Not all Americans, but huge numbers of people believe that:
[ul]
[li]Kennedy was killed by the CIA or KGB or the military industrial complex or the mafia or Elvis[/][/li][li]Area 51 is an alien base[/][/li][li]Space aliens travel billions of miles across space and have nothing better to do other than make crop circles or stick probes up people’s bottoms[/][/li][li]the CIA has hundreds of brainwashed assassin robot killers out there[/][/li][li]the moon landings were faked[/][/li][li]all of the above is not reported in the press because the press is secretly operated by our reptilian ovelords or something[/][/ul][/li]Just wondering really why this is so
Kennedy was assassinated because he was insubordinate to our reptilian overlords. I thought everyone knew that…
I think so many Americans, as opposed to, perhaps, citizens of other nations, are so inclined to believe in such things is because so many are just so darned mis-informed. That, and the fact that, being a relatively wealthy nation, Americans have little else enough to worry about (note: yes. I am aware that that is a sweeping generalization. My point is that most poor countries, as well as the poor of this country, probably have too many other things to worry about than whether their government is secretly harboring alien fugitives from the Andromeda galaxy). Perhaps that, and the general mistrust of science that so many seem to have in this country; many conspiracy theories seem to be the modern-day equivalent of witch-hunts.
What are you a cop?
I bet you actually work for the CIA or NSA and just posted this to see who would reply so that you could track their postings and monitor their activities.
blink
“son of a b****, got to go and earse my harddrive!”
If I was in the NSA, I wouldn’t **need[/] to post here to keep track of dopers. It’s being done anway
::evil grin and sinister music::
I’m too young to know but- I think it may have something to do with the great TRUST people put in the government before the sixities, what with it being the savior of the world and all (my mother has talked to me of the great hope there was in her generation-after the one that defeated NAZIS-what couldn’t they do?).
When people found out the government was not as noble as they had been brought up to think it was, and, indeed, had done things they could not imagine, they thought it might be capable of anything.
i think a sence of betrayal might have something to do with some of the conspiricy thinking.
Anyway kennedy was killed by the mafia and aliens have not visited earth.
Don’t forget Jack’s great Jewish circumcision conspiracy. Thats the biggest of them all ya know.
There is a fantastic book on crowd psychology which has been in print for over 150 years: “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, first published in 1841 by the Englishman Charles Mackay. The one I’ve got now was published in 1987 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, so it’s still out there. Chapters are devoted to the witch hunts, the Crusades, modern prophets, the Tulip Mania, etc. and you learn that there’s not much new under the sun.
Anyway, in the introduction to the 1852 edition, Mackay wrote:
"In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first…Some delusions, though notorious to all the world, have subsisted for ages, flourishing as widely among civilized and polished nations as among the early barbarians with whom they originated–that of duelling, for instance, and the belief in omens and divinations of the future, which seem to defy the progress of knowledge to eradicate them entirely from the popular mind…
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” [Hey! New sig!]
So it’s not new and it’s not just American, of course. Look up the UFO craze in China and the witchcraft riots in South Africa right now for starters. However, as far as America goes, I think there’s a few things going on:
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Our great men (and women) are invested with so much admiration and power that they simply can’t be subject to suicidal tendencies (Marilyn Monroe) and drug problems (Elvis, although his seems to have been accidental) and car accidents (James Dean) like the rest of us poor slobs.
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Americans for the most part had ancestors who chose to be here and feel therefore they can control their destinies, perhaps to a greater degree than some people in other nations. When reminded that random stuff happens, in nature and history, they don’t want to believe it. SOMEBODY must be in control! Sh*t like ____ doesn’t JUST HAPPEN!!
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Betenoir had a good point: while a healthy cynicism of government power is vital to American life (some real characters among our politicians but no dictators yet), since Watergate we’ve lost SO much trust in them that things like the moon landing conspiracies seem easy to believe. That one really bugs me: I think it was James Randi that said that you must be a truly sad and petty person to not take joy in this great human achievement.
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Great people, when killed, should logically be killed by other great people, or at least by Mysterious Powerful Forces behind the assassins. Martin Luther King couldn’t have just been killed by some cracker with a rifle, it had to be the FBI. Kennedy wasn’t killed by a sharpshooting ex-Commie, it had to be the Mafia (or CIA, or Fidel…) I don’t think it works that way.
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Our commitment to equality, while usually quite laudable and genuine, all too often results in a mistrust of the gifted or scientists in general. What, you think you’re smarter than me, pal? Well, if you are, why aren’t you rich??
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Mauvedog’s got a point, too–we are relatively rich, and a bit spoiled, and some people want to believe in bad things just to have something bad out there to balance their good lives. However, I think poor folks believe in silly stuff too!
One last thing to leave you with, which is totally OT but too good to ignore: Mackay on Nostradamus, in his chapter entitled “Fortune-Telling”:
“The prophecies of Nostradamus consist of upwards of a thousand stanzas, each of four lines, and are to the full as obscure as the oracles of old. They take so great a latitude, both as to time and space, that they are almost sure to be fulfilled somewhere or other in the course of a few centuries.”
