Why Do We Love to Believe Wacky and Weird Stuff?
Why irrationality isn’t a joke but a hidden danger
When I was living in another state, there was a group in my town that met regularly called SOUP. Now, this was an acronym for the Scientific Organization for Unexplained Phenomenon. Sometimes, our local paper reported the proceedings of their meetings. They usually discussed the abduction of people by aliens. Or they talked about aliens they met, such beings as Praying Mantis Man and the Nords. Sometimes, they discussed recent sightings of Bigfoot.
Why these topics interested them might be an enigma to some. But to the true believer in such things? It seemed that those folks found a certain logic and sense of excitement in such possibilities.
Sometimes, the paper said, one of the clinical psychologists in town attended their meetings. Now, he might have been there because of a personal encounter with the Praying Mantis guy. I suppose that’s possible. Somehow, however, I feel that he likely attended out of an interest in what bizarre and unusual things people believed.
Have you ever encountered such unusual thinking? Have you come across Holocaust deniers, anti-vaccers, or folks obsessed with religious prophecies and irrational beliefs?
I have. Plenty of them.
Statistica, a global data and business intelligence platform, reports several beliefs of Americans that would fall under the rubric of Conspiracy Theories. They supply a short list of a few (I’ve added a bit of commentary for the sake of clarity):
Conspiracy theories in America
In The United States, there are many varieties of conspiracy theories. Let me enumerate just a few.
Some folks believe that the moon landing was a big fake. I know my dad believed that. It was outside of his personal range of possibilities. He just couldn’t get himself to accept that such a thing was possible.
Other folks believe in the notion of a Deep State in the US. What does that mean? According to the dictionary, it is “…an alleged secret network of especially non-elected government officials and sometimes private entities (as in the financial services and defense industries) operating extra-legally to influence and enact government policy.”
There are those who believe that the events of September 11 were an inside job in the United States, perhaps perpetrated by the government.
A perennial favorite is the belief that Oswald had accomplices in the assassination of JFK. Perhaps the CIA or FBI. Or Johnson…
Of course, we can’t forget those who are sure that the government is hiding aliens or alien corpses in Area 51.
An old favorite of the conspiracy-minded is the Illuminati. Who are the Illuminati? BBC put it this way:
It’s the conspiracy theory to dwarf all conspiracy theories. A smorgasbord of every other intrigue under the sun, the Illuminati are the supposed overlords controlling the world’s affairs, operating secretly as they seek to establish a New World Order.
There are folks who believe the Illuminati is really running the show.
Others think that search engines are there to discriminate against conservatives.
There is a belief that the CIA manufactured HIV to kill people of color and gay folks in the U.S.
Some think that the government is trying to control the population with chemicals. And, as an aside, don’t forget those who thought that COVID shots were injecting secret trackers in those who received them.
Of course, for very many, climate change is (as our beloved former president pointed out) a hoax.
Some other silly beliefs… Trump really won the last election. He has committed no crimes. He is the messiah. Only he can save us.
Lest you think most people are too clever for any of this kind of stuff, Statistica found that over half of the population believed in these or other such notions.
The vulnerability of religion to conspiracy theories
The appeal of conspiracy thinking in religious circles is something that I have been observing for quite some time- at least as far back as my childhood in a very conservative church.
I grew up in an evangelical environment. There are many conspiracy theories unique to that population. My old friends still talk about them. Obama (or Kissinger, or Biden, or whoever) is the antichrist.
An old friend recently called and recounted that the government is creating secret camps to inter all Christians and kill them.
Others from my past have told of how all LGBTQ+ folks are pedophiles.
Finally, there is the belief that the rapture is right around the corner. And on and on it goes. (See Contending Modernities for a good discussion of evangelical attraction to conspiracy theories.)
When I see and hear my old friends espousing such notions, I sometimes feel a great sense of embarrassment that I once held to these notions as well. Truth be told, we are all vulnerable to delusion and wacky thinking. Even someone just like you.
