{"id":243457,"date":"2021-10-02T06:03:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T06:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243457"},"modified":"2021-10-03T07:30:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T07:30:43","slug":"are-most-conspiracy-theorists-mentally-disturbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243457","title":{"rendered":"Are Most Conspiracy Theorists Mentally Disturbed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fred Reed \u2013 The Unz Review September 17, 2021<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

Courtesy Darkmoon \u2013 Oct 1, 2021<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fred Reed is in no doubt that most conspiracy theorists\u00a0 are mentally unhinged \u2014 fanatical cranks with more than a few screws loose.\u00a0 Published originally on the\u00a0Unz Review<\/em>\u00a0as \u201c<\/strong>I Say It Was Poltergeists: The Detowering Finally Explained\u201d\u00a0,\u00a0<\/em><\/a>Fred\u2019s negative views on the mental capacity of the average conspiracy theorist has met with considerable hostility from the Conspiracy Theory Network.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article, with quotes and pictures added,<\/strong><\/em>
\nhas been slightly edited for brevity by LD.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque.\u201d \u2015\u00a0<\/strong>Philip K. Dick<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In my decades as galley slave<\/strong> in Washington\u2019s journalistic sludge fleets, I occasionally encountered conspiracy theories, such as the Second Shooter who got JFK , and that Roosevelt (FDR) intentionally let the Japs blow up Pearl Harbor, and of many sightings of alien space ships.<\/p>\n

Various psychic oddities dwelling in the crevices of the Potomac Rome worried about fluoride in the water.<\/p>\n

Like most news weasels who had a living to make, I ignored them as being fringe notions and wackos, which they later proved to be, the stories if not always the people. In any event they seemed few.<\/p>\n

Then came Nine Eleven and Covid and there were millions of conspiracy theorists (CTs).<\/p>\n

Their numbers elevated them from peculiarities to a sort of contained nation within the polity and, in the case of the vaccine worriers, a public danger in that they blocked efforts against the virus. Yet one cannot reasonably relegate a large fraction of the country to the realms of mental disturbance without explanation.<\/p>\n

What was going on?<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was another manifestation of the malaise and anxiety and creeping hopelessness that gnaw at so much of America.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

Most of their theories were nuttier<\/strong> than Aunt Polly\u2019s prize fruitcake, that Dad poured rum on every year at Christmas and lit on fire. For example, a photo of the Grassy Knoll from above showed it to be the last place in Dallas that anyone would put a sniper, being small, almost without concealment, surrounded on all sides by busy urban streets, and overlooked by tall buildings with lots of windows.<\/p>\n

The inability of the Conspiracy Theorists (CTs) to notice radical incoherence and protuberant flaws like this in their conspiratorial ointment (or is it flies in ointment?) is characteristic of the species.<\/p>\n

To my astonishment, I discovered that many among conservative friends believed in the FEMA camps<\/strong> and such, and that they became angry if these were questioned. So I stopped.<\/p>\n

The contradictions in these tales were obvious as boils on a pole dancer, as were stark implausibilities and lack of knowledge of the underlying fields.<\/p>\n

While the theories themselves soon ceased to be interesting, the psychology of the believers fascinated me.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of theories and, I noticed men (almost all CTs are) who believe in one almost always believe in many.<\/p>\n

Here are a list of the more popular conspiracy theories:<\/p>\n

\u2014 FDR helped the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Black helicopters of some presumably nefarious sort fly over America. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 A hundred FEMA concentration camps, manned but as yet empty, exist to be stuffed with patriots or conservatives or somebody. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Navy shot down TWA 800. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Jews (or, in other popular versions, the CIA, Mafia, LBJ\u2019s people, or Cuban intelligence) killed JFK. The second shooter did it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The government is buying up, or has bought up, thousands of coffins for I\u2019m not sure exactly what purpose. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Jews killed Robert F. Kennedy (RFK). <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Obama wasn\u2019t a US citizen. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Covid doesn\u2019t exist. While not existing, it contains microchips to track us. Also nanoparticles that do something probably not good. Also mRNA to reprogram our DNA. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Jews blew up the Twin Towers. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The military blew up the Pentagon with a missile. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Jews killed Forrestal. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Miracle cures for covid exist but are hidden by the government, or most world governments, to (a) make money for Big Pharma, (b) to train us to obedience as communist robots. The purpose of the virus is to depopulate the planet. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lots and lots of prisoners of war (POWs) and Missing in Action (MIAs) were knowingly left behind in Vietnam by the Pentagon. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Space aliens are stored at Roswell and flying saucers are virtually everywhere. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 There is a huge conspiracy to pretend that large numbers of people are dying of Covid. Earlier there was a huge conspiracy to prove they weren\u2019t. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Jews, nothing if not busy, are destroying white Christian civilization. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dominion voting machines were hacked. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Fluoride in the water is softening our brains (but, presumably, hardening our teeth.) <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 The 9\/11 Towers were blown up by mini-nukes, the airplanes didn\u2019t exist but were holograms, and pools of molten steel were found under the rubble months later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 There is apparently among Conspiracy Theorists (CTs) a gentleman\u2019s agreement that enthusiasts of one theory will not criticize a mutually exclusive theory. For example, when the Twin Towers fell, huge steel beams were allegedly hurled long distances, proving the use of explosives, but the buildings also supposedly fell neatly in their \u201cfootprints,\u201d proving \u201ccontrolled demolition.\u201d At least one of these has to be wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why Conspiracy Theorists, often no dummies, do not notice these impossibilities puzzles me<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Any tale is welcomed, though not necessarily accepted in preference to one\u2019s own, as long as it criticizes the \u201cofficial story\u201d \u2014\u00a0 which usually means <\/strong>what actually happened<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