You tell 'em, old chap! 
People seem to need to believe is something. If God is dead, they’ll believe in the Government. If the Government is corrupt, they’ll believe in aliens.
Don’t tell me the telepathic slime molds from Ganameyde 7 aren’t all they’re cracked up to be!
Everyone needs to believe in something.
I believe I’ll have another drink.
Heck, McKenna said it best with the best cite.
Just adding this…Every country and culture worth it’s salt has a folklore. We call ours Urban Legends.
Conspiracies are nothing new to the United States; we’ve been believing in them since the founding of this nation. Anyone who grew up and went to school in this country has been told time and again that we revolted against an unfair government that tried to keep us in the dark and shut us off from the process of making the decisions that affect our own future. This is true enough, but I think there’s a hangover attached to this. In the interest of eternal vigilance against tyranny, Americans have always been on the lookout for coverups and abuses of power. American folklore is full of ghost stories and exaggerations, just like any other country’s, but we seem to be bigger on the government coverup idea than other nations, perhaps because of the way our government was founded on the principle that you really shouldn’t trust government. It’s almost unamerican to not believe in conspiracies.
The belief that there are aliens landing and mutilating cattle and sending coded messages through Who’s the Boss reruns is in step with a long American tradition of distrust of our government combined with mixed feelings about technology’s impact on our lives. In the 1870s, for example, numerous dairy farmers actually sued the government because the passing trains upset their cows to the point that they could no longer give milk—and many actually won their cases! Further, there are reports of mysterious steam-powered flying machines that plagued the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains toward the end of the nineteenth century, when the power of steam was really getting harnessed. Jules Verne’s last book, {I}Master of the World*, features such a machine which is run by a genius, loner inventor à la Captain Nemo who terrorizes people. This steam-powered machine can fly, move over land, and navigate undersea.
Verne’s book was fiction, of course, but his machine was based on popular myth of his day. (I think this book was written in 1904, or some time around then.) There are plenty of news reports of such machines across the United States and possibly in other countries, as well—none of which have ever been substantiated. Over the years people found more impressive technology and somehow decided that flying steamships were just too silly, and that if we were to have some sort of nefarious flying mechanical monster, it would have to use better (read: more modern) technology.
I think that the UFO flap of today is just an extention of this fine tradition. I’m a fan of the Weekly World News (no, I don’t believe their stories are real) and I find it to be some of the most delightful cultural commentary going. The Weekly World News is another beauty of American invention. I mean, I don’t think there’s anyone out there who actually believes that its stories are real, but there are enough people who do believe that there are all kinds of weirdos out there who believe—how’s that for a new kind of wild speculation?
To add to/clarify McKenna’s post, I would say that conspiracy theories are people’s response to feelings of powerlessness as they are swept along by great historical and economic forces. If they think that events are caused by a small group of people-- the White House, the UN, the “Illuminati”, etc.–pulling strings, they can gain power over them by exposing their plans (if only the media wasn’t involved in the conspiracy). You might call it a sort of reverse megalomania.
Well, sadly, we have a lot of idiots here…
Yer pal,
Satan
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Six months, four weeks, 15 hours, 57 minutes and 31 seconds.
8466 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,058.32.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 4 weeks, 1 day, 9 hours, 30 minutes.
David B used me as a cite!*
There is a book recommended by http://www.skeptic.com entitled Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer. While the book apparently does not go into conspiracy theories (I haven’t read it), it does say this, according to Skeptic’s review (which is on that website):
There are other reasons people believe weird things, but I think that one applies more to conspiracy theorists than the remaining ones.
[Moderator Hat: ON]
Satan said:
Sadly, you are pushing the envelope again. That is an obvious insult, and will not be tolerated. Got it?
If this is somehow not clear to anybody, feel free to e-mail me and I will explain it in detail. Please do not clutter this thread with any follow-up questions.
David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator
[Moderator Hat: OFF]
jab: Of course that site recommends it – it’s written by Shermer and Shermer is the head of the Skeptics Society! 
Be that as it may, I recommend it as well. You can check out Skeptic News ( http://www.skepticnews.com ) in the books section for a link to a review I wrote and you can check out scientium.com for another short review.
I didn’t remember how much Shermer dealt with conspiracies, so I just checked my copy and it doesn’t really address them much. He mentions conspiratorial thinking in connection with Holocaust deniers, but that’s about it.
Also, here’s an article I wrote a few years ago about dealing with some UFO enthusiast/conspiracists: TRN - Feb 1997 - The Conspiratorial Superhighway
Colin Wilkinson listed some common conspiracy theories in the OP, including:
[QUOTE]
[li]the moon landings were faked[/li][/QUOTE]
I’ve always wondered why the same people who cannot believe that we could send people to the moon usually have no trouble believing that alien species regularly send their spaceships here from other stars.
Duh.
'Cus those aliens are way more advanced than we are.