conspiracy theories?

[pinkytoe]

Very troublesome to me that the media continues to promote the "proliferation" of various conspiracy theories out there these days. It worries me because people are spending a lot more time on the internet now and even DH has been saying some off the cuff things I find disturbing. It is so divisive to have people believing the ridiculous theories about the virus floating around. Are we just stupid now?

[catherine]

I think people grasp for someone or something to blame when bad things happen. People don't want to believe misfortune is random. That's scary. It's less scary to believe that the Chinese planted the virus on cruise ships or Bill Gates has a plot to vaccinate the world.

[flowerseverywhere]

My personal favorite is Bill Gates wants to implant a chip in us to track us. Don’t waste your time, Bill. We already spend a lot of money on our phones which are tracking us. Cameras are everywhere from doorbells, to street corners. Big brother is watching


https://www.cnet.com/news/over-40-of-republicans-think-bill-gates-will-use-covid-19-vaccines-to-implant-microchips/

[Tybee]

If you had told me 30 years ago that our phones would be eavesdropping on us and sending us messages about what to buy I would have thought that was a crazy conspiracy theory.

The problem with seeing everything as a conspiracy theory is presupposes a lot of good will on the part of those in power and a lot of ignoring of human history, where genocide has been a constant.

In my parents' life time, the Germans, a highly evolved and wonderful culture, engaged in widespread genocide.

Would I have thought news about what they were doing at the time was a conspiracy theory?

My granddad told me that when the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, a lot of people thought it was a hoax.

Change is hard to process, and sometimes we can't see what was happening until later, in retrospect.

[happystuff]

If you had told me 30 years ago that our phones would be eavesdropping on us and sending us messages about what to buy I would have thought that was a crazy conspiracy theory.

The problem with seeing everything as a conspiracy theory is presupposes a lot of good will on the part of those in power and a lot of ignoring of human history, where genocide has been a constant.

In my parents' life time, the Germans, a highly evolved and wonderful culture, engaged in widespread genocide.

Would I have thought news about what they were doing at the time was a conspiracy theory?

My granddad told me that when the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, a lot of people thought it was a hoax.

Change is hard to process, and sometimes we can't see what was happening until later, in retrospect.

So true. And, sadly, sometimes seeing what was happening later, in retrospect, is way too late.

And, yes, some people are looking more to the "blame game" than dealing with/trying to solve the issues at hand.