
A Conspiracy-Theory Theory - rglovejoy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704238104574602042125998498.html
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iterationx
Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Because they are presented with
some data, they analyze said data, or they trust some expert who analyzes some
data for them, and they draw their own conclusions. It's pretty freaking
simple.

One of my bigger hangups is that some people will say "there's no evidence for
ufos". Well, there's plenty of people who say they've seen a ufo, so there's
some data for you, if you reject that data, fine with me - you should probably
analyze it first before you jump to conclusions, but don't say there's no
evidence.

This is a fact, that's a myth, this is reality that's just a theory. Nonsense!
There's just data and data analysis. Draw your own conclusions.

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ZeroGravitas
The article's a bit thin, but the comments are fun.

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DanielBMarkham
I love this topic because it gets directly to the weird way people's brains
work. But I would be VERY careful about feeling like you are above the fray
and others are all so logic-challenged. If anything, I've found that we're all
in the same boat here.

 _Interestingly out-of-power Democrats are far more likely to believe the
theories about in-power Republicans, and powerless Republicans far more likely
to believe them about powerful Democrats. One aspect of conspiracy theories is
that they are history for losers._

I remember when Clinton was in office. Good friends of mine who were
Republican were convinced the man was the devil -- or something close to it.
There were the cocaine rumors, the smuggling rumors, the political killings,
etc. Along those same lines, some of the smartest people I know, who are also
Democrats, were seriously telling me that George Bush was building detention
camps to hold dissenters and that he would make himself dictator for life by
preying off 9-11 fears.

These were serious, well-thought, respected, intellectuals. (Some of them
might be reading this.) I imagine I'll start hearing from my Republican
friends soon the same outlandish rumors about Obama. I frankly don't know what
to do when this happens but to smile feebly and agree with them. Some
cognitive blind spots resist all attempts at illumination.

On the other hand, this is one of those areas where you can paint with too
broad a brush on either side. This is _really_ what makes this topic so
interesting. Let's take, say, UFOs. To some uber-defenders of logic like Mike
Shermer, UFOs are nothing new and probably just artifacts of that fact that
human observers are flawed. People want to sell books and there's a
"conspiracy" among UFO'ers to gloss over inconvenient truth in order to
generate wild rumors.

Assuming for a second that there exists some sort of atmospheric phenomenon
that is real and unable to be replicated? To Shermer it's going to look like
swamp gas and to the actual observers like nothing they have ever seen before.
You can't make a case one way or the other (although plenty try)

On the other side, to the UFO-buffs, there's a government plot to cover up the
"real" truth. More likely it's just a general quality of bureaucrats not to
stick their necks out for stuff that makes them look like they are crazy. No
conspiracy needed, just human nature. But to each side the other is acting
irrationally and as the result of some sort of conspiracy or the other.

Fun stuff.