Some of these beliefs are laughable. Some, not so much. Some are downright dangerous.
The QAnon conspiracy
Another significant example of conspiracy theory is QAnon
What is QAnon anyway? Let’s see what we can discover about the QAnon phenomenon.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, QAnon is, to say the least, pretty wacky. The ADL makes several points regarding QAnon.
For one, it is decentralized. In a way, it is a leaderless movement (but in other ways, not so much). It is a far, far-right movement based on ridiculous conspiracy thinking.
The main current theory is that Trump is engaged in a secret war against the “Deep State.” The Deep State is made up of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. (Mostly Democrats).
They control the world and run a child sex-trafficking organization. They murder children in secret Satanic rituals to drink a chemical extracted from their blood. Supposedly, this gives them a longer life.
Of course, they are antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-vaccine and all of the other hallmarks of the extreme right.
Supposedly, top military brass enlisted Trump to run for president in 2016. His task was to take down and expose the Deep State. All of this will lead to “the Storm,” when Deep State actors will be arrested, imprisoned, and executed.
QAnon followers played a major role in the capital insurrection (As pointed out in an article by ABC News). That resulted in several injuries and deaths; as well as threatening our democracy. That raises the question, Are they guilty of murder?
In Jeff Sharlet’s, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, the question is raised of whether or not our country can recover from our differences. Much of it reads like a playbook of QAnon silliness. Except, it isn’t funny.
In fact, it creates a sense of fear in the lives of a great many people.
Why do people believe this foolish stuff?
In his book Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer looks at the phenomenon of conspiracy theories and twisted beliefs in great detail. Shermer discusses folks who believe all sorts of weird things.
Many are silly superstitions. He deals with people’s irrational prejudices and biases. Shermer deals with everything from Holocaust deniers, creationism, and mind control cults. He refutes such beliefs by the use of empirical evidence.
Shermer makes the point, “Most believers in miracles, monsters, and mysteries are not hoaxers, flimflam artists, or lunatics. Most are normal people whose normal thinking has gone wrong in some way.”
Craig Chamberlain of the University of Illinois discusses how people’s biases can lead them to support, at least to some degree, people and actions they normally would not support.
Chamberlain points out that after WW I, Germany was highly politicized. It was a time of great unrest, confusion, and anger. (Not unlike the US today.). Hitler’s rise to power in Germany was not all a result of brainwashing. Germans were already stuck on questions of loyalty, race, and authority. (Not unlike the US today.)
Although most Germans did not become wholehearted Nazis, most did accept the basic ideas of Nazism. Most didn’t support the “final solution.” They did not support mass murder. But, in a way, they were complicit.
Often people are led very far astray. Perhaps, in a very real sense, they want to be led astray. As Nelson Mandala said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate...”
The True Believer
Why do people believe silly things? Maybe somehow, it gives them comfort. At times, they may find other like-minded folks and gain a sense of companionship. As Good ol’ Wikipedia puts it:
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements is a non-fiction book authored by the American social philosopher Eric Hoffer. Published in 1951, it depicts a variety of arguments in terms of applied world history and social psychology to explain why mass movements arise to challenge the status quo.
And I think a lot is explained by sociological factors. SuperSummary, in summarizing Hoffer maybe tells it all: Why do ordinary people become involved in mass movements? Why do they become fanatical devotees of what they consider a holy cause — religious or otherwise?
Would be fanatics have a frustration so intense that they are willing to lose their personal identity altogether and surrender to something greater, bigger than themselves. Mass movements (and other manipulators) use this frustration and offer true believers an escape from personal responsibility.
I think that is true. It is not to be ignored. True Believers can be quite dangerous — something history proves time and again.
Are people inherently rational?
