Ask Lemmy

The current US paroxysms of conservative conspiracy theories are IMO the product of failing to rein in such unproductive thought

Counterpoint: There are also people that completely disregard the potential of conspiracy theories being actually true. People keep saying "they can't do this, its illegal!" with no deeper thought as to what laws even mean. Its just another sheet of paper.

Like NSA global surveillance. If you told people that before the Snowden Leaks, you would've been labeled as a crazy person.

MKUltra seemed insane until it got declassified, just as with COINTELPRO.

There are two extremes:

One is the 100% law-abiding person with zero doubts and just eats anything they're told at face value.

The other end is the "government bad, therefore the opposite of what the government say must be true", which is also equally ridiculous. I mean, just because the government says the sky is blue, doesn't suddenly turn the sky red (yes I know its technically light reflections and all that lol)

Its very difficult to find the line of truth. There are government propaganda from every country, there are nutjobs and cultists spreading their propaganda, there are some dissidents actually telling the truth, but how do you even tell the difference between a legitimate dissident and a conspiracy theorist nutjob?

Even scientists/doctors can't be trusted. They used to say "smoking is healthy" but then we found out they just got paid. Its hard to know if the info you get, have a more sinister origin.