Conspiracy theories play a significant role in individuals’ decision-making and are often linked to the belief in conspiracy thinking. These theories often focus on secret scheming by powerful individuals and aim for a proportionality between events and their causes, rejecting the idea that conspiracies are at play. They can also harm social relationships and erode the fabric of society.
Despite the prevalence of conspiracy theories, it remains unclear whether they pose a threat to democracy or fuel political engagement. Studies have shown that over 55 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory about various issues, such as the Iraq War, 9/11, Barack Obama’s birthplace, the 2008 financial crisis, and “chemtrails”.
The correlates of specific conspiracy theory beliefs mirror those of conspiracy thinking, indicating that many citizens distrust powerful societal institutions. Research has identified several negative sociopolitical attitudes as correlates of conspiracy theories, but to date, it remains unclear who demographically is most likely to believe them.
A study on antisemitic conspiracy theories showed that they can make groups turn inwards for support and more fearful of others. In the past year, conspiracy theories have had a big impact on politics and public health, with results indicating that citizens’ belief in conspiracy theories predicts voting behavior and intentions.
📹 Why we are all attracted to conspiracy theories
Recently,QAnon, Covid-19and5Gtheories have gained traction and criticism while less controversial conspiracies like thefaked …
📹 WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES
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An exceptionally good article completely to my taste. In technical analysis, statistical programs are used to find patterns and relationships in data. However, the difficulty is to prove that there is a relationship and that it is not just a coincidence or due to dependent variables. I wish conspiracy theorists had a little insight into how incredibly complicated this is! Thank you Professor!
Excellent work on that topic. As a scientist I can tell due to the work we do we are on one side closer to that kind of problem, but on the side better protected against it as well. If you really blindly believe in your hypothesis (illusionary pattern products) you will fail scientifically. So it is fun to make up funny big castles in the air in your mind, but we always fear the moment when the measurement results are finally finished and we see them all crumble again and again.
Prof, interesting presentation. As a “Rational Republican ” I was glad to see Carlson go. The premise that the bio work being done was some how clandestine seems taking things a bit too far. After all how were all the drugs discovered? In labs. For the good of millions. Naive ? Maybe. Fool me once on that deal.
Good article, Darin. As someone who leans left, I completely agree that there are left-wing conspiracy theories, driven in part by anger at the other side. Social media has created echo chambers, and being in echo chambers means we don’t understand the other side. As a result, we feed partisanship by unintentionally angering people outside our echo chamber. What to do about it? Those who lean left or right talk to each other more. As we build relationships with each other, we’ll be better at not provoking hostility.
@18:40, Dr. Gerdes, it wasn’t clear what your comments were about the bio-labs when Dr. Pope (whom I have met before he had this position in the agency) said that Russia has bio-labs. I served at the DTRA from 1995 to 1999 as a weapons inspector under the CWC, START and INF treaties. I have personally visited a few Russia bio-labs in Moscow and in other remote locations. I have visited former facilities in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine as well, and I have been to our facilities. I won’t comment on our facilities, however, facilities in Russia still exist. I also participated in the removal and destruction of chemical weapons. I am confident that all nuclear and chemical weapons were moved to Russia from the other countries as per the agreements, and/or destroyed per the agreements. However, the strained relations between Russia and the US for the past 10 years have caused problems in this regard. I know that the US was serious about the destruction of chemical weapons and continued to fulfill its obligations under the CWC. It is interesting that Russia has violated the long-standing MOA from 1994, Budapest Memorandum, see wiki. Russia violated distinctly and openly 2 stipulations, the return of nuclear weapons to Belarus AND that Russia, as well as the other signatories would guarantee the safety of those countries. The US is living up to its obligations under law, Russia IS NOT!!!! Also, the US do have different categories for labs, there are the disease labs where infectious pathogens are stored and studies, even universities have those labs under supervision, however, Russia have more blurry lines in this regard, the labs around Moscow are both.