Dr Steven Pinker in his book, Rationality, has argued that, at heart, people are basically rational beings, that we all want to arrive at the truth. (See Maria Deac, or Thomas Harper for a good summary.) Rationality is helpful in arriving at the truth, but unfortunately, rationality can get twisted. That is because, even though at heart we are rational beings, we are also all (potentially) flawed beings.
Dr Pinker feels that society creates institutions to help us be more rational. Some examples might be the educational system, peer review of scientific research, or laws and rules of nations and societies.
I would add that some of these systems do rely on a measure of coercion to enforce standards of rationality. Overall, though, such institutions help us live better lives.
We do look out for our own self-interest. Left to our own devices and living in a world with no rules, the result would be chaos, violence, and massive irrationality.
Punishment can work as a deterrent in some ways. If we see someone tossed in jail for some irrational act, we are less likely to repeat that act ourselves. So, it is rational to live in society. At the end of the day, it helps us all.
Sometimes, folks may, consciously or unconsciously, choose ignorance. They might stray from the path of rationality. Maybe they don’t want to face a terminal diagnosis, so they rely on faith healers (a rather irrational act).
Or perhaps irrationality is a bottomless pit. Once a theory or idea “snags” someone, some people cannot help falling endlessly down the hole.
To me, it seems that in the case of wacky, conspiratorial thinking, there may be a sort of “twisted” rationality. Perhaps, in the conspiracy-believing world, a community of like-minded find the comradery and connections they cannot find elsewhere. Or maybe they feel they are privy to secret, or even divinely sent, knowledge.
Maybe the result is a sort of “learned” mental illness. At least some schools of psychology seem to support this idea. That seems to add weight to Hoffer’s theory of mass movements — when disappointed, powerless, frustrated people lose faith in society's institutions and agitate for change even if it is rooted in ridiculous theories.
Takeaways
So, what, then, is the takeaway of this little trip into the world of conspiracy thinking, and how can we counter it? Is there any way to prevent the craziness?
Perhaps we can all improve when it comes to resisting the wackiness. This article is not written to be all gloomy and doomed; it is also written to encourage the reader not to accept this debacle of disordered thinking plaguing our society.
In Scientific America, Stephanie Pappas suggests some actionable steps we can take. Here are a few comments I derive from her suggestions.
- Don’t rely on appeals to emotions. The research has demonstrated that folks are not moved from strongly held belief by emotions. I might add, that this is generally, but not universally true, since emotional frenzies often lead folks into conspiracies and group think (see Hoffer).
- Avoid arguments over “so-called” facts. Debates over the facts of a conspiracy theory usually make little difference. Remember, as Kellyanne Conway said, some folks feel they have “alternative facts,” a comment that the Associated Press said was in the top list of notable quotes.
- Perhaps you can prevent friends and family from falling down the conspiracy rabbit hole by helping them recognize faulty information and questionable sources before they are exposed to wacky beliefs.
- Educate young folks on how to identify propaganda and lies in the media and in society. One of the dangers of the right wing take over (or attempted take over) of education, including post-secondary education is the attempt to close minds and indoctrinate students. As the Zinn Education Project points out, the right wants many lessons on inequity and injustice rewritten or eliminated.
So, there you have it. Folks believe many wacky things. And you and I, Dear Reader, are not exempt. As was pointed out, some of these irrational beliefs are probably harmless and even laughable. Others, not so much. My intent here is to provide you with the knowledge and tools to combat twisted thinking when you encounter it.
It would seem that the very least we could do is to educate our children concerning fake news, crazy ideas, and how to avoid being duped by conspiracy thinking. What could you do? Rationality has to begin somewhere.
A final, sobering conclusion
Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof Community pointed out when the Nazi takeover of Germany began that hateful words lead to hateful deeds. When our disordered thinking is rooted in hate, all sorts of mischief is sure to follow. In a letter to a friend of his, he wrote, “We must be careful about the words we speak. They are more powerful than we realize.”
Indeed, they are, especially when they are spreading crazy ideas.
Thank you for reading my story.
