People are prone to believing in conspiracy theories due to various personality traits and motivations, including the desire for understanding and certainty. These beliefs are widespread and often unchallenged by American officials. However, psychological factors and non-partisan/ideological political factors also contribute to the belief in conspiracies.
For example, African Americans are more likely to believe conspiracy theories that involve a White plot designed to harm or kill members of their African community. The internet has made people more aware of incidents that sound like conspiracy theories, leading some to believe that powerful people or groups are secretly plotting to accomplish their goals.
Conspiration theorists propose that powerful people or groups are secretly plotting to accomplish their goals without having collected rigorous data to support their case. This belief is often justified and points to a need for widespread change. However, many of these beliefs are often justified and point to a need for widespread change.
African Americans’ distrust of mainstream institutions and authority figures has manifested in a variety of conspiracy theories. Most Black Americans say they have experienced racial discrimination regularly or from time to time, which informs how they believe these institutions intentionally or negligently harm Black people.
Over time, African-Americans’ distrust of mainstream institutions and authority figures has been manifested in a variety of conspiracy theories. A Pew study found that most Black people are suspicious of government institutions, with a long list of reasons why Black people are suspicious. The delusion of conspiracy theory is assumed to result in an incapacity for social and political action.
📹 Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? | Michio Kaku, Bill Nye & more | Big Think
“I think there’s a gene for superstition, a gene for hearsay, a gene for magic, a gene for magical thinking,” argues Kaku.
📹 Black people and conspiracy theories
A lot of research in the United Sates, including some by the United States Department of Justice, suggests that African-Americans …
It is a character trait with a significant number of the ethnic black population that they have a right to everything and anything they wish for. If it is not gifted to them the cry of ‘white racism’ is raised. A typical example was the recent conviction of a black female MP convicted for serious threats to her partners ex-wife. She openly stated the trial and conviction was racist. A senior black female Met Officer was convicted at Crown Court, resulting in her being placed on the sexual offender register. She appealed following her dismissal from the police. An employment tribunal found her dismissal unlawful. There are many more examples of such malfeasance actions. There will be no chance of this accepted attitude until it is openly challenged by academics and Government within the UK.
I started to believe in conspiracy theories ever since noticing the large number of black people in commercials, in period dramas on television, and voice overs introducing television shows / programme on every single UK television website. Well, the entire Caribbean was handed to West Africans so I’m not surprised to see the same thing happen a lot closer to home.
I remember discussing the moon landings with a black colleague in South Africa, He was adamant that it never happened . I told him of my experiences at the time, I was 10 years old . The rocket launches before the actual landings, the attention that the whole world paid to them and the actual landings, the radio broadcasts and the film footage . I had also been to the Kennedy space center and seen the rockets used and touched a piece of moon rock . To this he replied that the Kennedy space center was as far away from him as the moon was and he didn’t really believe it existed either .
It’s a function of how widely people read. (And I thought this problem was peculiar to South Africa! )Here, quality reading is not a very popular pass time, even among Whites. In the Black (Majority), reading very widely approaches zero. During the recent looting in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the popular joke is that the only retail outlets spared were the Exclusive Books retail chain.
I believe that it is a human trait to look for someone or something to blame for things that happen that we do not understand. The existence of religion is a good example. To explain death, storms, floods, droughts, etc, it was necessary for people to create gods upon whom blame could be placed. Sometimes things are blamed on completely innocent people purely because they are different, new, strangers, acting oddly, have red hair or blue eyes, six toes, the need to find answers to unknown questions is intense. It is therefore ignorance, I think, not necessarily intelligence that determines the need to blame.
I’m caucasian mostly and I looove conspiracy theories as long as there is enough evidence to make them plausible and insufficient counter evidence to mark them as improbable or impossible. I don’t always have sufficient time and definitely insufficient resources to research, but the thought experiments are lovely.
