2min chapter

The Infinite Monkey Cage cover image

The Age of Conspiracy?

The Infinite Monkey Cage

CHAPTER

Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories at Heart?

I think the reason why people believe in conspiracy theories at heart is because it's reassuring. The world is full of very random accidental stuff, and it's very hard to process. And so, it's simpler just to think that there is a force or a number of forces that you or only you and your mates on undiscovered.com have managed to crack - even if they're evil. I once saw an American comedian, and I don't remember this guy's name, which is really bad at me because I've quoted this quite a lot,. but it's an important thing for my point of view. He just said, I blame the Jews, it's quicker that way.

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Speaker 2
So, I think the reason why people believe in conspiracy theories at heart is because it's reassuring. And it's reassuring because the world is in fact full of random, you know, a quantum physicist can tell you this. The world is full of very random accidental stuff, and it's very hard to process. And so, it's simpler just to think that there is a force or a number of forces that you or only you and your mates on undiscovered.com have managed to crack a code that you've cracked that sorts out the world. And even if that's evil, it's more reassuring to think that there are people in control, there are shadowy forces, I say people, they could be lizards. In control, then the idea that the world is generally random. I mean, speaking personally, that I once saw an American comedian, and I don't remember this guy's name, which is really bad at me because I've quoted this quite a lot, but it's an important thing for my point of view, which is when he came on stage, he just said, I blame the Jews, it's quicker that way. And the thing is that the reason that Jews are so often, and almost every conspiracy theory does end up with this idea of the Jews, is that really the Jews are just stand-ins for the idea of a kind of superior force and somehow, heavily controlling the world. And although it leads to genocide, at some level, what the people want to imagine that is that that force is there because it comforts them. It comforts them and makes them think that life is not just completely random and accidental.

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