Editing Conspiracy (section)

== The Mindset of Conspiracy Theorists ==
[[image:Pattern seeking brain.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Evolution: where "feature" and "bug" are the same bloody thing in different circumstances]]
First of all, there is a spectrum of interest in conspiracies and similar. This ranges from a passing interest in the mythology and legitimate investigation of shady events by journalists and similar who methodically do their homework to full blown wack-a-doodles who end up stockpiling meat, ammo and gold and are set off by pizza parlors.

Conspiracy theorists are well known for coming up with totally batshit ideas, taking a few random points of data ranging from symbols on dollar bills to the price of cheese to Backstreet Boys lyrics and linking them together to get people to believe that a 300 year old English gentleman's club is plotting to retake the 13 colonies for the British Empire to facilitate the ambitions of the squid people of Tau-Ceti (or something else equally absurd). Sometimes you get people which end up falling down the rabbit hole into a dream world of aliens, real magic, torture and shadowy cabals. Outsiders who are critical are either mindless sheep or to some degree working for ''THEM''. A group of these guys can end up reinforcing their shared delusion.

Most obviously, conspiracy theorists (at least the hardcore ones) are often paranoid and some are even schizophrenic. They get stuck in a self reinforcing loop. As to why they get there, that's complicated. First of all humans are biologically hardwired to search for patterns and our brains do turn up false positives on that front. Second there's an element of wonder to it; the same thing that made people imagine fairies living in the forest in the middle ages. If aliens actually were sending ships to earth to monitor people, that would be kind of cool. Similarly they often get emotionally invested in their position (which is not a failing distinct to conspiracy theorists by any means). But among the biggest and most specific contributing factors is a desire for simplification. We live in a world with a vast web of people, groups, organizations and interests constantly trying to make their way and achieve their goals around various human and non-human factors, often against each other. A mess of monkeys fumbling for meaning and working at cross purposes is inevitably chaotic and often highly inefficient, confusing, frustrating and a hazard to those caught up in it. To some people, the notion that the current state of things can be deciphered and in the end the mess that the world is in can be traced to a single group with an written agenda is appealing.

This is not to say that there are not people in power which try to pull shady shit in the shadows. It does happen, but (among other things) there is a distinct diseconomy of scale to such clandestine operations. The larger, more protracted and more unhinged the conspiracy the more points of failure and the greater the risk of exposure. Steve finds out a bit too much about your long term plot so you have him murdered. Only problem is that Janet saw your hit-squad kill Steve, recorded it on her phone and called the Police and now they are looking into it and you got a new set of holes to plug. Your typical conspiracy is not an ancient secret society with a thousand year plan to dominate the earth, but some corporate types and their 'fixers', a government agency or some other body with money and influence doing something to make off with even more money, eliminate a rival or to achieve some other specific immediate goal when an opportunity arises. If it gets exposed 30 years down the line, it does not matter for the leadership as it’s a ''fait accompli'' and they are either retired with protection or comfortably dead.

Ironically enough, one thing that groups in power can use to get their way is capitalizing on conspiracy theorists and their ideas and tendancies. In the 19th century the absolutist monarchy of the Russian Empire found itself under pressure by various groups of reformers and revolutionaries. To counter this, the Tsar's secret police directed ire away from the Romanovs (the ruling family) and the nobility and towards the Jewish minority (and, later, other ethnic groups such as the Japanese). This nonsense spilled out of the Russian Empire and festered outside even after the Tsar was shot, in particular it was picked up by the [[Nazi]]s. Of course, one of the big dangers of this tactic is having it come back to bite you; in Imperial Russia's case, many people blamed Russia's woes on the corrupt influence of Gregori Rasputin on the royal family. When he died, it eventually became apparent that Rasputin had little to do with the royal family's decision-making and they were ousted not long after.