The Conspiracy Mentality

Abstract

Although he sees conspiracy theories as bullshit he claims conspiracy theories are not a symptom of pathology. He also recognizes that those who believe in them achieve a simplified and clearer view of the world. He goes on to develop the question of whether CT beliefs are paranoid. We says that like in normal paranoia, one characteristic of conspiracists is that their 'delusion' is focused in one aspect of their lifes, that of their CB. A difference however, is that for conspiracists their delusion leads to the execution of the "conspirators", thus having more nefarious results than individual paranoia. He then goes on to tackle historical issues. He argues that CTs in the for they exist, came after the historical ceasure of the17th and 18th centuries, as before they were necessarily tied to theological and metaphysical notions. Moreover, the fact that pre 18th century societies were monolitic (norm-universalism) whereas contemporary ones are pluralistic, also changes the nature of CTs in the two epochs.