I’ve often been fascinated by the Conspiracy Theorists who come to this board and advocate for some whacko theory that defies most common sense. This is partly because I have never met one in person, until now.
A family member is staying with me while she waits to join a commune. Apparently in the last year she has gotten involved with the Occupy movement and has started spouting all the normal CTs: vaccines, 9/11, chemtrails, nuclear power is Evil, etc. I’m not enough of a bastard to openly mock her but I do try engaging her in debate. I know from other Dopers’ experiences that I have no hope of dissuading her from the veracity of her theories but I do find it interesting.
It’s all nonsense, of course. She’s tried to convince me that 50% of Americans are living below the poverty line. Yesterday she was going on about all the radioactivity from Fukoshima (sp?) that was causing fish off California to be mutants. When I asked for proof she showed me a news article of (supposedly) mutant fish; I immediately pointed out that the article was from 2007, as noted in the byline. Oops. She said she’s going to find me a more recent article. Just hasn’t happened yet.
Actually, that one’s not so crazy. I don’t know if an increase in mutations of the fish stocks has been observed, but I do know that there has been an increase in the mutation rates of insects after the disaster. Specifically, butterflies. I’m not talking about Mothra here, just wildlife being harmed by the released radioactive material. You can read the BBC story on the study here.
Again, it doesn’t mention fish, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if higher mutation rates in fish stocks are observed in the next few years. Fish migrate, so we are already seeing radiation contamination in Bluefin Tuna off the coast of California.
I think it’s obvious what’s happened. These fish have developed the mutant ability to travel back in time. We’re facing the ultimate crisis: an X-men/Terminator/Jaws-level crossover.
I have a close family member that is a conspiracy theorist on a number of things. For instance, he’s still a birther, even now. After that Arizona Sheriff did the whole study “proving” that it was fake, and considering that my PhD study was in topics very similar to what he supposedly uncovered, I figured he might listen to me especially since I have no agenda to protect the “cover-up” (ie, I’m not a supporter of either major party). Nope, apparently the sheriff knows more about the technology than me, despite that I’d studied it in graduate school and am currently employed in a similar field, and the patent information on PDFs was falsified and all number of things.
In the end, I’ve realized that people some people are reasonable and logical, and some aren’t, and most people are somewhere in between, rational about some things and irrational about others. One’s got to try to talk logic into someone because, hey, maybe they’re just ignorant of the other side’s arguments and how much better they are. But once someone starts grasping onto straws and digging in their heels, you’ve just got to let it go.
Like most (I assume) CTers she’s all over the map. She occasionally talks about how the government is limiting our freedoms (she’s also mentioned the magic words “new world order”) and then she’ll rant about how there should be laws preventing Wal*Mart from opening new stores. Oy.