I would say people in countries with poor or non-existent public education are more prone. The USA’s public education system was eviscerated in the 70’s I think.
I would say people in countries with poor or non-existent public education are more prone. The USA’s public education system was eviscerated in the 70’s I think.
As early as the 60s, but really the 80s. Through the 70s US had some of the best public education on the planet. The move to privatize education started in earnest under Reagan (in California, as governor), and then further under Reagan (and every president and congress to now).
Specifically:
• calling for an end to free tuition for state college and university students
With Reagan, it was because Republicans at the time thought there would be too many educated poor people. One of his advisors (Roger Freeman) said:
“We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat…That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go to college]…If not, we will have a large number of highly trained and unemployed people.”
He was basically worried about a revolution because of it.
They are talking at the dinner table about doing things that are against my self interest. I don’t want those damn kids learning that. Therefore cut education
Rather that you know the market place of ideas that I espouse; as long as they match what I believe.
That last one hits hard. The state must subsidize intellectual curiosity. Intellectual curiosity gave us everything from electricity to modern governmental theory to the mathematics that would later turn out to allow wireless communications. Curiosity without a point is extremely valuable.
And it should be noted that even in late medieval Europe the state funded intellectual curiosity. The nobility were the state and many either were curious themselves or would patronize intellectuals
Studies have found ( for example ) conspiracy thinking correlates with extremist political beliefs, especially right wing political beliefs, across countries. That linked study found the effect was strengthened by lack of political control.
So countries with more political extremists, especially far right wing in media platforms, leads to more popular conspiracy theories.
We conclude that conspiracy mentality is associated with extreme left- and especially extreme right-wing beliefs, and that this non-linear relation may be strengthened by, but is not reducible to, deprivation of political control.
No, Americans are just as prone as the other anglo countries, there’s just more of them. If we start delving into other languages, then things immediately go downhill. For example, I speak Arabic and I would say that at least 80% believe in at least 1 batshit crazy conspiracy theory. Why? It’s because the vast majority of Arabs consume their information from Facebook and a good chunk of that information comes from state owned propaganda outlets. Just a 2 minute scroll on my father’s Facebook, I saw the following conspiracies:
Israel is created by the kufar to sin against allah
India is on the brink of becoming majority muslim
Incest, pedophilia, and zoophilia are common in the West because they don’t have islamic morals
Russia is fighting NATO and winning
Hamas is beating Israel so bad that Israel is on the brink of collapse
Eating Pork will slowly turn your heart inside out
I really think it’s a question of the sheer amount that is aimed at them through propaganda foreign and domestic. There’s definitely a huge, deliberate push to destabilize the US.
American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind. In using the expression “paranoid style” I am not speaking in a clinical sense, but borrowing a clinical term for other purposes. I have neither the competence nor the desire to classify any figures of the past or present as certifiable lunatics. In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.
It’s written at a higher than 6th grade target, so it might be a challenge for anyone who’s not used to that. Please give it a good faith effort to read.
Thinking about it, the low literacy rate in the US might be an aggravating factor. Something like half of US adults cannot read at a 6th grade level. That’s going to hurt their ability to deal with complex topics.
It’s written at a higher than 6th grade target, so it might be a challenge for anyone who’s not used to that. Please give it a good faith effort to read
You know, you lose a lot of people with comments like that, talking down to everyone. You’ve provided a source that makes a lot of good points, but that’s some alienating phrasing that’ll make people feel you’re elitist.
I wrote that bit because when I was reading the linked article, it felt harder to read and understand than what I’m used to. So it wasn’t really coming from malicious elitism.
On the other hand, I want to live in a world where people don’t feel insulted (even when it was by accident, like here!) and just completely stop listening. I know I do it too, but it sucks.
Especially with the “elitism” facet. Sometimes other people actually are better than us on whatever topic. That’s okay. Like if we were talking about math and you were like “This uses some complex algorithms so it might be hard to follow if you haven’t done more than algebra in a few years” I’m not going to be mad. What would I even be mad about?
I’m sorry for assuming your intentions were less than innocent and positive. I also want to live in that sort of world, and I hope it didn’t seem like I was jumping on your case or calling you a jerk. I just think it’s important to choose our words in a way that encourages people to read. Too often people think they’re bad at reading or math or something and so they avoid it, when it should be more like singing; it doesn’t matter if it sounds good, we sing as a manner of expression. Reading should be for everyone. But, I was misguided, and you weren’t disagreeing with that notion, and so I’m sorry.
