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Ex-conspiracists, what made you stop believing conspiracy theorie(s) you believed? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Let's be clear: i'm not saying conspiracies doesn't exist. By conspiracy theories, i mean the plots whose existence is at best highly unlikely, at worst totally senseless, notably if:

-They are breaking the laws of physics.

-They are too costly (logistically and/or financially) to be profitable.

-They are defended by untrustworthy sources (populist or cult leaders, random people, celebrities without expertise in the concerned domain, parodies taken seriously,...).

-They are often involving far-right's scapegoats.

-They are involving a large amount of people.

-They reject science by principle.

-The interests of the supposed conspirators are unclear or incoherent.

-Their so-called proofs are incoherent, manipulated or are proving nothing at all.

-They would be funny if they were published as parodies in The Onion.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I used to think the government was hiding evidence of alien UFO encounters to prevent widespread panic. Now I think they're using general UFO encounters as a cover for weapons testing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The military-industrial complex doesn’t need to cover up weapons testing with little green men conspiracy theories, because people susceptible to crackpot alien theories pose no threat or obstacle to them. I think those theories are largely self-inflicted.