
Why conspiracies spread faster than ever - lubos
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/the-truth-is-rushing-out-there-why-conspiracies-spread-faster-than-ever
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cryoshon
I have a vague theory that conspiracies tend to spread faster through
societies that have opaque, distant and domineering governments. Poor
analytical and critical thinking ability among the population is also
partially related, though I would like to nip in the bud the assertion that
all alternative narratives are conspiracy theories.

Imagine it's the eve of the Vietnam war, but you don't know that there will be
a war yet. There's a lot of posturing by the US, and US warships actively
patrolling Vietnamese waters. The Gulf of Tonkin incident happens, and the US
is at war-- the official story being the Vietnamese attacked the US patrol
boats (in their waters). An alternative narrative (smeared as a conspiracy
theory by its detractors) from this era would look like someone saying that
the US artificially caused a situation in which they could get into a war with
Vietnam.

Years after the fact, we now know that the Gulf of Tonkin was a complete
fabrication, and the alternative narrative was correct whereas the official
narrative was a lie. With documented wrongdoing in hand, the "conspiracy
theories" can really begin... governments leave themselves wide open to
refutation of their authority when they blatantly lie and fabricate events to
get their way.

~~~
J_Darnley
Tony Blair, George Bush, and the dodgy dossier come to mind now. A reason to
attack Iraq fabricated nearly from whole cloth.

------
J_Darnley
> by then we’d be under military control

You're in America - you are. You live in a militarized police state. The
police don't consider themselves civilians anymore. They deploy en masse with
automatic weapons, _green_ military uniforms, armoured vehicles to steal from
and generally terrorize the populace.

> Stories of strings being pulled by hidden hands

They are not all that hidden. Corporate money being used for political
campaigns. Some are slightly more hidden. The "free trade" deals being enacted
recently.

