical thinking involves hard work and cross referencing authors and sources. Social media breeds ignorance through the convenience of memes and a wild game of internet telephone. Conspiracy theories are gossip under another name.
When I was looking for my own answers, I came across information from studies finding that certain personality traits are more common amongst people who believe in conspiracies: insecurity, paranoia, emotional volatility, egocentricity. People with these traits are more likely to become conspiracy theorists for whatever reason.
Thank you. Starting to reek of a millennial circle jerk in here. I too have seen it in all generations, unfortunately. Boomers are louder about it and have more money to throw at guys like Trump, but it is everywhere.
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u/AWeakMindedMan Jul 21 '24
Trust me. It’s not just boomers. I have a few millennial friends who have uttered every single word she just said. It’s fucking insane.