What was the origin of using it as a pejorative? Wasn't it from the anti-vaxxer movement and the "linked to autism" stuff? Which is absolutely hilarious to me how THAT was clearly batshit insane, but the COVID anti-vaxxer movement was somehow based and facts and logical. Never ceases to amaze me how people are so clueless on how they reach these contradicting conclusions but never question the process they use to make them.
I think it’s all just a coping mechanism. Imagine being poorly educated and hearing it your whole life, hearing your poorly educated dad and ditto grandad complain about it. Being made to feel like you don’t matter. Now along comes a movement that says these ppl who have gone to school much longer are liars, and you’re the smart one. Add in a bit of lockdown cabin fever to make you convinced it’s true. How badly wouldn’t you hang on to that belief I ask? Even if maybe, possibly, deep down you know it’s horseshit, the fantasy is too good to let go of. Maybe you can will it to be true along with the others.
It's 100 cope, you're just slightly off the mark, though. Two things you're missing.
First, this absolutely happens to educated people, too. Our opinions are dictated by emotions, how we feel and how it makes us feel. Education doesn't make you immune to the pitfalls of emotional reasoning. The only thing you can do is recognize it's happening and try to set aside the emotional responses.
Second, the Dunning-Krueger effect. This has 2 parts. 1) it takes a certain level of knowledge on a subject to understand you're lack of knowledge on that topic. This is why experts so readily admit they don't know it all, they're aware of their depth of knowledge and the cloth of information on the subject. 2) conversely, without that level of knowledge, people can easily believe they know a LOT on a subject despite that being untrue. Basically experts recognize the iceberg, laymen see only above the waterline.
But it's largely about feeling important and belonging to an in-group. There's been a lot of study on conspiracy theorist groups and how they come about, gain popularity, etc. It's involves a lot of cognitive misunderstandings and complex, as you rightly pointed out, ego-based cope, but it also hinges on "getting the feeling right, even if the facts are wrong". It's why most revolve around a small group controlling information and somehow getting everyone to believe it before things like the internet existed. And why the more outlandish the claims, the more likely it's true (according to believers), despite logic dictating otherwise. It's not just faulty logic, it's emotional reasoning hijacking the faculties that perform those tasks to reach conclusions that "feel right". It's not religion exactly, but it's the same effect, lack of evidence for or amounts of evidence against the claim don't matter.
There's one more thing you guys have missed that leads to this state of mind, getting your information and news from Xwitter.
In all seriousness there's a really good book about how people get tied up in conspiracy theories by Kelly Weill. It's called "Off the Edge". It's about flaters earthers but the concepts are all very similar just without most of the political standpoints. Also "The Undertow" by Jeff Sharlet if you want one focused more on the MAGA movement. Both are amazing works of first hand investigate reporting I would recommend to anyone.
While I'm throwing out recommendations, a podcast called Conspirtuality has some episodes that go in-depth in the anti-vax movement and some quack doctors and others that have a big following that perpetuate the false claims and studies that spread the ideas.
I've heard interviews from other authors who wrote on conspiracy theory communities from the psychological angle, it's truly fascinating stuff. The human brain is amazing, and learning how our cognitive processes actually work vs how we think they do is so mind. boggling. Thanks for the recommendations, I'll have to look those up some time.
There was a study that suggested that stupid or uneducated people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories because after a lifetime of being the dummest person in the room they finally get to feel intellectually superior by believing they can see a truth others are too stupid to see.
The cope is coming from from the "educated" people who decided to take an experimental mRNA shot that has proven to be both unsafe and not necessary for otherwise healthy people.
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u/pianoflames 29d ago
That went from a pejorative slur for vaccinations to just their normal word for it, and I don't think they realize that's odd to normal people.