Maybe to be well twisted<\/strong> you have to start with enough string.<\/p>\n

The fair few among my friends are otherwise normal and, while mostly conservative, fall within the political mainstream, at leas as loosely defined.<\/p>\n

Billions of words have been written by now about almost as many theories of Nine-Eleven but none answers the prior question of whether the conspiracy was possible.<\/p>\n

This baffles me.<\/p>\n

A tale: In Marine Corps basic\u2014OK, AIT, Advanced Infantry Training at Lejeune\u2014we had a (very, very) short course in demolitions. It consisted in crimping a blasting cap onto a length of fuse, inserting it in a block of c4, lighting the fuse, and running like hell to the other side of the berm (\u201cFire in the hole.\u201d) We saw demonstrations of how to use det cord to connect multiple blocks of boom stuff, but didn\u2019t actually do it. I\u2019m pretty sure I could have dropped a small rural bridge in Vietnam, but not much else.<\/p>\n

One thing the instructors stressed\u2014we probably would have figured it out all by ourselves\u2014was that to bring something down, you needed to cut the supports that held it up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Applying this complex reasoning to the Twin Towers, a Marine would reason that here too the supporting elements needed to be cut. What were these? Answer: the fifty-nine huge steel uprights on each face of the building.<\/p>\n

Where were these? Answer: In plain sight of all of the workers in the offices on the outer face of the building. Great big things, covered with wood facing or plaster, but visible. Visible every day. All day.<\/p>\n

Would not a Conspiracy Theorist, if he wanted to be believed by anyone outside of the community of the faithful, at a minimum have to<\/em><\/strong> explain how the Mossad agents rigged these pillars for demolition without being noticed?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No! Conspiracy Theorists don\u2019t think this way. If you\u2019re a conspiracy theorist, all you have to do is believe<\/em>.\u00a0 To know without finding out. To accept without checking<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Conspiracy Theorists \u00a0aren\u2019t lying. They\u2019re not trying to fool the public. If they were, they would try to inject a degree of plausibility into their stories.<\/p>\n

Nor do they seem to want to convince a wider public, or, surely, they would answer the essential questions.<\/p>\n

If you want me to believe that the Israelis did<\/em> do 9\/11, you have to show me that they could\u00a0<\/em>have done it. If they couldn\u2019t have, they probably didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Weirdly, Conspiracy Theorists on the web become much angrier at ME for doubting their theories than they are angry at the at the Israelis who, they assert, allegedly killed three thousand Americans.<\/p>\n

I do not recall hearing any demand for even a diplomatic protest, much less a carpet bombing Tel Aviv\u2014which would have been the\u00a0 appropriate measure to take if Israel actually did it.<\/p>\n

As of fifteen minutes ago, I have encountered a new kink in this rope: the explosives were built into the Towers at the time of construction. I suppose by a large gang of Mossad agents pretending to be construction workers The towers were finished in 1973, making them a monument to terroristic forethought.<\/p>\n

The more you look at this stuff, the sillier it gets, but the Conspiracy Theorists just don\u2019t notice.<\/p>\n

If the aim is to blame Israel, I can cook up a better story in two minutes: diabolical Mossad agents, pretending to be Arabs, talked the hijackers into the idea of the hijackings and gave them funding. Bingo! This would be almost impossible to disprove (or prove). It could be applied just as easily to the CIA or to anyone else desired, and it would leave\u00a0 leave the \u201cofficial story\u201d functioning. But this would be boring.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t get it<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

MORE CORONAVIRUS CONSPIRACY THEORIES<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Look, give me <\/strong>ONE<\/strong><\/em> story: about Covid or the Towers.\u00a0 Then stick to it!\u00a0 And show it clearly to be physically possible. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Failing this, I have to think we are dealing with no more than shapes swirling in the inner fog, instead of with reality.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I concede that traces of pixie dust were found in the 9\/11 rubble, and witnesses report a dancing light, consistent with Tinker Belle\u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

LD (<\/strong>comment)<\/strong><\/em> :<\/strong>\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s time for the omniscient Conspiracy Theorist to take a good look at himself in the mirror and ask himself:<\/strong> \u201cIs that really ME \u2026.. or is it someone else impersonating me?\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are sure many readers will vehemently disagree with what Fred Reed writes. We don’t agree either, but we post this for the sake of balance, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39256,"featured_media":243458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243457"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243487,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243457\/revisions\/243487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/243458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}