This relates to your earlier article when you pointed out that black people, though competent in their own sphere, have poor general knowledge. I have a partial explanation that would cover both, though the education establishment would reject it out of hand. Only part of our knowledge is obtained by formal education. A large part is acquired from family and friends. An individual may learn what is taught in school, but if his family and friends are ignorant then he will learn little outside of that, indeed without the background knowledge ordinarily supplied outside of school he will have difficulty mastering the material taught in schools. The only solution I can propose is time, as in generations of it. As some black people escape ignorance they will pass their knowledge on, and the problem will fade. The shorthand for that is that they lack human capital, which takes generations to acquire (as does physical capital)
I’m 58 and grew up in the south. Black’s were treated badly. There was a lot of hate between the races on both sides but black’s were treated poorly by it’s own government until the late 70s. Then the government slowly began treating black’s as full citizens. I’m talking about things I saw. It’s hard to believe and trust in general when you’re treated this way. It’s a better world today. Life is better for all when we trust and believe those we live with and who serve us in leadership.
What is a “conspiracy theory”, Simon? You talk about ideas which run counter to mainstream thinking – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wrong. Was Galileo a “conspiracy theorist” for example. Questioning is what science is based on. Of course, science seeks to find evidence to give credence to hypotheses.
I am half Jamaican and look pretty much fully black. I have dealt with other black people trying to tell me this sort of stuff over the years and it does my head in. I am just intolerably traditionally British cultured and I find it bordering on insane. It’s absolutely crazy. I can’t help but feel that the weed doesn’t help.
Simon, many of the fallacies have been spread from the church pulpit concerning this in the US, as the group in mention has a stronger religious conviction than do white people in the US. The NOI is one example, and there are certain celebrity pastors guilty of spreading it as well. However, this is becoming better than it was, as their community has started to catch on. There are many whites in the US that end up falling for certain theories as well. As an example, during and after the 2016 election, many were following a certain anon on 8chan, and if one carefully read what this person had to say, you could tell it was a psyop from the D Party, and that it would help a certain female candidate. They even admitted it through two of their posts, which pointed toward her. The D Party, of course, tried to claim that it was from the opposite party, and if it was, it was from the neoconservatives who are leftists. The same goes for the group: Anonymous. Both appeared and were spreading propaganda during Pres. 44’s term. This occurred as well with those that became the intolerant rioters, and they were educated, with some being professors. Many, I believe, have caught on that they were played here as well; especially after the election. The US Govt. is not one that I would trust to produce this type of research, as they began using the phrase “conspiracy theory,” purposely, to discredit the public during the Warren Commission over the press and certain books that were quickly published.
About fifty years ago I read, in a “letter to the editors” in a local major newspaper, a letter that can be paraphrased as follows: a black woman wrote that she told her children that is they wanted something, they should ask for it; if they did not get it, they should demand it; and that if they still did not get it, they should take it, regardless whether they were entitled to it to begin with. It seemed a bit odd for the paper to publish such a hairbrained missive, but maybe the publishers thought there was something that needed to be said, despite the anti-social nature of the advice.
His—story is full of conspiracies in fact it’s hard, not to come up with a major event in history that wasn’t created to some large significant extent by a conspiracy or more of them. Conspiracies are very real in history they’re very real in our present day. What is a conspiracy? :Two or more people involved :Using deceit or force :To accomplish a illegal or immoral objective. So when people talk about CONSPIRACY, It’s too bad people don’t know anything about history.
The entertainment industry is adding to this conspiracy. Looking at recent movies about the American civil war or American pilots in ww2, you would think that black people were a significant part of these conflicts, when in fact they only played a very tiny role. For example, there were only at the most 900 Tuskegee airmen in ww2 out of almost 2 million in the army air corps. As for the American civil war, it never seems to occur to the African American community just how many white soldiers died fighting slavery. Visit any civil war memorial in the northern states. I have a common Irish surname, and I would always find it, along with my mother’s maiden name on the memorial. So if there is a conspiracy theory, it would to change history, so that black people were the ones who fought to end slavery, not the northern Union army.
Some things don’t add which your website promotes that’s why I like it and not to believe everything you’re told some things don’t add up with the space thing look into it more before you condemn EG radiation belt make your mind up do you need a 6-ft lead shield or a tin foil suit which would be useful when the 3 nuclear disasters happened but never seen anybody using them
Ah, the old light bulb argument. It actually boils down to who put in the patent first. Ignoring the patent I would say it was Canadians Woodward and Evans and then Joseph Swann but producing light electrically you could say it was Humphry Davy in 1802 using Carbon rods. Edison DID NOT invent it, he simply improved it, and neither did Latimer who improved Edisons design.
