Conspiracy Theories

“I tend to listen to people, who, from the beginning, acknowledge the uncertainty and live in the humility of ‘this is what we think we know to the best of our knowledge, but our the data are flawed, and it will change as we improve our understanding—we are trying our best.’ It’s hard to get a good tweet to go viral with that though (although some manage to do so!).

“The issue with conspiracy theories is not with the possibility that they could be true, but with the lack of supporting data.

“Unfortunately, conspiracy theories play upon our fear by supplying a more powerful emotion: rage. Fear can so quickly morph into anger because it provides an object: they are to blame, they caused this, they deserve retribution. There will always be a willing audience for people to scapegoat.” - CToday

“Your choice not to vaccinate your child against measles, chickenpox, or any other vaccine-preventable illness could lead to hospitalization or even death for a baby too young for inoculations or someone whose immune system is too compromised to be vaccinated themselves.” - W. Examiner

“A ‘conspiracy theory’ is a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot, usually by powerful conspirators…. These conspiracy theories are not simply restricted to a fringe population.

A conspiracy mindset is different, though, because it is based on a certain view of the world: dark forces are at work, and only I and a select group of my fellow believers know the truth. Everyone else is buying into a falsehood. There’s an elitism going on here, mixed in with the glee that comes from being a member of an exclusive club.

“The conspiracy theorists, Jodi Mann and Robert Ussery, say they believe the mass shooting never happened and instead that it was staged by the Department of Homeland Security” Washington Post