Do you ever feel strangely drawn towards Conspiracy Theories?

by JW_Rogue 34 Replies latest jw experiences

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  snare&racket

  I think the JW mindset in conducive to conspiracy theories, because you already believe that whole sections of society can have a secret agenda, like scientists, that there is a secret knowledge and privelage said status to be had to feel you are lucky to know it when most of the world doesn't. All of this is about eg.

  i went through it all as a JW looking for answers, about everything and everywhere. There was a huge appeal to thinking you knew something others didn't. But in reality, the people purporting these theories are not experts and in the vast majority, do not have grasps of the sciences, history or general accurate data.

  Beyond a doubt a huge issue is the lack of ability to critically assess data. That is a life saving skill in an Information Age.

  On top of all this, it is also great fun! Since being a young boy I was fascinated with radio at night, I felt like I was getting access to adult data, I was into talk radio, listened to it for decades. I used to stream Alex Jones, Art Bell Coast to Coast, James Whale, all of them, loved it, it was garbage, but back then in was enthralling.
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  StrongHaiku

  Good posts. I would even go so far to add that some people are drawn into the JWs because they have a conspiracy theory mentality. For some it's almost like they fit a particular personality type. Before my mother joined the organization she was into all sorts of conspiracy ideas (e.g. UFOs, pyramidology, etc.). She, like many others (especially during the 70s) was already primed for the JWs conspiracy-laden beliefs.
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  NewYork44M

  The greatest conspiracy theory ever told id the one where the great Jehovah allows a Satan power over the world. Thus, everything we do is a part of this overall battle for the vindication of god's name.

  If you can believe that you can believe anything.
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  OneEyedJoe

  I read about a study not too long ago where participants would be asked to answer some simple math questions, then look at a screen with static for some period of time. For half the participants their answers on the math questions were immediately given feedback as being correct or incorrect at random, whereas the other half didn't have the questions graded. The group that had their questions graded randomly (i.e. they'd get the answers correct since they're simple questions, but they'd randomly be told that they were wrong) were much more likely to see patterns in the static.

  The interpretation of this is that the more out of control your life feels, the more likely you are to see patterns in random data, and that's basically what most conspiracy theories are. It makes sense, then, that those who are leaving a cult will have a little more predisposition to being drawn to them.
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  Vidiot

  snare&racket - "I think the JW mindset in conducive to conspiracy theories..."

  Oh, hell, yes... particularly the right-wing variety.
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  StrongHaiku

  A good article on the subject on how we are wired for "patternicity" and "agency" and how those things lead to strange beliefs (e.g. conspiracy theories)...

  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skeptic-agenticity/

  OneEyedJoe - The interpretation of this is that the more out of control your life feels, the more likely you are to see patterns in random data, and that's basically what most conspiracy theories are.

  Totally agree. And there are studies that show that the less control we have the more superstitious we are as well. There are some studies on games/sports that showed that the more "chance" was required to win the more superstitious the player vs. those instances that required more skill and less chance. Example, gamblers that play dice are noticeably more prone to superstition than, say, a chess player. We are strangely wired little apes ;-)
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  jwstudy

  This topic is very interesting. I'm operating the Forum mainly for witnesses and ex-witnesses in Japan. And now the conspiracy theories are hot topic there.

  When I see many ex-witnesses tend to believe conspiracy theories, it reminds me this quote.

  
  

  "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
  

  - Oliver Wendell Holmes

  
  I don't know the context of this quote. But It seems to me that once one captured by the exciting ideas such as the Universal Issue or Vindication of God's name or The last days of the Satan's system, then he or she is more vulnerable to other exciting ideas.
  
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  StrongHaiku

  jwstudy - But It seems to me that once one captured by the exciting ideas such as the Universal Issue or Vindication of God's name or The last days of the Satan's system, then he or she is more vulnerable to other exciting ideas.

  Totally agree. I would add that part of the problem with JWs is that they are indoctrinated to believe that "you are a key participant in the greatest Biblical saga of all time in the whole Universe, etc." If you leave that, everything else (including reality) must look relatively mundane and common. It is no wonder why so many JWs stay in and why so many have difficulty when they get out. They don't want to feel "ordinary". And it may explain why so many that leave immediately seek out some other "Grand Vision"/Conspiracy/Religion/Belief to replace the one they left.

