Brian Dunning does a well researched take down of many many CT’s on Skeptoid including the big ones like Coronavirus, Bill Gates, the Illuminati, Rothschilds, JFK, Fake Moon Landing etc. He also has an episode on foreign CT’s as well.
In answer to the OP, he notes in his discussion of the CT “There is no Finland” (Yes, some people believe that the country Finland does not exist) :
Why, when it’s so ridiculous and obviously indefensible? Like all conspiracy theories, it offers its believers that most tantalizing of rewards: an insider’s perspective on forbidden knowledge. The superpower of knowing what the sheeple don’t. A superior position, intellectual empowerment, bought cheaply through nothing more than a willingness to dismiss reality in favor of a spectral alternative.
For everyone’s info, the site also has transcripts of the podcasts. So for those of us who prefer our words written, not spoken, they’re all available via that route too.
I think I’ll be wasting half of today poking around on there.
He releases new podcasts / transcripts Tuesdays and perfectly on topic to the thread, today he does a great deep dive in QAnon conspiracy theories, history and what’s behind it.
He discusses who may be behind it and mentions “A strong candidate is Jim Watkins…”. Among other things, Watkins developed text conventions “for identifying and calling out gays and Jews”. @Monty - nailed it!
When the news first broke that, in WWII, the Allies had broken the Nazis’ codes and were reading their messages at the highest command level, I didn’t buy it. It sounded too bizarre. “No way that kind of secret would have been kept this long.” G’wan, pull the other one…
Sonofagun! Sometimes, stories that are too bizarre to be real…are real!
Sam Stone “You are seriously suggesting that the root of all conspiracy theories is prejudice? Which ethnic group do the moon landing conspiracy theorists hate? There are JFK conspiracy theories that blame the Russians, the Cubans, the mob, the CIA, and a few others. What is the common prejudice between them?”
“There are some obviously racist conspiracy theories. Jewish banking conspiracies, various conspiracies accusing shadowy forces of keeping down minorities, ‘one world government’ plans, etc. But I doubt fhat such motivations make up even half of conspiracy theories.”
People who believe in outlandish conspiracy theories rarely stop at just one. Sooner or later, it’s virtually inevitable that Jews will get targeted.
While the JFK assassination has been blamed on various people and entities, it has been labeled a Zionist conspiracy (not surprisingly, this one achieved major popularity in the Muslim world). Jews, dontcha know, were behind 9/11, the Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy, the invention of Covid-19*, the Vaccination Depopulation Conspiracy and many other horrific plots.
Other racial and ethnic groups get dragged into conspiracy theories, but none as consistently and rabidly as Jews. The bigotry aspect is one major reason I detest conspiracy theories/theorists (the other reasons involve fanning distrust and hatred of good people and valuable institutions and most importantly, the sheer flaming stupidity which requires the rest of us to waste time in order to refute crap that conspir-a-morons are intent on believing regardless.
Thank you. And I believe I clearly indicated who the targets were of the WONJCTs (Whacked-Out Nut-Job Conspiracy Theorists) in my earlier post and I believe I clearly mentioned that my view was from my experience with meeting such WONJCTs.
That’s not so bizarre. The code-breaker community at the time was not that large, so there weren’t great masses of people involved, so the risk of leaking wasn’t as great as, say the Moon Landing Hoax would require to be pulled off.
There were about 10,000 people employed at Bletchley Park and associated stations during WWII. Sounds like a lot of people to me. I’m going to guess they kept its secrets the same way the Manhattan Project kept its secret: not letting the vast majority of the workers know what they were working on.
The British managed to keep it secret for nearly 30 years, though David Kahn hinted at it in The Codebreakers. Unbelievable, sure, just like some CTs. I’ve scoffed at a few things that have turned out to be true. So where’s the line between a CT and an implausible story? Apparently after the war the Allies interviewed some German Intelligence and cypher officers who all knew of weaknesses in the Enigma machines, but couldn’t quite believe that the Allies invested so much time and resources in breaking the codes.
I’m waiting for Ultra to spawn conspiracy theories, like the relatively well-known cryptology performed on Imperial Japan, which has led to the Pearl Harbor Conspiracies.
The confirmation in 1974 of the scale of the Ultra project itself created a well-known conspiracy about it. One of the most sensational claims in Winterbotham’s The Ultra Secret was that Churchill knew in advance about the bombing of Coventry but did nothing to avoid alerting the Germans to the fact that their codes had been broken. For a long time this was probably the one aspect of the revelations the general public remembered. My guess would be that lots of people don’t realise that this has since been debunked.
My nomination for an especially outlandish conspiracy theory is that the one by British conspiracy theorist, Miles Johnson. He claims that British intelligence discovered a mysterious sentient goo in the Falklands. The goo later escaped into the sewers and has replicated itself to take over every living organism on the planet. It has done this as a warning to us all against global warming. Yeah, because that’s proving to be such an effective strategy…
I think it helps that at least two of those come from pop culture, in a way. The flat earth comes from the common misbelief that Columbus thought the world was flat. And I’m pretty sure the lizard-people concept comes from that movie/miniseries V, or at least was made popular by that. That I think helps these otherwise ridiculous sounding ones spread.
I also know that at least half of the flat earth conspiracy theorists are faking. It’s just a joke to them. And that ironically helps spread things. as people start to believe the joke is real, or can’t tell they’re joking.
The Moon Landing Hoax was apparently inspired by the movie Capricorn One. At least I don’t remember any from before that movie.
As for the faking Flat Earthers, I remember someone way back in the early Usenet days having flat Earth stuff in his signature. Based on various posts he made, the guy obviously didn’t believe it; it was just a troll.
My wife just told me that one of her new Facebook friends shared a CT about how Joe Biden actually doesn’t exist but is a fictional character created by the Evil Left to eliminate Dear Leader…
New record set for fastest “friending” to “blocking”…