Phenomenal work, as someone who turned 18 in time for 2016 & voted for different parties on both recent elections. (Idk if there is a correct decision but I certainly didn’t make the popular one.) It’s pretty wild to see how effective a lot of the infectious rhetoric is, as it had been on myself but yea. Miss the old wings of both parties at this point 😭 never thought I’d ever said that.
JFK and story telling Those who believe in one conspiracy theory likely will believe in another one, the article shows. It’s gets weirder and everybody has already met with those people. These people not only believe in one conspiracy theory of the death of JFK. They believe in multiple theories at the same time, despite they are all conflicting. The article is arguing the people don’t like uncertainty. I don’t fully agree here. When they believe in multiple conflicting conspiracy theories at the same time, they don’t gain any certainty, just more confusion. They maximise the amount of thrilling stories. They don’t like to believe in a version, that is most likely but just boring to tell. So my conclusion is, it is less about certainty and uncertainty. It’s more about story telling. This simple minded people don’t measure reality by logic. They measure reality by how often they hear about something. I good story is more often repeated and so it forms their reality.
Dr. Gerdes, Thank you for this, and your many other articles. I recently stumbled upon you, and I think your content deserves a wider audience. These are very good thought-provoking articles and should have a wider audience. I hope you do not resent unsolicited advice: 1) You should really have a presence on Twitter. Not to spout opinions, but to post links to your articles with brief explanations. It might help draw people to your website. 2) Your articles are choppy, the audio is fine, but the article playback lags a lot. There are solutions to this and if you need technical help, I might be able to help. 3) If you do not want or are hesitant to ask for me personally for help, here are some things to do (assuming you are using a laptop or similar): A) Close tabs you are not going to use B) Close other applications you are not going to use for your presentations C) Start from a clean reboot and then open what you need for your presentation (i.e. tabs, article links, etc.) D) Assuming you are using a laptop: Upgrade it (more memory, SSD, etc.), replace it with a more powerful one, or consider using even a modest desktop for better performance E) Turn off notifications on phone, computer, etc. during presentations, they are distracting and do not contribute to the content Please do not take this as criticism. The content is great! The presentation articles are a bit painful due to a lot of lag and articles that are embedded in your presentations. A lot of the embedded articles simply do not play but luckily the audio does.
Information flows all around us, but peer review has declined in new information websites. News editors, Judges, Book editors, Science Journals all have a peer review process. The internet and social media is one area this peer review fails. Another area is in cults which forbid any deviation. The topic is important and the discussion useful. Thank you.
I’m new to your website. I saw the title and figured you’re just another liberal professor, so I loaded up my comments venom ready to strike, gave you a few minutes, and you quickly got to the summary point, described your own politics – which was key – and that’s all it took. I’m now your newest subscriber!
Assessing the plausibility of a conspiracy theory involves examining numerous sources, employing rational thinking, and practicing critical analysis, all of which require a significant investment of time and energy. Unfortunately, many people opt for the path of least resistance and fail to engage in this process. Conspiracy theorists are often less educated and possess inferior critical thinking abilities compared to those with more education. They tend to be close-minded and hesitant to consider alternative viewpoints that contradict their pre-existing beliefs and conclusions, perhaps due to the potential harm to their self-image, alienate themselves from their peers, or the exertion required to do so. This may be attributed to pure laziness.
This reminds me of what Asmongold (a streamer) once said about his mother. She was all into that QAnon stuff. And she said things like „2 weeks and Hillary is in prison” or „2 weeks and they will find the servers”. And he noted its always 2 weeks. So each time he said he could wait 2 weeks for this claim to turn out true or false. And each time it didnt turn out true. So each time after 2 weeks he confronted his mother. After a while she probably admitted for herself that she fell for QAnon conspiraries even though she never really admitted it to him. That being said, regarding those voting machines. I think, even if there was no manipulation going on, US should go back to paper only. I think its safer. And by doing so, you restore trust in the system, the democratic process.
