# Why do some people believe strongly in conspiracy theories? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 7, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945 "2016-11-07T12:56:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945/41 "2016-11-09T02:07:02Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Stupid to blame Planned Parenthood, when the real villain is Church’s Chicken. > > [The Top 5 Silliest Chicken Franchise Myths – Swallowing The Camel](https://swallowingthecamel.me/2014/07/04/the-top-5-silliest-chicken-franchise-myths/) G-d, I love that shit, but my area’s too damned white. I need to take an especially scenic (read: add an hour) route home to go there. Today, Conspiracy Brother was telling of a video where they were recycling grocery bags into rice, but even he wondered how someone could cook it into something edible. Out came my explanation of recycling plastics into rice-sized pellets, to be melted down and made into more plastic stuff. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945/42 "2016-11-09T15:52:11Z")
Last night, the YouTube app on my Roku decided I might be interested in watching a live stream from a channel called Jeranism - it was a bunch of people chatting whilst watching (and streaming out) archive videos of various EVA activities on the ISS, Space Shuttle etc. Their conversation was just things like: “See that?! The shadow moved! Shadows don’t move!” “See that corner where it’s too dark to see anything. That’s where someone is swimming and guiding stuff! The whole thing is happening underwater!” “We already know they can live-edit the footage and block people out or make them look bigger or smaller - so there are SCUBA divers missing from the shot. That’s how they do this.” “How can the ISS be so brightly lit? It’s night time right now - it should be impossible to see anything!” (I mean never mind time zones and the fact that the thing is in orbit and thus illuminated except when in Earth’s umbra - they were replaying a fucking archive video!) Morons, the lot of them. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945/43 "2016-11-09T16:09:35Z")
> [@joyfool](#): > > Apart from the superiority component, I think part of it is assuming the victim mantle. You’re an average, white male who has been bypassed for a promotion in favor of a younger, black woman? Often the people I’ve seen who believed CTs were people on the lower side of average who began by thinking they were on the higher side of it: dudes who made spelling mistakes even when speaking and who never handed in any reports on time but who thought their low GPA was a conspiracy on the part of the foreign TAs; people who would refuse to use a computer at work, but who complained about “them people” taking jobs which required using a computer. Or the parents of those guys. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945/44 "2016-11-09T20:19:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > dudes who made spelling mistakes even when speaking This cracks me up for some reason. Someone like that would be the most disinteresting man in the world; he can speak gibberish, in nonsense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-believe-strongly-in-conspiracy-theories/770945.md?page=2)