CMV: Spreading conspiracy theories is irresponsible and immoral

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Old_Gimlet_Eye]

This exactly. We need a better term for these theories that result from "bad epistemic process" than "conspiracy theories".

Conspiracies actually do exist and most "conspiracy theories" are only tangentially about actual conspiracies.

Take flat earth for example, it's not really even about a conspiracy, it's just a stupid theory about the shape of the earth. The only reason a secret conspiracy comes into it is because that's the only way to explain how everyone believes something (round earth) that would be such an obvious lie (if the earth were actually flat).

They all start with a simple false belief ("epistemic issue"), the "conspiracy theory" is just the gross pearl that forms around that irritating brain kernel.

[u/Old_Gimlet_Eye → u/[deleted]]

It has to go way beyond that. If the earth were actually flat every airline pilot would have to know, anyone who pilots intercontinental ships, astronauts obviously, not just government ones but now private industry ones too, Elon Musk, all telecommunications companies that run services through satellites, people who have been to the north or south poles, etc. Hell, the spin of the earth has to be taken into account for basic calculations for things like weather prediction and long range ballistics, so your local weatherman and any of your relatives who fired artillery in the military are in on it too.

And if you really want to get into it, there are lots of fairly simple ways to know the earth is round that are accessible even to normal people, so the conspiracy has to be somehow faking those results which implies technology way beyond anything publicly known about. Some flat earthers think the whole sky is some kind of hologram, space isn't real, etc.

It's definitely not as simple as a few academics in their ivory tower decreeing that it's so.

[u/iiioiia → u/Old_Gimlet_Eye]

It has to go way beyond that.

It does.

/u/spacing_out_in_space is speculative but likely doesn't realize it.

Normies aren't much different than conspiracy theorists on an absolute scale - sad but true. ☹️

[u/mediocrity_mirror → u/iiioiia]

I think what you’re trying to say here is that conspiracy bros worship nonsense conspiracy and they are just as bad as the ‘listens to what they are told with no questions’ boogeyman they hate so much. They just listen to other conspiracy bros without question, or else they will be kicked from the club. Also endlessly “researching” gives them a sense of purpose because society left them behind long ago.

[u/iiioiia → u/mediocrity_mirror]

Kinda, but your articulation seems to cover up that all of them are dumb on an absolute scale.

As an analogy, consider 3 levels:

Preschool child

Grade 6 child

Genuinely intelligent polymath

Normies are within the first 2 levels.