I agree with you. Like you I am a Reagan conservative and agree with the Reagan Doctrine and know Reagan would have supported Ukraine. It baffled me how conservatives went from USSR is evil to Russia is good. So like you I come up to the same conclusion as you do concerning some of the conservatives. I want to expand the discussion to other conservatives who may not think Russia is good but promote more of a Populist/Isolation view. The America first crowd. Saying we should not be spending money on Ukraine when we have problems in USA that we should be spending money and this is money that we do not have. USA has been protecting the world long enough on the USA. I respect this argument however I strongly disagree. USA has been a stabilizing force for long time. Yes, we make mistakes and Tucker and Russia point these mistakes out all the time. But, overall USA has lifted the world with our trade, security of trade routes, and protecting other countries from larger countries. If USA becomes Isolated again the bad countries will fill that void. Did we not learn from the isolationism before World War I and World War II? Helping Ukraine has become a moral issue due to all the Russian atrocities on the Ukrainian people and the actual genocide of the Ukrainians. Stalin tried to wipe out the Ukrainian people and replace them with Russians in 1933. Ukrainians remember this. Besides at this point if USA stops helping Ukraine what will are friends, allies and adversaries say and think? “See USA is not reliable and will leave you when you need them the most.
I just happened upon your website seeing Operator Starsky’s interview. Then I saw this article. I am so happy to hear you cover this topic. I have been very frustrated as a Republican conservative who understands what is happening in Ukraine. Not only do I understand but it hits home. My family emigrated from Ukraine, the Lviv Oblast to be precise when they were pushed off their family farm when Russia was confiscating the land in this area prior in early 1900’s. They were specifically from Sambir. Many families were pushed off their landat that time. History continues to repeat itself with Russia and Ukraine, Russia wanting to rid the world of Ukraine, it’s people and culture. Hearing so many people on the right talk about Russia being in the right in this invasion has completely blown my mind. Growing up in the era of the cold war and being afraid of war with Russia for good reason at the time, how could these people think of Putin and Russia in a positive way is mind boggling and frustrating. Glad you are covering this topic.
30:45 I like his point about simple explanations to large problems. After 9/11, when Bush vowed revenge against the people who did this, my grandmother said, “How can he get revenge when everyone who did this attack is already dead?” She had a great point: the hijackers already all committed suicide. If we had accepted the Taliban’s offer to try Osama bin Laden in a neutral country a couple days before the start of the War in Afghanistan, we could have saved a lot of money and a lot of innocent lives. I didn’t understand why we needed him handed over to the US with no conditions. There was a minor conspiracy of a couple dozen or few dozen people which lead to 9/11 but the response wasn’t proportional.
As one who regards himself as a recovered evangelical, I can plausibly claim to have been tuned in to the unholy alliance of the ‘full gospel’ church crowd with Republican dogma since all the way back to the 1980s. It might be hard for anyone not familiar with this sector of American society to accept on face value just how readily these people tie their politics in to whatever their favorite pastors and pundits are telling them about the ‘Last Days’ or ‘End Times.’ I have heard these terms constantly for decades around evangelicals who are otherwise just ordinary middle class Americans, quite often having to do with why America must support Israel; this has little to do with any real-world foreign policy objectives, and a lot more to do with an oft-stated belief in revisionist interpretations of the Book of Revelation. The people who elected Ronald Reagan because they believed (erroneously, in my view) that he stood for ‘traditional values’ were people who spent decades hanging on the every word of blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Chuck Swindoll, who could state with a straight face that America was founded to be a ‘Christian nation’ according to their own ‘born-again’ definitions of what it is to be a Christian, and who believe in supporting Israel so there will be Christians in the ‘Holy Land’ when Jesus comes back, which might be any day now, etc, etc. Just the other day I had a conversation with a neighbor, a regular guy who drives escort and pilot vehicles as a contractor and who served in Desert Storm.