It is very rare for anyone on the internet to apologize or admin fault. Well done. Thank you. I understand your intent and I’m not mad. Apology accepted.
There are different reading levels, but I don’t know a lot about them because I’m not in education.
You can probably recognize it even if you never thought about it before. “See spot run” or “Green eggs and ham” are very simple texts. Something like “the Great Gatsby” or “the Hobbit” are more complex, and a 2nd grader would struggle to read them even if they technically know how to read.
Technical manuals, works on a specialist topic, or … my knowledge fails me a little here, but like more complicated novels, may be more advanced. More advanced in vocabulary, sentence structure, and things like symbolism, metaphor, or whatever cool shit House of Leaves was doing.
I think this is a sample of a text written at the 6th grade level www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/…/reading . I looked it up when that article about how most adults can’t read and comprehend at that level was going around.
I don’t think we’re really on the same page. Literacy and intelligence aren’t the same thing. But if you take nothing else away from this, I think you got the “higher reading levels are more complex” thing. Maybe.
Also I think you have a typo and one of your can should be can’t
IDK if it’s that or just the fact that there’s both a lot of us and a great sense of nationalism instilled in us from a very young age. I’ve been to Mt. Rushmore twice. Only recently did I learn about how it was a sacred site to the native people that we promised to leave alone, before stealing it and blowing it to hell.
What I’m getting at is that we’re taught that America is the greatest nation on the planet, and we’re encouraged to be loud about that statement. So when a certain group of people in the government who are also very loud about their beliefs start saying some things that might sound completely bonkers to a foreigner, a lot of people find themselves agreeing purely because they like the attitude of the people talking.
Visiting Rushmore as a non-American is even weirder than you imagine.
The levels of over the top blatantly performative “patriotism” is quite bizarre to be surrounded by.
And the suspicious looks we got for not participating enthusiastically was discomforting (no, I’m not going to recite a pledge of allegiance to your country. Why would you expect me to?)
Yeah sorry about that. They’re similarly awful to live near.
And the reality is Mt Rushmore is mostly going to be visited by people like that and foreigners. Mt Rushmore is one of the principal sacred sites of the American civil religion. Treat them like religious pilgrims because they kinda were, but they don’t even realize it. The pledge of allegiance is a prayer to adherents.
I think there may be a factor of sample size; There’s something like 40 million Canadians, 40 million Australians, 60 million British, and 340 million Americans. So if you take a random sample of English speech on any topic, it’s statistically most likely to be from an American.
I would also add things we consider conspiracy like UFO’s have been seen all over the world just other countries usually have a religious or spiritual reason for the sightings and thus they don’t become a conspiracy just part of their everyday life. Look up Jacques Vallee he does great research into this.
I wouldn’t say individuals are more susceptible to it, but the US’s history is intertwined with conspiracy theories from the start. The founding “father” Sam Adams had tracts printed claiming the British had a secret plan to enslave white colonists ahead of the American war of independence.
The Spanish American war was stoked by a conspiracy that Spain had sabotaged our warship “Maine”. If you’ve ever wondered why the US Navy has a base in Cuba.
The “corrupt bargain” of 1824 was a supposed deal between JQ Adams and Clay to exclude Jackson from the presidency despite his electoral victory. Jackson too, was the subject of a theory that he and congressmen disgruntled over tariffs would dissolve the union and install Jackson as a military dictator should he loose in 1828.
People believe there is a magic sky dad who loves you so much they send you to suffer for eternity with the original naughty child who apparently wants to punish you for doing what they want.
Religions generally make conspiracy theories seem rational.
No. An old colleague of mine is on LinkedIn non-stop posting crazy QAnon shit and RT headlines. Anti-vax more-or-less started in the UK with the Andrew Wakefield affair and it seems to be super-popular in Australia too. Conspiracy Theory kind of helps people rationalise the absolute chaotic mess of the world we live in by reducing it to simple narratives where a defined enemy is out to get us.
It’s easier to think everyone is out to get you. Than that you are just an insignificant self sabotaging fuck up. Not even on the radar of the elder gods
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