  I really wish people that leave the organization would take just 5 minutes to learn to appreciate that reality (as mundane as it may seem) is more wondrous and better than some fantasy.
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  JW_Rogue

  Sometimes you read conspiracy theories and think, there could be some truth in that, but most are probably greatly exaggerated...
  one thing I'm convinced of is that we don't know a fraction of what really goes on between politics and big business, and how they are controlling a lot of events, world conflicts and regime change, financial markets etc

  Yes, some strange things are going on many of which are being ignored by the media. Even if it is just a few powerful people with these ideas it's odd that the media never calls them out on it.
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  OrphanCrow

  "Conspiracy Theories" is an interesting topic. I have a morbid fascination with insanity and so, of course, I have examined the concept of conspiracy theory for many years. And of course, I have been motivated by my curiosity by realizing at an early age that I had been deceived in a fairly large way by a nebulous organization of men in New York.

  Strong Haiku brought up a good point:

  A good article on the subject on how we are wired for "patternicity" and "agency" and how those things lead to strange beliefs (e.g. conspiracy theories)...
  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skeptic-agenticity/

  Human beings are animals constrained by their biology, their environment, and their genetics. We cannot help but be pattern recognizing creatures - it is hard wired into us. It is how we interact with our environment - always looking for, and recognizing patterns, and then trying to make what we perceive fit into a larger picture, adjusting our awareness as we add data into our brains.

  I think that there is as much "strange belief" in the total rejection of what we don't know as there is in total acceptance of everything we take in as data. On one side you have those who readily adopt whatever belief is the flavor of the month, and those who reject out of hand anything that doesn't fit their limited view of the world. I think I fall someplace in the middle of that spectrum - I am a conspiracy theorist agnostic, if you will.

  The reason I say this is that I have found that what popular culture is so quick to dump into the "conspiracy" bucket, is often just a lack of information about how the world operates.

  Here is an example (or two...):

  Several years ago, my son had moved out to a farm that had an unlimited view of the sky. He was all agitated one day because he had saw "chemtrails" above his house - a large pattern of jet trails. He had been listening to Alex Bell and got all excited. I had never heard the term before, and had to ask him to explain. Well, he burbled out something about controlling weather, and chemicals. I was puzzled - to me, that was no conspiracy theory. It is no secret that the military has been using our skies to do chemical warfare testing ever since the end of the Second World War. And it was no secret back in the early 60s where I grew up that some of the military planes that flew overhead were "cloud seeding". It was common practice - we just didn't call it "chemtrails".

  About UFOs. I have seen many. UFO sightings are common in the area I grew up. I found it humorous one day recently when I went to an "official" page that listed where the most UFOs are spotted globally. It was hilarious that my province in Canada had no sightings listed - it is so common that nobody bothers to report the sightings - many in Northern Canada, realize that those skies are ideal for military maneuvers. Pretty much all of my friends up north, myself included, have seen strange, unexplained, celestial objects - some very interesting accounts from many sources. It makes for good drinking stories around the campfire. UFOs? Of course - there is lots that happens "up there" that we don't know about. Conspiracy theory or just things we don't know yet?

  I always try to look to the sources for what I encounter theoretically - how credible is the author? Who published the material? And, if it is a historical account - whose voice is saying it? What is their "political" positioning? And, this is the most critical question of - what is being left out? History is malleable. Historical accounts always come from a biased position. It is in the gaps, the untold stories, that sometimes the most significant things have disappeared, later to be resurrected and placed into the historical account..

  Anyways, i am an agnostic - i have had far too many things that I thought were far-fetched at one time, been proven to be right later. I try to exercise open mindedness flavored with as much rationality as I can muster. I always look for the material answer for the unexplained. Those far out crazy conspiracy theories come from something, even if it is just from the fact that we are human beings who cannot help but behave the way we are - as creatures with constraints upon them. Our patterns of behavior are unavoidable. We are products of our cultures.