Another good article on an important topic. For me what is concerning is the media in moving left for its own agenda is causing distrust in a huge chunk of society and we are seeing the outcome in terms of a polarised divisions which can easily turn into violence. We all need to place truth above all else or WE ALL will pay the price.
That was a really good analysis. I have been wanting to find a way to combat the Carlson cult, but I find myself struggling to come up with a concise way of expressing my concerns to my populist right friends. I hate to call them conservatives because I feel many have abandoned core principles of American conservatism. But I may pass along this article as it addresses the issue more eloquently than I could. It strikes a nice balance of educating without alienating.
Hearing in the US Senate. March 8, 2022. Marco Rubio, Senator: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?” Victoria Nuland, Deputy Secretary of State: “There are biological research centers in Ukraine. We are worried about this because Russian forces may try to take control of them. We are working with the Ukrainians on how they can ensure that any research material does not fall into the hands of Russian forces.” This is how her full quote sounds, and not cut off in a half-phrase as in your article. 19:14 Correct answer to this question: “No. According to our information, Ukraine does not possess chemical and biological weapons.” Victoria Nuland answered the direct question evasively. Maybe you were in cryosleep? Otherwise, I don’t understand why you forget about Colin Powell’s test tube at the UN, the WikiLeaks documents, Elon Musk’s interview about the influence of the US government on twitter, and much more. Personally, I remember these events and it seemed to me that people who ridicule others for conspiracy theories remained in the dense 2000s. In 2023, with a huge number of facts in our hands pointing to numerous conspiracies in which the US government is involved, those who refute the very existence of the possibility of a conspiracy theory, especially in relation to the United States, should be ridiculed. You are ridiculous upd: 21:45 Zelensky’s phrase is also not fully translated. He says: “We don’t have it. But we’d love to (get it) The text translation cuts off the second part of his phrase.
Geese NP, you provide logical common sense and people don’t appreciate it? Even with my diminished mind, this was easy to follow… Maybe I should sneak into one of your classes to enlarge my simpleminded thinking… Tucker Carlson? Opps… People do tend to pay attention and listen to BS, then react accordingly. Guess his time was up when people finally didn’t care for his opinions any longer. Very good article. Thanks NP. Glory to Ukraine! and Condemnation to Russia!!!
Conspiracy theories can be debunked with the Byzantine’s General problem. It’s a computer science problem that Bitcoin attempts to solve, but as an application to conspiracies is that it is impossible to get all players to agree to the same agenda since every player has their own set of personal agenda.
Everything you said is right but I think it goes deeper and reflects a genuine epistemic issue faced by MAGA conservatives. They know that their values and concerns differ from those of the educated city dwelling elite and that those elite won’t raise the kind of concerns or worries they would so they can’t trust their conclusions. But if they lack the both resources to evaluate the primary sources for themselves and don’t have any experts they feel they can trust what can they do? And the populists feel (with justification) that there aren’t experts and elites out there they can trust to share their values and thus raise arguments/evidence if it exists. Take a look at how the epidemiologists handled the BLM protests as opposed to the earlier conservative protests. It’s not that they said anything false but because the experts were sympathetic with (or worried about blowback) BLM they didn’t mention the danger the way they had with earlier conservative protests. Did they say anything false? No they didn’t, but if all you did was take them at face value in either case alone the MAGA ppl realize they’d have been screwed (eg if just BLM had happened no pressure to stop it..if just conservative protests lots of talk about how bad it is). And despite being pretty far left on many issues (UBI, open borders, let ppl fuck around with gender and sexuality) I often see this kind of reporting bias infecting expert results. All the time I hear about some big study finding gender bias in such and such STEM field but if I go read the journal article it turns out the primary variables showed no bias (or the bias disappeared with decent controls) and it’s just that the abstract and headline findings report some result in a crosstab.
