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Conspiracy Theory and Psychology (You're all mad!)

JKD

JKD

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This Great Awakening is like chasing the end of a rainbow, or so it seems to me at least.
 
Chi13

Chi13

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Found this for another thread but worth posting here. A perfect example of how a Conspiracy theory can start, and eerily similar to Qanon imo, but dated 1906.

The confession of Taxil, the French Free-thinker, who first exposed Catholics and then Masons, makes interesting reading bearing on the present situation today. Similar motives actuate some of the "muck rakes" of today, as indicated in the following confession:

"The public made me what I am; the arch-liar of the period," confessed Taxil, "for when I first commenced to write against the Masons my object was amusement pure and simple. The crimes I laid at their door were so grotesque, so impossible, so widely exaggerated, I thought everybody would see the joke and give me credit for originating a new line of humor. But my readers wouldn't have it so; they accepted my fables as gospel truth, and the more I lied for the purpose of showing that I lied, the more convinced became they that I was a paragon of veracity.

"Then it dawned upon me that there was lots of money in being a Munchausen of the right kind, and for twelve years I gave it to them hot and strong, but never too hot. When inditing such slush as the story of the devil snake who wrote prophecies on Diana's back with the end of his tail, I sometimes said to myself: 'Hold on, you are going too far,' but I didn't. My readers even took kindly to the yarn of the devil who, in order to marry a Mason, transformed himself into a crocodile, and, despite the masquerade, played the piano wonderfully well.
"One day when lecturing at Lille, I told my audience that I had just had an apparition of Nautilus, the most daring affront on human credulity I had so far risked. But my hearers never turned a hair. 'Hear ye, the doctor has seen Nautulius,' they said with admiring glances. Of course no one had a clear idea of who Nautilus was, I didn't myself, but they assumed that he was a devil.

"Ah, the jolly evenings I spent with my fellow authors hatching out new plots, new, unheard of perversions of truth and logic, each trying to outdo the other in organized mystification. I thought I would kill myself laughing at some of the things proposed, but everything went; there is no limit to human stupidity".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxil_hoax
 
H

Hempy McNoodle

Well-known member
JKD said:
This Great Awakening is like chasing the end of a rainbow, or so it seems to me at least.
Click to expand...

Well, I agree. I don't want to be strung along. Especially, when it could lead to me being rounded up as a 'Domestic Terrorist' just because I was sharing my thoughts regarding documented events. So, I hope there really is some sort of plan to use law and order to prosecute high level criminals and restore liberty.
 
G

Guest

Thank you Chi for the old story from France! Here's an even older one ...

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” (Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC)

But I wanted to say:

OK. So if we look at the previous list (Janis 1972) of factors contributing to Groupthink, can we see there was Groupthink in the White House during the Trump administration?



  • “Illusion of invulnerability”:
    It certainly was a big deal that the Republicans managed to achieve Office and confound the experts. Most people would be likely to get swelled heads after pulling off such a coup.

  • “Shared stereotypes: Members disagree with information they do not like by discrediting the source of the information.”
    There was stereotyping of Asians particularly Chinese, when Trump many times called Covid the “… Shina flu”.



  • “Rationalising: Members reason away problems or issues that prevent the group agreeing.”
    It’s only the Flu!



  • “Illusion of Morality: Members believe that as moral individuals they are not likely to make bad decisions.”
    Who can forget the White House inner circle et al using riot Police to clear demonstrators so that they could have a photo op in front of a Church? So they could try to create an illusion of morality!



  • “Self Censorship: Members keep silent about their misgivings and try to minimise doubts.”
    I think Doctor Anthony Fauci wins my prize for keeping silent about misgivings. Who else?



  • “Direct pressure: Sanctions are imposed on members who have different viewpoints.”
    The sacking of James Comey springs to mind here. And you will recall there were regular sackings.



  • “Mindguarding: Members protect the team from being exposed to disturbing ideas/information.”
    Something that stands out for me is when California Representatives asked for more money to fight wildfires/combat climate change … and Trump said the climate was going to get cooler. When a California rep asked Trump about the Science of climate change Trump said words to the effect that Science is untrustworthy. (So Stereotyping and reasoning-away are often part of Mindguarding.)
    And a White House medical expert told Media the graphs she made to show the size and scale of the Pandemic in the U.S. were altered to minimise their effect before those graphs reached the President.



  • “Illusion of Unanimity. Members conclude the team has reached a consensus because the most vocal members are in agreement.”
    Senior Republicans are responsible here. There were many occasions they could have contradicted the President but apparently lacked the courage to introduce conflict into the ‘team’.
    And also I think of the rich real estate lady who flew in from Vegas (was it?) in her private jet to take part on the assault on the Capitol. She claimed the Nazis Nuremburg defence: “I was only following my President.”
So I would say it’s clear there was Groupthink in the White House.

I think the increasing availability and use of Social Media has led to a form of National Groupthink in the U.S. I think this national groupthink resulted in the acceptance of, or tolerance of, Conspiracy Theories. For me broad scale belief in Conspiracy Theory rests in low expectations that anyone but a ‘strong man’ of the Trump type can resolve the powerlessness experienced by the uneducated and powerless in the U.S. This is the same social dynamic that saw Hitler rise to power.

And for those of you who my last statement enrages I ask you to think of the Republican Senator who recently said that he could not see a crisis large enough to warrant the new Administration’s request for Billions of Dollars of Relief. If he could not see a crisis … where was he looking? Or was he not looking, and like Trump, was lost instead in some fantasy of his own importance?
 
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H

Hempy McNoodle

Well-known member
Agreement is different from group think. Group think is when mass beliefs are unfounded, but because it is the dominant belief, people assume it is true. This is particularly true when it comes paired with authoritarianism.
 
Absolem

Absolem

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picture.php
 
flylowgethigh

flylowgethigh

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Hempy McNoodle said:
I think that this is all part of "the plan." I think we are witnessing the great awakening. I think the military is in control. I think the Durham indictments will be coming soon and will be impressive. I think more incidents like the whole Game Stop "short stock" scandal will continue to become public. I think now that Trump is out of the way, they can't call him a dictator when shit goes down. The people are waking very quickly and will side with the military. The National Guard is deployed through March. So, as long as that deployment continues, Hempy will remain hopeful.
Click to expand...

Hempy, wouldn't it be nice if the national guard just locked those gates around the criminals in DC, turned off the water, and we starved the critters out?

The leaders of a free country do not have to lock themselves behind walls with armed guards, as they screw the citizens to help the ememies.
 
Brother Nature

Brother Nature

Well-known member
groupthink

/??ru?p???k/

noun
noun: group-think



  1. the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision-making.
    "there's always a danger of groupthink when two leaders are so alike"







"Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Wikipedia"
 
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