The surprising role of deep thinking in conspiracy theories | Hacker News Reader

The surprising role of deep thinking in conspiracy theories

psyche.co

7 pointsbananis12 comments

I think there are two elements to consider in regards to conspiratorial thinking:

1) reality is fractal. The closer you look at facts, the more detail you see, and noise too. It becomes harder to discern a picture (or a specific picture, the accepted one).

2) the more improbable the facts, the more information and meaning you get from them. So it's tempting to connect the most unexpected elements because they're the ones that give a deeper sense of discovery.

There is a grand conspiracy against your natural destinies. You and your civilization are being looted.

These crazy conspiracy sub-cultures you identify with are only the restless who "feel" something wrong yet cannot coherently relate to what.

It is a shame even HN will neg me when I say "the conventional narrative is a lie."

QAnon is pretty normie now, so you might rethink your ideology on conventional.

The greatest conspiracy our time is that we are not alone in our own minds. The voices in our heads are real and they are stirring everything up with this crazy shit. There is a secret culture, and secret governance and a secret war upon us all.

I posted a link to the NY post article about the mom who killed her kids because "God" told her to, flagged immediately. Or there is the one about the woman ends up dead in a creek after hearing demonic voices. Or the half dozen shootings. That's just the last week.

No less than one in six of us can hear these voices all the time. It is taboo to speak of it.

Read my past comments, the ones which haven't been flagged anyhow. How long will this one last?

There is no ‘they’ here. The voices in your head - as radically different as they may seem from the voice you identify with as you - are still you.

You are wrong. It is more than just voices, those skilled in thought control can move between minds, manipulate our emotions (our sexuality), control our involuntary systems, and more you will refuse to accept.

We are not alone in our own minds and a secret war is upon us.

I’m going to say this in the small hope that you may consider the possibility.

If what you say is true then there are people who can control others minds, thoughts, emotions and physiology. Therefore, for each one of us - including you - there are only the following possibilities:

1. The controllers are currently controlling me. This implies that some or all of our behaviour is not the result of free will but of manipulation.

2. The controllers have attempted but failed to control me. This implies that the controllers are not omnipotent and it is possible to resist.

3. The controllers have not yet attempted to control me. Being aware of this implies that it is possible to tell when an attempt is made to control us.

4. I am a controller.

These are the only possibilities I can see with respect to what you are describing, assuming what you’re saying is true. So which of these options are you and what makes you think that?

Which of the above am I in your view? Also, if someone is being controlled, why even bother arguing with someone who isn’t or doesn’t believe it? It’s not like they’ll become convinced by the argument. They’re either able to be controlled or not so discussing it is moot.

There is of course the probability that what you’re describing is not true. That would imply that perhaps the organ with which you are trying to reason about this - your brain - is the problem and needs treatment. As someone who has been formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD, has struggled with depression, spent time in a psychiatric clinic, and is currently on medication and undertaking ongoing therapy, I can say that my mind has never felt clearer, I am more content, and more able to deal with past trauma and difficult situations.

I urge you to seek help.

There are not "only" so few possibilities. I was press ganged into a thought control hooligan army, my morality and stubborn will made this impractical. I have had primitive conditioning for controls (it takes decades to master.) There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of thought control thrall with middling skills. Of these there are tens of thousands who can actually "control" significantly enough to run a coup (usually by extortion). Of these hundreds are so superior they are like gods to the other controllers. All society since the beginning of time has had a small population who possess these capabilities (in simpler form perhaps, modernity has industrialized Power like everything else.) Clues are in our literature and historical accounts.

Even today, there are many references to these underground communities ("networks" or often "families") though any sign anyone gives will be something easily blown off as bullshit.

So, the point is not for you, the point is to leave this mark in the mind, such that through time this account will be undeniable.

You are correct, that you are incapable of doing anything about it. The crisis is so severe it drives many of our pressing issues.

To be silent in the face of a conspiracy of evil is to be complicit.

I am the help, I am your undeceiver.

you might be interested in this article (https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-psychiatric-narrative-hinders...) – been posted here before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41434484)

Yes, and I bring first hand account it's your thought control messing with you (everyone, and for a long time.)

Look for accounts of the voices in people's heads urging them to seek medical help for problems they didn't know they had.

The voices are real and they're messing with us. It's not new, it has only accelerated (nature of modernity and all.)

Be wary and stop denying.

I should add, I believe this a part of human evolution, and we are stuck in a dark time.

by the way, for me, all this seems to have more to do with meaning-making frameworks (cf. article). all good.

It's the nugget of truth that spreads conspiracy theories. People see that they're being lied to, or a problem is less complex than it actually is, and they rightfully question what they've been told. The failure is many of these people become cynical, and instinctively reject anything the perceived authority says, which leads to crazy theories like we never went to the moon, or vaccines cause autism.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com