5 Types Of People Who Spread Conspiracy Theories They Know Are Wrong

Originally published at: 5 Types Of People Who Spread Conspiracy Theories They Know Are Wrong - TPM – Talking Points Memo

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a…

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When it comes right down to it, aren’t they all one and the same? I mean, lying liars that lie have overtaken normal discussion for the last ten years. There’s no difference between or among them. Why give any of them an out or justification for what they do?

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Timely.

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This all makes sense to me, a relatively rational and evidence-based observer. I wonder if it would wake up a relative who is stuck on some of those theories.

Years ago he sent out an email repeating a falsehood that Congressional pensions were a million dollars a year, or a similarly vast sum. I was not an original recipient – he knew me too well to try this on me. But a relative of the previous generation was taken in, and further transmitted it, including to me. I checked it out: completely false and unfounded.

I asked the original sender to include me in his distribution list, so that I could help assure accuracy and combat inaccuracy. He never replied. Would having this article’s profiles help him avoid embodying one of them? I doubt it, and I appreciate his other virtues: as a man in service to his large extended family, with a loving heart and extraordinarily good cheer, too much to try him.

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JD Vance tried to justify “they’re eating the pets” by claiming that it was the only way to get media attention.

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I don’t see any of these as “justifications.” In fact, this breakdown is a useful way of discrediting the source. If some relative breathlessly reports some nonsense, accompanied by a clickbox to “GIVE NOW!”, you can clearly point out that the guy was just trying to scam you out of your money.

Or the various other varieties. They want you to lose faith in your local elections, so you won’t vote and will lose your voice. They just want you to make trouble, and maybe get arrested, while they watch and snicker. It made you click on their page, right? So they get advertiser money and more followers.

Much more effective than just “Well, they’re lying.”

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No, they are not the same. Their situation and motivation are relevant.

By way of a crude analogy, think of the huge variation in how the law treats homicide, the killing of a human. First degree, premeditated murder and an accidental auto accident are not the same either legally or morally. Recognizing such distinctions is neither an out nor a justification.

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The common through line is that they all have a greater interest in the reward from dishonesty than they have in telling the truth. Essentially they are all morally corrupt.

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Any rough guess on the ratio between those spreading conspiracy theories they know are wrong to those inventing conspiracy theories which just come to mind like any other plausible insight – that is, arising whole, like a dream, or like Mozart said his compositions came to him?

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My sense is that the substantial majority of conspiratists know they’re peddling lies. They’re just trying to gaslight the rest of us.

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No need to over think this …
Call the conspiracy nuts what they are

FUCKING LIARS WHO KNOW THEY ARE LIARS

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But Vance didn’t stop there. He knowingly tries to misinform people about the way government works. He does it to cover Trump’s obvious ignorance of how government works AND as a bonus, to attempt to force Harris to run on Biden’s record. Telling the VP to go back to Washington and implement a policy that she is running on ignores the fact that she is the VP not POTUS.

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This is really a fascinating thing to me and my wife. Recently, while at a routine dental visit, she had to listen to a periodontist tell her – as she had her mouth filled with instruments – that PUBLIC schools were providing litter boxes for kids who identified as animals.

And she went in to great detail about it as my wife grunted and squirmed to make a reply: That these animal-identifying kids sported tails because they had something stuck up their anuses!

What the hell? Why did this otherwise intelligent woman tell such an obviously crazy tale? Why?

We are obviously done with seeing her after more than a decade of business. But I am very seriously interested in reasons for this phenomenon. Thanks. So the question is, what the hell can be done about it?

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Nothing can be done. They are terminally infected with a virus of nonsense that will eventually destroy them and us.

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I agree with this article.
There are different types of Bullshit.

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Debunk the ‘Alternate Facts’, with actual facts. Keep it short, and hit “reply all”. Gotta start somewhere.

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Yawn

Bad analogy. The difference among types of actions resulting in death is the mental state. But all five of the lie-spreaders are posited to know they are spreading lies. Intentionally and knowingly in every single case. There may be reasons to distinguish, but those aren’t illuminated by the examples you give.

For four years you remained shtum, but now you just have to dazzle us with your remarkable insight. Bravo. :yawning_face: :yawning_face::innocent:

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Republicans… Yes

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