Oh I am feeling your pain, and I also appreciate as a conservative your attempt to “both sides” this…but unfortunately this is not a both sides issue even if we as Conservatives so wish it was, you sound like me from 3 years ago. So many of my conservative friends have simply gone off the deep end into insanity, when we talk its like we are talking different languages, facts mean nothing. If I ask for evidence I get nonsense or “DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH”. I can still argue withy my more lefty friends, they will at least try and make a lick of sense and quote actual facts and proof. My right wing friends think im some far left commie for questioning their nonsense about Deepstate cabals and voting fraud and stolen elections, evidence means nothing to them. Its obvious to an old gardener like me that the climate is changing, its effects are doing damage to my home and have cost thousands to fix. Its fact that CO2 causes insulation and that its levels have risen 25% so this is beyond doubt. But I bring up climate change and I get how its a conspiracy to steal our cars and money and make us eat insects while we own nothing…..How do you argue with that? All the conspiracy BS is right wing and I so wish it wasnt. You know the right has lost its mind when former Republican presidential candidates like Romney and McCain are now truly hated by people who once voted for them while those that didnt vote for them think of them as decent reasonable people
Why does “the media lean left” ? I don’t agree with that claim, I just think that the overton window has shifted right. From my perspective here in Europe, most US media a right leaning. I would consider most of our right-leaning media to be well left of CNN or MSNBC. I do think that mote conservative people temd to care less about facts and more about dogma and authority. This used to be balanced by the authority of experts, but the US convervatives have become very anti-science and anti-experts due to the coal, oil and tobacco industry. This has removed the main anchor to keep conservatives linked to facts.
I would suggest a distinction between two political streams within conservatism today. The Traditionalists who hold to the basic principles of American conservatism, and the so-called Authoritarians (Trumpists, Tucker Carlson, MTG, etc.). I am German and in GER (as in more or less ALL!! western democratic countries) we observe exactly the same split into the both currents of Traditionalists and Authoritarians. While the GOP is home to both currents, in Germany f.e. two independent major “conservative” parties established: the larger one (CDU, center-right) and a smaller far-right party (AfD). In contrast to the center-right voters AfD members and voters are strongly attracted to a) authoritarianism and b) conspiracy narratives, just like US Trumpists. AfD voters support Trump & Putin. The Traditionalists don´t. My point is that just because someone is a conservative voter and prefers consistency and security (i.e., looks for patterns) does not necessarily make them a supporter of conspiracies with a penchant for authoritarianism. (Wasn’t claimed in the article either.) To me, the question of what keeps conservative traditionalists from switching to the authoritarian camp is much more interesting. The majority doesn´t but why? Additionally pushing and spreading conspiracy narratives like TC on Fox did is a means of gaining political influence and power. To me, the overall rise of (conservative) authoritarianism in the west is a reaction to globalization and societies that are much more diverse than they were 20, 30 years ago – not the discontent with main stream media.
I find this very interesting as I live in Sweden, and here we have about the same conspirancy theories around. But it seems worse in the US. Among my friends there are several who distrust state media and see this pattern that all is set up to take our freedom and money. Until the war started I also met the belief that Russia was the last country to stand up for freedom and sound values. But now I did not hear this reasoning about Russia for over a year… I still wonder why these people at the same time tend to be pro Russia, climate sceptical, think the whole covid thing was set up and being racist at some degree at the same time. Why this combo?
Full disclosure. I’m a Boomer and one of the early cadre. You chart by year lines up with the Boomer generation coming into the workforce and the rise of leftist academics in the universities. The students that were taught by the academics were coming out of the universities and the majority of those pseudo-marxists were not going into the trades, or technical fields but into politics, media, bureaucracy, and academia. As the leftists came to dominate those fields people who once were Democrats began to see their reality not being represented by the these elites. Many became or leaned Republican. As Reagan said: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, it left me” Without faith in those institutions it becomes easier and easier to believe in conspiracies. When you know something is wrong with what your told by those institutions it becomes easier for people to become interested in the those who give you explanations for what you’re feeling is wrong. The Left is also subject to believing conspiracies, but I think the reason is different: Post Modernism as Jonathan Peterson contends. For them, feelings trump reality so anything that supports their feelings must be “true’. Hence, the Steele document must be real because they hate Trump and that supports that belief.