What heritage in Britain, my deceased great grand parents told me when they first saw them come of the boats! How can you have a heritage when you have been here for 3 generations at best give or take. Indians though my Great grand parent said they have been here since their grand parent’s where kids.
I must say – and I know that this is just an observation, not a scientific study – that about 3 or 4 years ago, I took a passing interest in the “flat earth” and “fake NASA” conspiracies (as they go hand-in-hand). I consider myself a ‘near-zero’ on the conspiracy theory scale (if 10 is the most ardent, devoted ‘theorist’). My motivation was purely because I graduated from University in physics, with an emphasis on all things “space related”, and I was just curious to see how they make scientific & mathematical models or theories to back their claims up. Spoiler alert: they can’t, and don’t, back their ‘theories’ up with physics or mathematics. However, in passing, I saw many tens of clips from a whole range of “flat earth meetings”, from bizarrely large annual gatherings in the US and UK, down to small-scale discussion groups. If I’m honest, one thing that struck me was the apparently very LOW proportion of Black American people, and British people, at even the largest gatherings, held across the US and UK…. The disparity was so great that I remember that it actually struck me at the time, it was that noticeable……
There are many, varied ideas which can be conveniently bundled into the category of ‘conspiracy theory’ while they have nothing else in common whatsoever. There is little benefit in doing this, other than attempting to somehow discredit the ideas themselves. It would be more appropriate to consider such ideas based upon their individual merits rather than a broad and meaningless ‘category’. I would have thought you would be well aware of the falacy of this type of group-think.
All these black drivers have slaves you know as do everyone else. Servo is latin for slave, and you have at least 3 on your car, brakes, steering, clutch, ect. It became servant which is what rich people had when banned. Abraham Lincolns slaves became servants, after his proclamation still doing same jobs.
I am by no means a black selfaccredit theft apologetic. On the contrary. That said; -The first casualty of any conflict, is the truth. -“History lessons” are written by the victorious. -The most effective way to control an opposition, is to lead it yourself (attentions away from things of strategical importance. Say hello to D. Icke, A. Jones, the Flat Earth Society etc) I will encourage to step carefully through minefields with broadly aimed generalized brandings no matter target. Everybody is bias and all lie, conceal and misrepresent to various degrees. Academic doctrines offered are especially no exemption. Just as we now see done to our educational systems with our very own eyes, the “woke” or whatever one want to call them, ugly child has many cute names. A herd of premier sheep are very conform. But does it make them wise ?
I know it may be difficult to believe the moon landings in the 60s and 70s today, but this reality was a different place then (pre-2001 actually). More things were possible then. It couldn’t be done now that’s for sure. But in the 1960s in the US, reality was much ‘closer to the source’. Reality today is a poor carbon copy.
Me Nann Reed berty echochambers “the name of the rose 🌹 ” he say tha de nights templars (a group of keep fit batty man’s in olden day) all ways talked about by de crazy mens. De real deal beein dat de was reely de good Catholic boyzz. Not like dat man Rick Dawson (author of “god is illusion”) or that de Lord got giggy with Mary magdalena or he and jon was batty for ee other. I is thinnkin lot o the cons like dat.
Interesting, the aboriginals Australians think totally different to black Americans and Africans. They are proud who they are and they aren’t interested in technology to be competitive or be compared with other races like Europeans and Asians and more comfortable and connected with natural environment. I met a aboriginal women that she was very proud that her father was leader and spiritual guide of her tribe and the rest like technology and inventions was irrelevant for her. When she see me walking on street and she tells me: Go to Europe!
I find it preposterous that anyone in this day and age with the barest understanding of broadcast communications technology can possibly believe in that 1969 we beamed back to earth live coverage of the moon landing! PS. The lunar lander looks more like a meth-heads tree fort than a multi million dollar piece of space kit.
Don’t get how Simon has so little self awareness. Yes conspiracy theories are rife amongst minority groups, but they’re also extremely popular amongst ethno-nationalists like him and the other viewers of this website. Simon himself is always quick to distance himself from conspiracy theories, but the comments are full of them, I guess largely because ethno-nats are usually quite dim folk. The thing which unites many members of minority groups and white ethno-nationalists (lol) is poor education. Simon loves racialising stuff so won’t mention it but conspiracy theories are a result of Britain’s crap education system.