the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

ah bigthink is so good with the OTT

in the study,
- aliens regularly come to earth (not particularly "Russian"!)
- only 24% believe the US moon landing happened
- 67% believe a shadow world government runs things

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science ... -russians/

common ones in the USA
1. there is a secret org that runs the world (Illuminati) ... same as #1 for russians, essentially
2. President Obama was born outside the USA
3. the attacks on 9/11 were an inside job
4. "lizard people" are running the world. same as #1 I guess, but WTF???

Human brain is a really weird thing

we're so smart, but also so stupid?

Michio Kaku said there is a superstition gene (not sure if he's kidding) because you were wrong 9/10 times, but the 1 time out of 10, your ass was saved big time. so this gene continues.

https://bigthink.com/questions/why-are- ... -theories/
too much to TL;DR: here.

Yeah I have good friends who subscribe to some of these ideas (covering most of the spectrum, being American citizens who immigrated from Russia as adults ), and who are very smart, good at their jobs (in IT), happily married for decades, have great children, are loyal/reliable friends, don't break the law, etc. -- i.e. basically are pretty damn good members of society. So, absolutely these are evolutionarily-relevant behaviors, otherwise we simply wouldn't have these traits/inclinations today. It's fascinating, how all those qualities manage to coexist within the same brain without any apparent conflict...

The terror of realizing there is nobody in control is too much for them to handle so they invent somebody looking out for things to comfort themselves.
Sure, they might be a bloodthirsty cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles, but at least they keep the trains running on time!

On that BigThink site, it basically says the superstitions helped us, hearsay has helped us, we survive as social animals, but now communication is instant, there are bad actors deliberately spreading misinformation, and internet echo chambers full of crap are instant. So people get more carried away more quickly/extremely.

I of course include myself in the smart human, yet surprisingly stupid at the same time category because I think all humans must be like this, but this secret gov or Illuminati theory kind of cracks me up. And of course there are the more damaging ones.

Well, hey, there are some good plots for when Henry Cavill or Idris Elba become the next James Bond.

Yeah, the human imagination has been crucial to our development as a species. Fear of the unknown has also been necessary. Conspiracy theories are getting a bad rap when they're considered part of human evolutionary behavior. There are actual conspiracies, dangers, and groups of people determined to control others. The problem is when people identify aliens or lizard people, but particularly when they identify Jews, people who aren't Christian, and other real people as the conspirators or causes of their problems.

It's not about intelligence. Geniuses can agree with madmen. We're all susceptible to our imaginations. There are people who believe that JFK jr. is alive. Meh. What can one say about Kanye? or people who'll believe because Kanye says something's so?

Despite believing in and pushing his own propaganda Putin still got his ass handed to.him.

Steve James wrote:Yeah, the human imagination has been crucial to our development as a species. Fear of the unknown has also been necessary. Conspiracy theories are getting a bad rap when they're considered part of human evolutionary behavior. There are actual conspiracies, dangers, and groups of people determined to control others. The problem is when people identify aliens or lizard people, but particularly when they identify Jews, people who aren't Christian, and other real people as the conspirators or causes of their problems.

Actually, many religions past and present share many of the features of modern conspiracy theories, or of course vice versa. Especially more ancient religions, with lots of gods intervening to steer and shape and often enough nastily screw up the fates of mortals. We can't see them, but we know what's going on! 'Them up there' scaring us, also being entities we can blame. The Norse pantheon, the Greek/Roman pantheon, for example.
The Desert Religons a little different, but much in the same direction. Buddhism is sometimes referred to as being more of a philosophy than a religion; it certainly doesn't seem to have that basic feature of "there are hidden beings up there who are rooting for us and helping us, and other trying to destroy us." Instead it's much more "do it for yourself, find it in yourself, just travel your own path to the light".
Or viewed the other way: the QAnon bullshit reproduces a Manichean struggle between forces of darkness and forces of light for the fate of the world (in this case with the forces of darkness supposedly in full view while the forces of light remain hidden and more mysterious). With "Q" as the prophet communicating his visions and prophecies to the faithful.

burning of witches seems to fit in there somewhere as well

This seems so upside down, the topic about favorite conspiracy theory of Russians....so seeing that thier nation attacked the territorial integrity of Ukraine, how can they believe otherwise in their mental sphere of being and reality?
Just sayin

yeniseri wrote:This seems so upside down, the topic about favorite conspiracy theory of Russians....so seeing that thier nation attacked the territorial integrity of Ukraine, how can they believe otherwise in their mental sphere of being and reality?
Just sayin

People believe what brings them comfort in their values.

yeniseri wrote:This seems so upside down, the topic about favorite conspiracy theory of Russians....so seeing that thier nation attacked the territorial integrity of Ukraine, how can they believe otherwise in their mental sphere of being and reality?
Just sayin

Conspiracies aren't about what happens; they're always about why something happened and especially who was behind it. Pick an issue, and there'll be someone who says that someone with nefarious intentions caused it. So, the fact of who's invading isn't important. Even though no one believes that another country invading theirs would be justified.