What Is a Conspiracy Theory?

Conspiracy theory is something that has no concrete evidence which is presented as fact which involves a conspiracy to harm or deceive the public.

 

There is no hard and fast criteria. Obviously.

theories which 'upset me'? what does that even mean? I have zero personal investment in conspiracy theories, generally, though some professional interest in the personalities of those who do invest in them.

 

If you have some evidence to show that an official investigation can be trusted, then present it. Your inherent trust of anything official is not a substitute for independent reasoning.

By the way, the default position of science is skepticism, not faith. And I cannot think of anything less deserving of faith than so-called "official" investigations.

Officials have been lying their asses off for as long officials have existed. What sort of a person operates under the assumption that officials are always telling the truth? Or that their methods are sound?

I am naturally skeptical because I am educated in science. And I am particularly skeptical of "officials" because history is replete with examples of them lying, distorting, misstating and otherwise deceiving people.

Your faith in officialdom is basically a religion masquerading as some kind of reverence for "facts" and "evidence". In reality, you are virtually indistinguishable from people in the past who worshiped pharaohs and groveled before emperors.

 

Indeed.

 

What's "concrete evidence"?

 

con

Evidence that can be proven and verified

For example, the conspiracy theory abiut FEMA camps secretly being staging grounds for the new world order is not provable. The people who make the claim can be give a single peice of proven evidence.

 

If there is no hard and fast criteria for determining what a conspiracy theory is, then how can anyone classify something as a conspiracy theory?

 

About 99.99% of Trump's "Policy".

 

How is evidence proven and verified? It's not as if political society is governed by the scientific method.

 

Don't forget the Trump-Russian collusion conspiracy theory. That's a big one!

 

It has nothing to do with what is rational. It is true many conspiracy theories are entirely irrational, for instance the fake moon landing theory, but that is not what a conspiracy is. A conspiracy theory is one that says there is some kind of group inside the system that did something; and is now withholding or had withheld, that information. Simple as that. There are a lot of conspiracy theories that turned out to be very true, for example; The government is spying on you.

Even if they aren't literally watching your every move, they are collecting information and using it for analysis.

 

AGAIN .. reason, logic, and a basic understand of human nature tells us that Grey Aliens in My Backyard, is not the same as "I suspect my local govt is pushing through some slightly dodgy developments". That's all we have to determine these things .. logic, reason, etc.

 

Why were so many people throughout history so wrong about so many things? And what makes you people think you're any different? Because you're so special? A comforting thought, no doubt.

A great deal of human folly can be easily explained by ego.

To seriously entertain the possibility that one's worldview is wrong on a fundamental level requires an individual to suppress their ego. But the fact is, most people are incapable of this. And the older they get, the less they are able to suppress their ego. So even if the truth of the lie is staring them right in the face, they will just find some way to ignore it or dismiss. And the term "conspiracy theory" is just a manifestation of this need to protect their ego from ideas that contradict their deeply held assumptions. It has no real meaning or rigor. It's just a label that intellectually lazy cowards throw out whenever they want to shut down a debate.

 

Okay, I am going to stop putting this to you in the form of a question, since you clearly do not understand the logical implications of your position.

You cannot give an example of something unless you first DEFINE what that something is. DEFINITIONS are how you know that a particular element belongs to a set. For instance, we know that thirteen is a prime number because it meets the definition of a prime number. If we didn't have a definition for a prime number, then we couldn't give examples of prime numbers. Similarly, if you cannot produce a definition for a conspiracy theory, then you cannot give valid examples of a conspiracy theory.

 

Why are you so invested?

 

Because the "conspiracy theory" label, despite being completely meaningless, possesses actual power.

 

If it "disturbs" you so much, you are always free to LEAVE this forum (and seek out one that is more to your liking).

Your post here (the one that I am quoting) also subjects you to an infraction for violating Rule 8 (criticizing Moderation Decisions).

You might want to do a better job of familiarizing yourself with PF's Rule (especially 8 and 11), if you want to continue here.

Just some friendly advice.

 

No, but if you make a claim, saying something is a proven fact, which is what conspiracy theorists do, they need to be able to back those claims with evidence, or shut the **** up. You can make any claim you want, and if you can't at least give some evidence to back it up, you're full of ****.

 

(Washington Post) Who killed Bobby Kennedy? His son RFK Jr. doesn’t believe it was Sirhan Sirhan.

(CBS) Two of Robert Kennedy's children want new investigation into his death

(ABC) 50 years after shots rang out at the Ambassador Hotel, controversy still surrounds RFK's assassination

(Boston Herald) Evidence warrants new RFK probe

(Fox News) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’s not convinced Sirhan Sirhan killed his dad

(Newsweek) ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. THINKS SIRHAN DID NOT FIRE SHOTS THAT KILLED FATHER

So even though this story is being reported by several mainstream news outlets, my thread was sent to the conspiracy theory subforum because ONE poster called my thread a "conspiracy theory".

CLEARLY, this label has a power all its own. It means nothing, yet it can be used to censor speech. How creepy.

 

This is the little Stalinist who got my perfectly legitimate thread censored. All he had to do was call it a "conspiracy theory" and a MOD dutifully complied even though my thread was perfectly within the forum rules. And now the little Stalinist is trying to get me removed from the forum entirely. I've been here for almost eight years and never have I been treated so unfairly.

 

Okay, here's an example. If RFK Jr. says he wants a new investigation into his father's death, and his statements are being reported by several mainstream news outlets, does that qualify as a conspiracy theory?

 

I might change my definition a little. A conspiracy theory is one that all current evidence has virtually overturned (and/or there is no scientific evidence to support it), yet certain groups of people still hang onto it, because for some reason or another "they want to believe". So a conspiracy is something like "the government is spying on us". It's not a "conspiracy theory" because the evidence and data supports it. Note in this context we are not talking about scientific theory, in that regard it's more of a hypothesis.

Examples of "conspiracy theories": 911 Government Inside Job, Fake Moon Landing, Alien Abductions, most specific hypothesis on the JFK assassination (not enough evidence either way).

No, that would qualify as a follow up investigation. You can investigate the validity of 911 being an inside job. The act of investigating is not a conspiracy theory in itself.

Examples of conspiracies: Bush had ulterior motives, etc, etc, etc.

I also think a major difference between conspiracy and "conspiracy theory" is how extreme an idea is. It's analogous to "Your god claims require extraordinary evidence". So by my definition, "god" is a conspiracy theory, based on both the lack of evidence and the extremity of the idea. And now I've offended everyone.

I also agree, though, that the phrase "conspiracy theory" can be an extremely problematic one, in that it is regularly used very subjectively.

 

Conspiracy theory is anything that would suggest any deliberate wrongdoing on the part of our sociopolitical establishment. The govt loves us and could never be involved in any secret corruption.

 

Exactly. The RFK story was merely about what someone was saying. Yet the thread I started in regards to that story got sent to the "conspiracy theory" subforum because one poster kept calling it a conspiracy theory. Despite the fact that nobody can define this term objectively or consistently, it was enough to get me censored even though I followed the forum rules perfectly. This is exactly why this term must be discarded. It is nothing more then a weapon used for censoring dissent.

 

No,but when some nutjob says that the Freemasons killed JFK and RFK because they stood in the the way of their world domination (Something that plnety of people believe) with no evidence even linking them to the assassinations, that does qualify.