A curious trait I've observed among this contemporary strain of conspiracy theorist is the invulnerability of his spirit to disappointment, that his philosophical momentum is barely affected by being continually kicked in the balls by reality.
Most recently, this manifested quite obviously surrounding the election. It seemed as though every day something new and earth-shattering was promised by the usual cast of con artists like Lin Wood or Ron Watkins. Something was about to be revealed that would end Biden's campaign or change the results of the election or restore power back to Trump or restore power back to the military, et cetera. And when every promise predictably amounted to nothing, this didn't remotely shake the devout beliefs of the conspiracy theorist. Why? Because his beliefs aren't based in any kind of material reality. It's faith and nothing more.
It reminds me of some things that Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in "Reflections on the Jewish Question" which I'll paraphrase here:
It is a way of feeling good, proud even, rather than guilty at the abandonment of responsibility and the flight before the impossibility of true sincerity. He abandons himself to the crowd and his bad faith, he "flees responsibility as he flees his own consciousness, and choosing for his personality the permanence of the rock, he chooses for his morality the scale of petrified values."
He pulls down shutters, blinds, mirrors and mirages over his consciousness to keep himself in his bad faith away from his responsibilities and his liberty. He is afraid "of himself, of his own consciousness, of his own liberty, of his instincts, of his responsibilities, of solitariness, of change, of society, and the world...
He is a coward who does not want to admit his cowardice to himself.
So I ask you, somewhat sincerely, what keeps you going when every single earth-shattering prospect (always just around the corner) amounts to jack shit?
Most of us do not invest in the sort of Q type conspiracies to which you refer. See greatawaking.win if you want that sort of religious fervor and blind abandonment of reason. To me so called "conspiracies" are simply exercises in free thought. Striving for hypothesis to give meaning and structure to the world. Some of us are not comfortable just accepting prevailing wisdom. There is plenty of historical precedent for gaps between what authorities propose and the truth. Questioning the status quo is extremely healthy for stimulating constructive debate and smashing the walls of our echo chambers.
Are our hypothesis and theories always correct? No. But neither are the establishments various schemas. And most of the people here are more capable of contemplating multiple perspectives than most. It not as if we give full stock to every "conspiracy". Who is to really say that what you believe is not just a "conspiracy theory". Live a little. Lighten up.
No doubt. I'll also admit I made a mistake in the way that I phrased my post in that I don't believe there is a monolithic definition of a conspiracy theorist, I'm speaking more to the people who post blatant disinformation and never take any responsibility for it.
This is something I disagree with, however. I don't believe most people here care about the pursuit of truth, I think they simply want their biases, prejudices and suspicions confirmed. No one is here to have their mind changed and the perspectives are just as rigid as they are in the comments section on some CNN or MSNBC article.
I agree with you on point number one. Especially when it pertains to important contemporaneous political information. Tick tock can be very damaging, especially when it is meddles in organic social movements.
I think that most people in general don't care for the pursuit of truth, as long as they are comfortable. Only a small percentage can or will contemplate outside of their predominant conditioning. That is true here as well. But it is not unique to this space. It is fully innate in humanity.
I had a guy in a bar once tell me that that Russia is 100% in Europe and there's no part of it in the Asian continent. I took out my phone to show him, because you know, it's pretty common knowledge it has a large land mass above China and is right across from Alaska, and the guy told me he would punch me in the face if I showed him a map.
Ignorance can be bliss I guess, I'd rather be proven wrong and learn something.