Spot on. This is less about Ukraine but more about hatred of Biden and what he represents. Hilary called a big percentage of US population “deplorables” and Biden is perceived, especially with his woke policies, as carrying the same attitude. When people are talked to with contempt they will respond emotionally. Even if rational thing would be to support Ukraine, Biden success in Ukraine is unacceptable for those on the far right but also quite a few on the far left.
I just realized that you say, “hello my friends” right after your opening. I overthought it and went on a half hour Google Translate session to figure it out, duh.🤦🏼♂️ You need to find a Slavic peer to teach you a quick Ukrainian accent, I love the opening either way.✌️ Ps. Just switch your voter registration to Independent already!? And, Ronald Reagan…really? Please give me one example of “trickle-down economics” actually working? Income inequality has gone off the rails professor. Love the show, even if you’re misguided in your longing for the imaginary “Good Ol’ Reagan Years.” Just my personal data, I really do love the direction your website is going in-keep it up!✌️ICTORY 🇺🇦
Very insightful, again. “What would Reagan do?”….wouldn’t it be something if he was here during this war. What would he do. I have my thoughts about it. Trying to explain why certain people are more prone to conspiracy is very difficult. Great attempt here, I have heard nothing that I would not agree with….or is that my bias judging here 😊. Keep posting! Kind regards from the Netherlands, Alex.
Ok, this is all very fine and I agree with what you say about the psychology of conspiracy theorists, but this does not mean there are no conspiracies. There are plenty of conspiracies, take any history coursebook and you will hardly find anything other than conspiracies. Just because it`s difficult to tell a conspiracy from a conspiracy theory doesn`t mean there are no conspiracies happening at the present time. As to why conservatives in the US CHOOSE to believe Russian propaganda, well I think to cut off the nose to spite the face. In other words if the Democrats are saying and doing something, let`s do the opposite.
Good point that lack of education and from it less knowledge to use as tools to think trig things happening means feeling more helpless and being more susceptible to conspiracy theories. It’s the same in areas where terrorism grows through radicalization if the population which also are less educated and feel more helpless. Conspiracy theories and radicalization in terrorism are different, but they both share a major catalyst and are both tools of mental colonialism.
I really liked a lot if what you were saying….and then you said you are a Republican….OK. But when you added, “a Reagan Republican” I was stunned….long enough to hear you repeat….like you are proud if it. Well, I guess you are. As much as I like your caring about Ukraine, I just cannot understand being PROUD to call yourself a REAGAN Republican…I lived in San Francisco when he was president. I will never forget him calling out the National Guard against the students at UC Berkeley, during the Free Speech Movement; calling the students ‘scum’ and ‘trash’. “How far do we go in tolerating these people and this trash under the use of……’freedom of expression”. ? I honestly do not understand this admiration of someone I have (due to my own experience, not hearsay or propaganda), seen as an authoritarian every bit as evil as Trump…who certainly is of his lineage.
Whether the author accepts it or not, the acceptance of conspiracy theories indicates an unwillingness to work on a particular subject, and, I’m afraid, limited education and intelligence. While his understanding and logic is realistic, it affects only certain people within the above range. While there are exceptions, these are few and do not undermine my position.
