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The REAL Reason Conspiracy Theories Are So Common These Days
PJ Media ^ | 02/16/2021 | Mark Tapscott

Posted on 02/16/2021 7:32:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Those of a certain age will recall the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” with Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion fearfully looking around in the forest and chanting “Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”

There are lots of lions and tigers and bears in contemporary American politics, if recent surveys are to be credited:

On the Right, there’s the QAnon conspiracy that has former President Donald Trump battling an evil ring of wealthy, power-hungry Democratic pedophiles for control of America.

On the Left, there’s Trump again, but in this sinister telling, he and Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly conspired to steal the 2016 U.S. presidential election from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

To hear the pollsters, the QAnon conspiracy has particular power among White evangelical Republicans. Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service reports in Christian Headlines on a survey by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

“The survey, which was conducted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, reported 29 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of white evangelicals — the most of any religious group — believe the widely debunked QAnon conspiracy theory is completely or mostly accurate,” Jenkins reported.

“QAnon has infiltrated other faiths as well, with 15 percent of white mainline Protestants, 18 percent of white Catholics, 12 percent of non-Christians, 11 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 7 percent of Black Protestants saying they believe it,” he continued.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Society
KEYWORDS: conspiracytheories; shutins
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1 posted on 02/16/2021 7:32:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Another recent survey, this one by Lifeway Research, the research unit of the publishing giant associated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in America, found that nearly half of the pastors surveyed reported having been told by congregants about conspiracies in American politics.

“Overall, the study found that 49% of U.S. Protestant pastors ‘say they frequently hear members of their congregation repeating conspiracy theories they have heard about why something is happening in our country,'” according to the Baptist News.

“Another 47% disagree with that assessment in their churches, including 26% who strongly disagree, saying they do not often hear church members sharing such ideas,” the Baptist News continued.

So what are we to make of these surveys? Writing in The Washington Post opinion section, Brian Klaas, associate professor of global politics at University College London, recently declared that, while many of the January 6 protestors at the U.S. Capitol were Trump supporters, they shared something else: “They were conspiracy theorists. And while hundreds of people stormed the Capitol, there are millions of Americans who share their views. There is no doubt: The United States has a serious problem with pathological political delusions.”

2 posted on 02/16/2021 7:32:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Because the LEFT can simply apply that CT label to any subject inconvenient to their agenda, and they don’t have to debate the facts.


3 posted on 02/16/2021 7:35:21 AM PST by G Larry (Authority is vested in those to whom it applies.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The REAL Reason Conspiracy Theories Are So Common These Days

Is it cause real conspiracies are so common these days?

4 posted on 02/16/2021 7:38:09 AM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: SeekAndFind
This zombie thing is right up there. In the USA it would not surprise me that more people believe in zombies than believe in Jesus Christ.

5 posted on 02/16/2021 7:39:34 AM PST by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The conspiracies are right there, in everyone's face.

You can run an international charitable organization as Secretary of State and you can have your handlers accept meetings with all kinds of foreign leaders and their sodid associates and accept bribes donations all day long.

You can be vice president of the United States and your son can get onto billionaire energy boards in foreign countries in industries that they have zero experience or credentials in, and even shadier hedge fun positions with foreign countries that work with billions.

You can go around proper national security channels and sell your nation's uranium stores to traditionally foreign adversaries and for what? We still don't know who got paid what for that.

You can obstruct justice by pressing the FBI's buttons not to investigate you and destroy cell phones and email servers and not even get a symbollic slap on the wrist for it.

Conspiracies theories? Who needs them?
The conspiracies themselves are plenty enough.
6 posted on 02/16/2021 7:40:40 AM PST by z3n
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To: SeekAndFind

Why? The media used to do it’s job and investigate. Now they simply gas light.


7 posted on 02/16/2021 7:43:39 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: SeekAndFind
Conspiracy theories are rampant because we know the media is lying to us.

We you can't trust the media (not that you ever could), you listen to the scuttlebutt.

8 posted on 02/16/2021 7:44:09 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: G Larry
Because the LEFT can simply apply that CT label to any subject inconvenient to their agenda, and they don’t have to debate the facts.

It also exists here on FR. If you question anything someone doesn't like, you're called a Qtard. I've never read that "Q" stuff. Ever. It's a convenient way to shut down discourse on both sides and it's unfortunate. Just call the questioner enough names, Qtard, racist, bigot, and you can silence any discourse.

