How to make sense of Conspiracy Theories - pt 7A of 9

What do governments have to say about conspiracy theories?

How to make sense of conspiracy theories. Written and edited by Rob Ager. the original article can be read at http://www.collativelearning.com/

Part seven explores what governments have to say about conspiracy theories and how they respond to them, including an analysis of Cass Sunstein's "cognitive infiltration" policy recommendation.

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Education

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• sense
• of
• conspiracy
• theories
• rob
• ager
• cass
• sunstein
• government
• policy
• recommendation

[kirkmccormack1]

Rob- I'm sure you will get to this in your concluding video's- is there an approach you are suggesting for the balanced-measured assessment of a 'Conspiracy Theory'? Perhaps there is no quick, catch all way of doing this but if there was an agreed mechanism for the classification of particularly relevant or dangerous theory it would go a long way to achieving the openness discussed in your most recent videos. The current system of tribunals and committees itself seems to be fuel to the fire...

[robag88]

@kirkmccormack1 Yes, Part 8 will outline information gathering and processing principles. Part 9 will outline communication strategies for debating a conspiracy theory from both sides. Everything so far is leading in that direction because the scrambled mixture of conflicting assumptions about the topic, which isn't helped by economically and politically biased influences, must first be unravelled :)

[Nightmonkey17]

The internet could be a powerful medium for investigation if it was more ordered. What we need is a peer review overlay for every article and page on the web, where not only is the content of the website reviewed, but the reviewers themselves are reviewed. Expert opinion would be most highly regarded.

Several programs have tried to achieve this, but few have garnered mass appeal.

[robag88]

@Nightmonkey17 The problem with peer review is that it usually has funding ... and where there is funding there is usually an attached bias. I personally prefer to judge the information myself rather than trust the integrity and efficiency of a committee. Of course, it would take too much time to do that with everything.

[systemanic]

It's very hard to inform ppl of conspiracies.I feel alot of em are true, but you've got to live in the real world.I hear others all the time say to me "stop believing that rubbish".For instance, telling your partner whos expecting that vaccines are armful & cause autism, or that your newborn is gonna be microchipped.Trust me, all you get is a "dont talk crap, hope your not gonna brainwash our kid with that crap".Imagine goin upto your Dr & telling him/her that; they'd throw you out the room.

[robag88]

@systemanic I honestly don't think convincing people of conspiracies is a problem. They're already convinced of many without realizing it. They believe in Al Qaeda sleeper cells, WMDs in Iraq, Iran's nuclear weapons program, organ harvesting in China, and tons of other conspiracies fed to them by the media. After you show people that they're already conspiracy theorists they can begin to exercize observation as to which conspiracies are more plausible than others.

[robag88]

To the folks posting comments for and against diff conspiracy theories: This video is about exploring how the term is used in our society at all levels and our attitudes to the topic. If you want to promote or debunk a particular theory you're best doing it on a video that is directly related to the theory question. Thanks :)

[robag88]

@TheZaius REL-avance?

[rabudman]

"the circus arena of corporate media"lol...two thumbs up!

[Nightmonkey17]

@robag88

yeah one organization that has tried it is hypothes.is

They only raised 200,000 dollars. Compare that to facebook's millions.

[llaevigrof]

Also thank your for the continued series... enjoying them.

[llaevigrof]

Just listening to alternative news reveals so much of what is not covered in mainstream news. So many bombarding detriments to the planet and mankind. So in a sense all of those things not covered could be considered conspiracy theories. Mainstream propaganda, I know are blacking out, lying, and leaving out so much info of the 'subject' to bias. It's prevalent in the US. Its like business as usual, but the abyssal sinkhole is underneath waiting to give way.