I think there’s some unhealthy ‘both-sides’ing in this article. For example, saying Hillary and Trump were both ‘fighting dirty’ and would ‘do anything’ to become president, implying that they were both playing the same (dirty) game by the same dirty rules. Consider this: -One of them was claiming their opponent was corrupt to the core, and should be locked up, and was wrong. Benghazi was nothing to do with Hillary. The email server was nothing. I mean, when you look at it from a modern perspective, it was *nothing*. -The other was claiming their opponent was corrupt to the core, but also narcissistic, dangerous, and evil. And… she was 100% right, and then some. Trump has since been shown to have been involved in crime after crime after crime; so freaking many of his advisors literally went to jail for things they did during his administration. His lawyer was jailed for crimes committed during, and as part of, the presidential race, for a thing the former president was totally involved in. It’s almost beyond belief, but he tried to pull the US out of NATO. He had secret meetings with Putin. He tried to extort Ukraine in an attempt to fabricate false evidence to smear an opponent in the next election, then he tried to incite a literal coup (that cost literal lives and endangered all of congress) and fabricate a frack ton of fake ‘evidence’ when he lost that election. I could go on and on. There is no both sides to this. They were both fighting hard, and saying similar things, but one was making stuff up, or making mole-hills into literal mountains, and the other was telling the complete and utter truth.
We got our first glimpse of Russian penetration into the GOP in 2016. And the ROI on the aid to Ukraine, and the benefits it gives the US, is such a no-brainer, that opposing it is a tracer for who is on Putin’s payroll, imo. Off the top of my head: 1. Surpassing Russia in LNG and oil sales to the EU. 2. Funds to replace the Bradleys (etc) that the Army is *decommissioning anyway*. 3. Expanded market for agriculture. 4. Expanding orders for defense contractors, while at the same time, harming their main competitor. India and China have both cancelled sales because they see how inferior they are. 5. Factories in TX, PA, and others spinning up to produce all kinds of things for UA This war will define the geopolitical structure, commodity markets, and supply chains for the rest of the century. To claim that the outcome is not in the US’s interests is ignorant at best. When I saw a GOP lawmaker say about the aid “We’re just not seeing it”, alarm bells went off. Not seeing what, exactly? What was he expecting to see? He offered no explanation or specifics. He didn’t even really make any claims, just a vague opinion. The GOP has become unrecognizable to me. Reagan, the messiah, would have parked three carrier groups in the Black Sea, told Turkey to shut up and take it, and then deleted everything with a Z in Crimea. I see Putin bootlickers now.
At the end of 2019, a young Chinese scientist wrote to his colleagues in Boston and London that he had discovered the appearance of a virus that he’d not seen before, and an uptick in frequency of appearance. Two months later, he was arrested and died in jail from that very virus. That’s February or March of 2020. Those colleagues and competitors, in turn, shared the info further, as well as the fact of the arrest. That means that, at the time that commentators on the right were claiming hidden conspiracies that “nobody is talking about”, the news was all over the academic research community and the journals that they tend to read. I saw it, because I keep loose tabs on them, as a habit left over from my days in newspaper tech research.
One theory is that conservative beliefs are associated with a heightened sensitivity to threats and a stronger response to negative stimuli. Research has found that conservatives tend to have a larger amygdala, which is a part of the brain involved in processing fear and anxiety. This may contribute to a greater emphasis on preserving traditional values and social hierarchies, as well as a preference for familiar environments and a greater aversion to change. Another theory is that conservatism is linked to a stronger adherence to rules and social norms. Studies have found that individuals with a more rigid personality tend to have more conservative political views. This may be related to the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for impulse control and decision-making, and is believed to be more active in conservative individuals.
You want to sacrifice yourself for a war we can’t win and a dictator just as bad, possibly worse, than Putin, go for it. But don’t lecture us on why “we” need to fight it and call us who don’t want to waste lives and money “conspiracy theorists” (most of which have been proven correct). I hope that was “respectful” enough for you, since you aren’t being respectful to those who disagree with you. The facts are out there fir anyone who wants to see. Ukraine isnt winning and won’t win, regardless of the propaganda on this and other websites.