Conspiracy Theorists Aren't Crazy

yakherder

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Okay I'm just kidding, they are crazy. But this is still an interesting article nonetheless.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4264

... "For the past few million years, our ancestors faced a relatively straightforward daily life. Their job was simply to stay alive. Like us, they had different personalities, different aptitudes, different attitudes. This was borne out in many ways, but the classic example that's often used is that something would rustle in the tall grass. Some of our ancestors weren't too concerned, and figured it was merely the wind; but others were more cautious, suspected a panther, and jumped for the nearest tree. Over the eons, and hundreds of thousands of generations, the nonchalant ancestors were wrong (and got eaten) just often enough that eventually, more survivors were those who tended toward caution, and even paranoia. In evolution, it pays to err on the side of caution. The brains most likely to survive were those who saw a panther in every breath of wind, an angry god in every storm cloud, a malevolent purpose in every piece of random noise. We are alive today as a race, in part, because our brains piece random events together into a pattern that adds up to a threat that may or may not be real. As a result, we are afraid of the dark even though there's rarely a monster; thunder frightens us even though lightning is scarcely a credible threat; and we perceive the menace of malevolent conspiracies in the acts of others, despite the individual unlikelihood of any one given example." ...
 
I think there probably is a cost to being hyper vigilant. Stress to the body, increased energy use, stress to the mind....when there does end up a real danger, maybe the person will be too desensitised to protect themselves.....maybe they will be too scared to take risks, and so lose opportunities, because they are frightened of a panther 'down that valley'.

Still, I think there are reasons for conspirator beliefs, that are not just mental health reasons.....maybe if someone in someone's town has got a woman locked in their basement, then there will be some subconscious awareness of it for the other residents....I kind of tension, and paranoia, and some people will fixate on something like the JFK assassination, to try to make sense of the atmosphere of suspicion. Or maybe not just someone's town, but the whole world..
 
What makes a person a conspiracy theorist?

Difficult question to answer. When someone habitually molds information to mean something it doesn't necessarily mean for the sake of seeing something they are, for whatever reason, predispositioned to want to see even if it isn't really there?
 
Jokes aside (i.e. conspiracy theorists being crazy), I'm withholding judgement. I can see both sides from a survival perspective. If you're driving on a road full of road ragers, it pays to see a wreck waiting to happen at every intersection. If you live in a third world country with an underpaid, corrupt police force with no incentive to do their jobs, it pays to see a mugger, child molester, or kidnapper in every dark alley. If you're in a modern combat zone with rifles that can take your head off from a mile and a half away, it pays to see a sniper behind every window. But in day to day life, it can also cause you to miss opportunities in the name of caution that might have otherwise eventually turned into survival advantages themselves (whether it's a juicy looking fruit in a dangerous looking tree or a job promotion you had to take a chance to achieve). I couldn't even guess how it balances out in the end.

The more traditional conspiracy theories are more like a T.V. drama except more fun to watch. I'm glad life is so entertaining.
 
I was so surprised I just laughed. What if she said that to someone who hadn't heard of the reptilian thing? :eek:

You should have said, "I am not a reptilian. I am a Zeta-Reticulan Shapeshifter. Your slurs are hurtful to me and I will not be attending this clinic in the future."

Then hissed at her and walked calmly away.
 
I have brown eyes and i think I might be type O. Is type O associated with any eye colour?
 
I have brown eyes and i think I might be type O. Is type O associated with any eye colour?
I don't think there's any real correlation to eye color, it is all some weird conspiracy thing.

O+ is the most common type, so a good one to have in case you ever need blood. O- can donate to any other blood type; they keep emergency units of that ready in the hospital for traumas.
 
So the Antichrist is supposed to come with the Mark of the Beast, right? And it's supposed to be something cool, like the iPhone, that everyone wants. (Remembering this from the other thread which is gone for some reason)

I bet it'll be a magic device called the iChrist. The logo will be an ant. Families will buy them thinking the ant represents hard work and good values, and by the time they get the clever pun it will be too late.
 
I find that many of the people I know who are self avowed conspiracy theorists often tend to be skeptical of the wrong things, like science or well established social systems that modern civilization would collapse overnight without (taxes, for example.) They tend to be libertarian types and to say the least not very progressive on race or gender issues. Maybe that's just here in the Bible Belt but that's what I encounter.
 
I don't think there's any real correlation to eye color, it is all some weird conspiracy thing.

O+ is the most common type, so a good one to have in case you ever need blood. O- can donate to any other blood type; they keep emergency units of that ready in the hospital for traumas.

I thought O+, was the universal donor?
 
I thought O+, was the universal donor?
Donor blood has to be negative if the recipient has negative blood, or the rh- recipient's body can attack and reject the + blood. O blood is not its own "letter", it is really a lack of A or B, and rh negative blood is a lack of +. Therefore O- has nothing in it to cause the recipient's body to fight against it, so we keep a few O- units at the ready in the hospital in case there isn't time to type and screen the patient. :)