9 posted on 02/16/2021 7:46:02 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: SeekAndFind

Any one who is paying any attention to anything knows that that the Establishment is lying to us.

We may disagree about who is lying the most, but we know that we are lied to. Who trusts the news? Who trusts politicians? Who trusts big business? Everyone who is in a powerful position is trying to work all the angles to get some kind of desired outcome. And it seems that almost no one feels that lying is “wrong” anymore. Hey, if I can get away with it, it’s all good.

We have a social breakdown as we are lied to, as powerful people break the law with impunity, and as little people are crushed at will for minor infractions.

There’s not much “community” anymore. Just a lot of scared people who think Dark Forces are lining up against them. Because that’s the reality of our situation.


10 posted on 02/16/2021 7:47:41 AM PST by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: SeekAndFind

The facts show that there was a conspiracy between various members of the intelligence apparatus, the political elite, and media to destroy Donald Trump. What do you call a theory that is proven to be real?


11 posted on 02/16/2021 7:49:24 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: z3n

Excellent list!

I would add in another “oldie but goodie”....

It is a felony under both state and federal law to count votes with a partisan group in secret with no observers or media present as witnesses or poll watchers. We have that on video in Georgia! The same official who told everyone to leave that counting was stopping over a water leak presided over the counting of ballots that were hidden under a table all day.

Officials in Georgia provided differing statements to explain it all and there was no criminal investigation despite the fact that tens of thousands of votes were added for Biden at the same time far beyond the ratio of votes prior to midnight.

The same official “in charge” is on video passing something (allegedly a thumb drive - the same thing used to submit tabulated votes) among three people who all palm it as if it were narcotics.

Yep, a real conspiracy theory. Nothing to see at all.


12 posted on 02/16/2021 7:49:37 AM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

The facts show that there was a conspiracy between various members of the intelligence apparatus, the political elite, and media to destroy Donald Trump. What do you call a theory that is proven to be real?


A Time magazine article post-election?


13 posted on 02/16/2021 7:50:14 AM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SeekAndFind

Russia Russia Russia

Because there a so many liars.


14 posted on 02/16/2021 7:51:51 AM PST by petitfour (APPEAL TO HEAVEN)
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To: SeekAndFind

The real reason for conspiracy theories is that there are so many conspiracies. The press and government lie all over the place. Then there are all the big tech censorship efforts. If they can’t disprove a conspiracy they simply suggest its validity by censoring it. Lets go no further than the food pyramid to show how science, media, big government and big business can endanger American’s health for a profit. If you need another excuse lets look at the Purdue family and their Purdue Pharma Company. Practically every doctor prescribed their drugs while courts defended the company and people died. Conspiracy theories exist because conspiracies are so big and obvious.


15 posted on 02/16/2021 7:52:01 AM PST by poinq
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To: SeekAndFind

Let’s people feel like the chosen ones. And people love feeling chosen.


16 posted on 02/16/2021 7:54:03 AM PST by discostu (Like a dog being shown a card trick )
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To: SeekAndFind

Our intelligence agencies are responsible for many of these — including the Q-nonsense — and the ones they’re not responsible for, they are all-too happy to promulgate and amplify any of those that help build and maintain their power structure.

Just take a look at the militarized zone of DC these days and you’ll know...


17 posted on 02/16/2021 7:54:18 AM PST by Magnatron
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To: SeekAndFind

As I see it, the government has lost our TRUST, it has completely broken down and it is their fault. What else are people to do to understand events such as Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Benghazi lies and coverup, the Mueller investigation, the FISA abuse, the media’s complete loss of ethics and objectivity, the DEMS complicity with BLM AND ANTIFA and now a very questionable election.


18 posted on 02/16/2021 7:57:27 AM PST by Toespi
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To: SeekAndFind
The REAL Reason Conspiracy Theories Are So Common

Most Americans depend on the mainstream media to provide facts about what our government and leaders are doing, but it’s been clear for decades that

media credibility is in the toilet.


19 posted on 02/16/2021 7:59:10 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Celebrate Decivilization)
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To: SeekAndFind

Its funny that QAnon is “debunked” while the Lincoln Project’s John Weaver was a practicing pedophile and now we find out it was common knowledge. Wouldn’t it help disprove QAnon if pedophiles would stop popping up in DC.


20 posted on 02/16/2021 8:02:35 AM PST by poinq
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