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.
America has vast tracts of arable land with people who have nothing to look at but fields and endless sky, and who get very little contact with other humans.
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, 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
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
The words “lose” and “loose” have the same vowel sound (and for some reason the extra “o” changes /z/ to /s/).
There are no other words ending in -ose that have the /u/ sound
Many words ending in -oose exist that have an /u/ sound, including the very common word, “choose”, which has the same /uz/ sound that “lose” has at the end
I never get these spellings mixed up but I can absolutely understand why someone would.
I think that the majority of conspiracy theories are asroturfed, even those that actually started as grass roots. The Russians clearly admit that reinforcing propaganda rhat sticks, is a big part of their strategy.
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.
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