Conspiracy Theories are Sociopaths
“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.”
Conspiracy theories are the sociopaths of rhetorical thought.
That’s something I came to realize not long ago, when a conspiracy theory was so tasty, that I wanted it to be true. Enough that I dug my own little hole in the internet, and hollowed out my own space between words and thoughts. Created a den of my own dislocated thinking, padded by the reassurances of others who had dens just like mine. Soon enough, everything I saw was proof that it was the truth behind the curtain. That the creepy whisper just louder than the din was right, and that my trust was misplaced.
The truth was in the gaslight. And if other people could just be brought into that warm glow, they would see clearly, too. Surely they didn’t believe because they didn't see. So I shared what I saw. I was never to the point of paranoia, hoarding, and pulling the microphones out of my iPhone, but I did live with no small amount of unease, which in times like these is an understandable place to be.
That unease is, in part, why conspiracy theories work. They make sense of the senseless, and sometimes bring a mirage of order to chaos. Our minds are predisposed to seek and find patterns, especially when we are stressed or anxious. Patterns are calming. Patterns give us a sense of consistency which is lacking in times of chaos. Conspiracy theories take disparate events and seam them together with threads of minimal plausibility, creating patterns that don’t exist, but seem like they should.
They also rely on our need to delineate good and evil; seeing ourselves as Good as we seek Evil to be our counterbalance. The more Good we are, the harder we fight Evil, and conspiracy theories dutifully provide us with Evil that must be fought.
One of the dangers of living in a toggle-switch world is the management of good, evil, and the state of being human.
We want a reason, a person, to blame for the presence of Evil so Good can prevail. It doesn't feel like a victory if the personification of evil is flawed...it feels like its own defeat because there was a human in there whose motivations we could understand, and maybe we’ve lost a little humanity along the way. God has Satan. Rama has Ravana. Elves have Drow. Even Dungeons And Dragons is doing away with inherently evil races, instead siding with the complexity of evil, because that’s the true nature of things.
Evil is complex. Good is complex. But to be more Godly...Good...one must fight Evil, right? Enter the Conspiracy Theory.
But back to sociopaths.
My sociopath doesn’t look like yours.
Yours is made from different minds, and different fears. The intent is the same, to sow distrust in the greater community and that is where the evil is. Humans work really hard, and sacrifice a lot to be a part of a community. When the Sumerians first planted those seeds and built houses, there came community, and with it a need for government and all the trappings that go with it. It takes constant diligence, mindful evolution, and trust for a community to thrive.
But remove that trust, or worse, make it distrust, and that brings discord. Isolation. And in isolation is where the sociopath thrives. You become dependent on the sociopath, because only he has the answers. Only he can save you. Conspiracy theories isolate you with other people who believe and feed them, and soon enough you're in someone’s basement that smells like piss and Doritos.
My sociopath may make you say “Goodness, how could she possibly?! And though you’re right, something someday may strike your fancy and I may l think “How could he possibly?! “
The goal for me would not be to judge, but to understand what it was about your personal sociopath that made you dig your own hole in the internet, and give you a hand getting out.
Enter Hanlon's Razor. “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
It’s a hard one to remember, and sometimes feels inadequate, because some of those theories are SUPER TASTY. It’s important to remember how much coordination it would take, to create a conspiracy and keep it secret, and just how much people like to tout their successes.
Be diligent. Apply the scientific method. Stay grounded. And always have someone you trust who can gently deliver a reality check.