

What are arguments against conspiracies about 5 men that run the US? - marcamillion

I know this might sound like a silly question, but I constantly find myself in heated debates/exchanges with people that honestly believe that there is a small cabal of (say 5 - 6) men that secretly 'pull all the strings' behind the scenes.<p>What are some arguments I can use to actually convince them that that is impossible or just not true?
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mindcrime
Get them to read some books on complexity theory and emergent behavior;
convince them that real life is definitely a "complex system" and point out
that no group of 5-6 men could possibly control the emergent behavior of such
a system. There are just too many independent, autonomous agents competing to
fulfill their own desires and interests. The lack of knowledge alone would be
enough to ensure that such a thing couldn't happen.

Now that's not to say that there aren't cabals of people who do wield
influence over certain things, or cabals of people who want to control things,
or who _think_ they control things. Take the group of bankers who run the Fed,
for example... that's a fairly small group of people who have a fair amount of
ability to influence things (in the US anyway). But that's still far removed
from the kind of detailed control that the conspiracy theorists usually talk
about.

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zoomzoom
You will never disprove a conspiracy a priori. I think that what you need to
do is ask them what the best evidence for a conspiracy is, and then provide a
rational explanation that does not require a conspiracy. Them, go down the
list of suspicions that they have and do the same.

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aurem1
extreme claims have low probability of being correct. For example, I am not
sure that it is impossible due to laws of physics for 5-6 men to pull all the
strings, but common sense would tell you it is extremely unlikely. If your
friends don't see that, nothing you can say will convince them otherwise, so
just don't engage in pointless debates :)

