It’s wild.
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
• annually demanding 20 percent across-the-board cuts in higher education funding
• repeatedly slashing construction funds for state campuses
• engineering the firing of Clark Kerr, the highly respected president of the University of California
• declaring that the state “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity”
How the fuck do you come to the conclusion that you’re spending too much money on education
Educated people tend to lean liberal and conservatives hate open minded people.
It’s this. People with good educations will figure out that the Republicans are lying to them to take advantage of them. Republicans don’t want their pigeon/fools to think too hard about the lies they tell.
Look at Trump. Is he an obvious liar? Yes. But there are very “poorly educated” people who believe all the lies he says.
Right. We missed our chance when Hillary didn’t get in. I can’t see why people imply she’s dishonest.
People in education tend to lean liberal. Conservatives don’t hate people but they do realize there’s such thing as being so open minded your brains spill out.
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.
Source: https://theintercept.com/2022/08/25/student-loans-debt-reagan/
There’s other sources if you don’t like the Intercept.
R E A G A N.
The Trump era began by ripping out the solar panels on the White House and tricking blue collars into voting against themselves.
It was, and is, fucking awful.
Easy
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.
Just look at the GOP. They repeat garbage until their pawns believe it.
Well, you see, it was educate 10,000 people or build another fighter jet.
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
And people look at that and say, sure, I’ll vote for this guy.
It’s a self perpetuating spiral to hell.
By design. It’s a lot easier to fleece stupid people.
Perfectly stated.
No, we just have a larger presence on the internet relative to our share of the global population, meaning our idiocy is noticed a lot more often.
Call it the Florida Man effect, it’s not that other states don’t also have crazies, it’s just that Florida’s are more well documented and publicized.
Removed by mod
Eating Pork will slowly turn your heart inside out
Now I want to know what they think happens when it’s half-way 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.
This 100%
Low educated people are more prone to being superstitious. End of conversation.
E: Oh, right, it also gets much worse if you hardcore propagandize it.
Educated people are harder to control. It’s why Republicans attack education at every opportunity.
It’s why fascists always attack education at every opportunity.
Yeah, that’s what I said.
That’s what I said, too! We should be friends.
The Simple answer is No. Every country has its fair share of loud and dumb.
The complicated answer is, the less education and the more propaganda, the more likely you are to believe dumb shit.
Yes we are! It’s a result of all the subliminal messaging we receive from our kitchen appliances.
Yvan eht nioj
Nice try, refrigerator.
That’s why you cook everything on a wood fire in the middle of your kitchen.
Make sure you punch a hole in the roof for the smoke!
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.
To add to this, radicalism spreads thru a social contagion effect and requires repeated reinforcement, and social media acts as a catalyst. However, local organizing also plays a vital role in the spread far-right extremism.
Here is an article I have written on my blog detailing how people become radicalized. I have ads turned off and do not benefit in any way from my blog.
One important section I’d like to share here is for the false ‘both sides’ arguments:
There is a stark difference in the means with which the two groups engage in acts of extremism. In a study evaluating Left-Wing and Right-Wing domestic extremism between 1994 and 2020, there was one fatality as the result of Left-Wing extremism, versus 329 fatalities resulting from Far Right extremism in that 25 year period. [5] The Far-Right movement is the oldest and most deadly form of domestic terrorism in the United States, and The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism found that the Far-Right is responsible for 98% of extremist murders in the U.S. [24] Furthermore, for nearly every year since 2011, Far-Right terrorist attacks/plots have accounted for over half of all terror attacks/plots in the United States. [21] In the U.S., Right-Wing extremism was responsible for two-thirds of all failed, foiled, or successful terror attacks in 2019, and was responsible for 90% of attacks in the first half of 2020 alone. [21] Since 2013, Far-Right extremism has been responsible for more terror attacks/plots than the Left-Wing, ethnonationalism, or religiously motivated attacks/plots. [21]That is the finest example of begging the question I have seen in years! It’s really rare to see in the wild.
Oooh, could you expand on that? I’ve always had a tough time identifying begging the question and a real example would help.
You are MOST welcome, it took me ages to make it click, this is the best example I have found:
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How come the iPhone so popular?
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Because it’s the hottest thing on the market right now.
Ha! I’d discarded that as just a tautology and went looking for something else.
TYVM.
YAMBB
you and me both bro
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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.
You forgot Russia, india & china
No I didn’t. India might be an asterisk.
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?)
Now imagine a Confederate version with more racism and you have Stone Mountain.
You think brainwashing may have something to do with it?
Yeah that’s essentially what I wanted to describe.
I agree. Definitely brainwashing.
The anti-vax movement is alot bigger in the US than any other western country, so yeah.
That’s basically the answer.
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
There are plenty of crazies believing in conspiracy theories all over the world. Not just US or even the western world.
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.
We see a lot of efforts to convince suckers of absurdities in the US because there’s a lot of economic value in swinging American votes.
In other countries that either don’t have voting, or don’t have a lot of economic power, there’s less to be gained by befuddling morons.
There is a hidden assumption in your comment: conspiracy theories are intentionally created or reinforced with specific strategic goals.
While I think that it’s probably rare, there have been conspiracy theories that are intentionally crafted to achieve goals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_INFEKTION
And I am very sure that there have been many efforts to amplify existing conspiracies; you can look at disinformation research.
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.
My conspiracy is that conspiracies are a conspiracy
