It seems that I am a small vocal tip of a huge silent
iceberg. A recent study carried out by Cambridge
University , described as the most
comprehensive examination of conspiracy theories ever conducted, has made a
remarkable discovery. Belief in conspiracy theory affects a large proportion of
the population and in many countries that proportion is a majority; including
my own, the UK .
In Britain
sixty percent of people believe in at least one conspiracy theory. The most
prevalent individual conspiracy theory is that the government is downplaying
the number of immigrants living in the country; a full forty-seven percent of
Britons believe that. I was pleased to see that the second most popular was
that of what could be described as the Deep
State . Forty-four percent of Brits
answered "agree" to the statement: "Even though we live in what's called a democracy, a few people will
always run things in this country anyway." Actually, that's quite noncommittal
language; and lot of these axioms vary in responses depending on how they are
worded. For example on the subject of 9/11 conspiracies, if you say: "Did the American government stand back and
allow Osama bin Laden to carry out the 9/11 attacks?" you will receive
a much higher yes-score than if you say: "Did the American government carry out the 9/11 attacks and bin Laden
had nothing to do with it?" Nevertheless I feel encouraged. Also
seventy-six percent, over three quarters, said that they badly distrusted senior
politicians. Other countries delivered different results. Sweden
seems to be the most conspiratorially unaware with a score of fifty-two
percent; yet in Hungary
it was eighty-seven percent. What is most noteworthy about this research is that
is has revealed differences along voting lines. All statistics of
conspiratorial belief in the USA
and UK were
considerably higher among Trump supporters and Brexiteers. Those who voted
Remain or for Hillary Clinton are significantly more skeptical. The researchers
claim that there are many political similarities between Trump-voters and
Leave-voters and they've coined the very droll term: "transatlantic
conspiratorial axis". Other very widespread conspiracy theories are that
immigration into the United Kingdom has the covert intention of making the
country predominantly Muslim, climate change is false and was made up to
deceive the people, the medical authorities are lying about the harmful side
effects of vaccinations and that there is an international plot to rule the
world secretly, regardless who is in control of individual countries. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/23/study-shows-60-of-britons-believe-in-conspiracy-theories?fbclid=IwAR1lPP59UUbtXzbr0WZmsX_ZN-RBomD27Jokacs6t3g8Hqzv7cAlzGiR4V0.
I was disappointed by some of the revelations in the study.
Some conspiracy theories that I think are very real and vitally important are
less widely accepted than the main ones. Only eight percent believe that human
contact with aliens has been hushed up, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/09/ufo-disclosure-2018-history-has-been.html.
For the HIV virus being manmade, that is a mere four percent, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2015/01/real-zombies-2015.html.
No doubt researchers such as Rob Brotherton and Prof. Karen Douglas will be
interested in these findings, see background links below. So if the majority of
people believe in conspiracy theories, why do I feel so unusual and isolated? Why
do other people, even close family members, regard me as so eccentric and off
the wall? Perhaps the difference with me is that I believe in multiple conspiracy
theories and that I also am more outspoken about them. It's possible that many
of the subjects of this research project never let their ideas leave their
heads before the day took part. The challenge for the Truth movement therefore
may be less the sharing of information and more encouraging the general public
to act on the information they already know.
See here for
background: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/09/prof-karen-douglas-at-greenwich-sitp.html.
4 comments:
Come of it, mate, you dearly love Norman Tebbit and you know it.
Cali
PP: There does seem to be a drive to study 'conspiracy theorists' by acedemia. It could be it's own conspiracy theory, the label it's self is thrown around MSM as a derogatory label, they do like to label certain political persuasions as more likely to believe the whole 'global warming' thing is a conspiracy theory etc. and visa versa they like to label conspiratorial thinking as a certain political leaning when it suits them. I think it's a drive to encourage the very label it's self as a more mainstream derogatory term, to further demonise anyone who refuses to swallow 'official lines' on any particular subject. Now they seem to be associating CT's as more likely to turn to violence etc.[1] and anti-semetic[2] too.
It's a shame academia don't spend a portion of their time studying the actual conspiracies!
[1]http://conspiracyanddemocracy.org/blog/european-conspiracy-theories/
[2]http://www.conspiracyanddemocracy.org/blog/conspiracy-theories-and-antisemitism/
Norman who, Cali?
Absolutely, Anon. This was the point I made in my reviews of, Chris Thresher-Andrews, Prof Karen Douglas and Rob Brotherton. It starts with the premise that CT's are a purely psychological phenomenon. I know many people who say I should not use the term myself for the reasons you state, but I do because it is literally accurate and I can't think of a better one. I remember Kenn Thomas and his word "parapolitics", but that is going a bit up the political correctness route.
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