You left out a Hungadunga. You left out the main one, too.
I mean, you left out a tried and convicted conspirator whose descendents have worked to establish his innocence.
I refer to Dr. Samuel Mudd.
There were others in on it too besides him who went to prison. I was just addressing Tuckerfan’s post about the four who were hanged. Booth was the main one, Mudd was just an accessory after the fact.
and mark it fragilly.
I dunno. I wonder how the personal experiences of just a few people would be amplified into cultural imperatives. My notion seems to be the simpler explanation: gods and religions exist because we all are “hard-wired” to think along those lines (with, of course, considerable variation). You’d have a tough time these days convincing me of the reality of anything supernatural. Yet I still sometimes find myself thinking (maybe yearning) along religious lines. The impulse seems to be innate.
Your comment does generate an interesting thought: maybe the “need for explanation” is another natural part of our brain functions. Perhaps the “psychology of conspiracy theorists” is to be found there - it is just a variant of a normal behavior. This mechanistic view of behavior is probably the reason I’ve pretty much stopped trying to reason with committed conspiracists. There is as much chance of changing their minds as there is of teaching a ladder how to waltz. (Yecch. Now I’m starting to create Bugliosi-style metaphors!)