Relationship between conspiracy Believers and the economy?

[LightinDarkness]

This is something I'd love some JREF feedback on -

Besides JREF I browse a handful of other online forums, mostly personal finance and economics. I have noticed what seems to be a disturbing trend going on.

Over the past year and a half, as the recession goes on the number of people who vocally express belief in a conspiracy theory (economics related usually - federal reserve, hoard gold and silver because the end is nigh, etc.) and the community willingness to support such views as rational has gone up. That second part is the most disturbing - before 2008, such people on forums normally dominated by rational posters would be calmly and reasonably debunked and ignored. Now, calls of "keeping an open mind" (standby CT ruse to stop people from debunking them) dominate such discussions.

I suspect a correlation to the recession because its a perfect example of a real world complex event that is often hard for people to understand. Conspiracy theory fills the gap well because it explains the recession as a diabolical plot by some outside group and it allows people to blame the group rather than themselves for not having a job, not being able to spend as much as they used to, etc. Its much easier to believe conspiracy because it removes any sense of personal responsibility and allows one to believe they understand a complex world event.

I have not noticed this outside the interwebs - and it may be, like the 9/11 movement, something that stays on the internet. In any case, its still an interesting phenomena. Anyone else noticed this on other forums they browse or in everyday life?

[Praktik]

The economic downturn being a "planned and orchestrated event" was the first example my father gave of how his soon-to-be-new son was woo(my sister's fiance who i talked about in the "My Sister is Going Down the Rabbit Hole" thread).

Though I'm not entirely sure that personal responsibility fits the bill in all cases. But I think you're onto something with the "complexity" premise that begins that paragraph. Rather than absolving them of any personal responsibility for their economic condition, I see the conspiracy answer as absolving them of any responsibility to actually learn and think deeply about systemic nature of incredibly complex economic phenomena.

There's plenty of well-off woo people out there who would still be using a an over-simplified CT explanation for a complex event.

[Travis]

It's human nature to want simple explanations. Conspiracy Theories often provide a nice compact explanation and often also have the advantage of having the perpetrators be someone local they can try and punish.

[LightinDarkness]

Right, its true not everyone believes in the woo because of personal responsibility, but I think when it comes to economic woo the class envy does influence some people. Its not everyone though, as you point out even rich people (Like Alex Jones) push the craziness.

The complexity issue is I think key though - why bother understanding macro economics, cyclical business cycles, and everything else when you can just claim that TEH ILLUMINATI DID IT.

[LightinDarkness]

I just found a REALLY good analysis of this - ABC is referring to it as "pessimism porn" - that people are seeking out and trying to read the most apocalyptic and end-is-nigh stuff they can get their hands on because it makes them feel more intelligent and like they know what is "really going on" - which has EERIE similarities to conspiracy theorists, who get into it partly because they enjoy feeling like they are enlightened and know more than the "sheeple."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=7299825&page=1
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/53858/

They mention the two most well known doom mongers, Gerald Celente and Peter Schiff - much beloved by the conspiracy community for 100% doom predictions 100% of the time. Of course, they are wrong all the time because almost nothing they say comes true, but when you predict doom 100% of the time you get a hit every now and then and thats what the CTers focus on.

[Malkuth]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

:p

[LightinDarkness]

Pay absolutely no attention to the fact that there is no man behind the curtain, run around in circles and panic!

:p

[Travis]

Another aspect of this is the fact that sometimes people delude themselves into thinking that the powers that be have much more control of things than they actually do. I think they find this somewhat comforting and only becomes an issue when something monumentally bad happens (like 9/11 or a recession) which forces them to either drop their belief or start believing the people in charge actually willfully created the disaster.

[dudalb]

It's human nature to want simple explanations. Conspiracy Theories often provide a nice compact explanation and often also have the advantage of having the perpetrators be someone local they can try and punish.

In some ways, they are also more comforting then reality. If all the ills of the world are caused by Evil Conspirators.then my elminating the conspirators you can almost automatically create Utopia. That is more comforting then admitting that the forces that create problems are complex and probably beyond any quick and easy fix or maybe even control.

[richman2112]

This is something I'd love some JREF feedback on -

Besides JREF I browse a handful of other online forums, mostly personal finance and economics. I have noticed what seems to be a disturbing trend going on.

Over the past year and a half, as the recession goes on the number of people who vocally express belief in a conspiracy theory (economics related usually - federal reserve, hoard gold and silver because the end is nigh, etc.) and the community willingness to support such views as rational has gone up. That second part is the most disturbing - before 2008, such people on forums normally dominated by rational posters would be calmly and reasonably debunked and ignored. Now, calls of "keeping an open mind" (standby CT ruse to stop people from debunking them) dominate such discussions.

I suspect a correlation to the recession because its a perfect example of a real world complex event that is often hard for people to understand. Conspiracy theory fills the gap well because it explains the recession as a diabolical plot by some outside group and it allows people to blame the group rather than themselves for not having a job, not being able to spend as much as they used to, etc. Its much easier to believe conspiracy because it removes any sense of personal responsibility and allows one to believe they understand a complex world event.

I have not noticed this outside the interwebs - and it may be, like the 9/11 movement, something that stays on the internet. In any case, its still an interesting phenomena. Anyone else noticed this on other forums they browse or in everyday life?

This entire post is exactly what THEY want you to think.:boggled: