Recent studies by psychologists and social scientists in the US and UK suggest that contrary to mainstream media stereotypes, those labeled “conspiracy theorists” appear to be saner than those who accept the official versions of contested events.


The most recent study was published on July 8th by psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent (UK). Entitled “What about Building 7? A social psychological study of online discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories,” the study compared “conspiracist” (pro-conspiracy theory) and “conventionalist” (anti-conspiracy) comments at news websites.

The authors were surprised to discover that it is now more conventional to leave so-called conspiracist comments than conventionalist ones: “Of the 2174 comments collected, 1459 were coded as conspiracist and 715 as conventionalist.” In other words, among people who comment on news articles, those who disbelieve government accounts of such events as 9/11 and the JFK assassination outnumber believers by more than two to one. That means it is the pro-conspiracy commenters who are expressing what is now the conventional wisdom, while the anti-conspiracy commenters are becoming a small, beleaguered minority.

Perhaps because their supposedly mainstream views no longer represent the majority, the anti-conspiracy commenters often displayed anger and hostility: “The research… showed that people who favoured the official account of 9/11 were generally more hostile when trying to persuade their rivals.”

Additionally, it turned out that the anti-conspiracy people were not only hostile, but fanatically attached to their own conspiracy theories as well. According to them, their own theory of 9/11 - a conspiracy theory holding that 19 Arabs, none of whom could fly planes with any proficiency, pulled off the crime of the century under the direction of a guy on dialysis in a cave in Afghanistan - was indisputably true. The so-called conspiracists, on the other hand, did not pretend to have a theory that completely explained the events of 9/11: “For people who think 9/11 was a government conspiracy, the focus is not on promoting a specific rival theory, but in trying to debunk the official account.”

In short, the new study by Wood and Douglas suggests that the negative stereotype of the conspiracy theorist - a hostile fanatic wedded to the truth of his own fringe theory - accurately describes the people who defend the official account of 9/11, not those who dispute it.

Additionally, the study found that so-called conspiracists discuss historical context (such as viewing the JFK assassination as a precedent for 9/11) more than anti-conspiracists. It also found that the so-called conspiracists to not like to be called “conspiracists” or “conspiracy theorists.”

Both of these findings are amplified in the new book Conspiracy Theory in America by political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith, published earlier this year by the University of Texas Press. Professor deHaven-Smith explains why people don’t like being called “conspiracy theorists”: The term was invented and put into wide circulation by the CIA to smear and defame people questioning the JFK assassination! “The CIA’s campaign to popularize the term ‘conspiracy theory’ and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited, unfortunately, with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.”

In other words, people who use the terms “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist” as an insult are doing so as the result of a well-documented, undisputed, historically-real conspiracy by the CIA to cover up the JFK assassination. That campaign, by the way, was completely illegal, and the CIA officers involved were criminals; the CIA is barred from all domestic activities, yet routinely breaks the law to conduct domestic operations ranging from propaganda to assassinations.

DeHaven-Smith also explains why those who doubt official explanations of high crimes are eager to discuss historical context. He points out that a very large number of conspiracy claims have turned out to be true, and that there appear to be strong relationships between many as-yet-unsolved “state crimes against democracy.” An obvious example is the link between the JFK and RFK assassinations, which both paved the way for presidencies that continued the Vietnam War. According to DeHaven-Smith, we should always discuss the “Kennedy assassinations” in the plural, because the two killings appear to have been aspects of the same larger crime.

Psychologist Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph agrees that the CIA-designed “conspiracy theory” label impedes cognitive function. She points out, in an article published in American Behavioral Scientist (2010), that anti-conspiracy people are unable to think clearly about such apparent state crimes against democracy as 9/11 due to their inability to process information that conflicts with pre-existing belief.

In the same issue of ABS, University of Buffalo professor Steven Hoffman adds that anti-conspiracy people are typically prey to strong “confirmation bias” - that is, they seek out information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, while using irrational mechanisms (such as the “conspiracy theory” label) to avoid conflicting information.

The extreme irrationality of those who attack “conspiracy theories” has been ably exposed by Communications professors Ginna Husting and Martin Orr of Boise State University. In a 2007 peer-reviewed article entitled “Dangerous Machinery: ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ as a Transpersonal Strategy of Exclusion,” they wrote:

“If I call you a conspiracy theorist, it matters little whether you have actually claimed that a conspiracy exists or whether you have simply raised an issue that I would rather avoid… By labeling you, I strategically exclude you from the sphere where public speech, debate, and conflict occur.”


But now, thanks to the internet, people who doubt official stories are no longer excluded from public conversation; the CIA’s 44-year-old campaign to stifle debate using the “conspiracy theory” smear is nearly worn-out. In academic studies, as in comments on news articles, pro-conspiracy voices are now more numerous - and more rational - than anti-conspiracy ones.

No wonder the anti-conspiracy people are sounding more and more like a bunch of hostile, paranoid cranks.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/12/313399/conspiracy-theorists-vs-govt-dupes/

I'm glad the 911 thing is finally settled.

BTW...What ever DID happen to that 5th plane anyway? I remember it on the news, flight number & all...Then, *poof*...It was like it was never there, and nobody ever talked about it again.

Did it ever turn up?

9-11 didn't do anything at all to help the Muslims. It only made things worse for them.

On the other hand, it did a world of good for the Zionists and the bankster Elite and it gave the government new powers (The Patriot Act).

Which is exactly what the Elite Bankster controllers want.

The Muslims are now the new "Jews" and most of the world hate propaganda is against them.

Not MORE ridiculous discredited anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theories...Again!

Just a random statement, of which i know i will get some "flak" for; I heard from some historians that if you look back, history is just a series of conspiracies. Those who strive for power often "conspire" to do so with slanderous campaigns and underhanded deals, do they not?

Do we really believe there are no government or corporate cover-ups, or information being bent for agendas, whatever they may be?

And if something is, in fact, covered up, it would be difficult to prove, as the act of covering up something involves the destruction of evidence... Thus we have entered a paradox, one which is exhausting to sort through.



I'm not a conspiracy theorist, just giving my 2 cents and simply saying most anything is possible.

yea, your right, and there is nothing wrong with asking questions... but they should be the right questions, not some of the nonsense that a few/lot of the ct'ers come up with...

a ray gun that turns metal into dust...
the jews did it...doesn't matter what, they did it
melted engine blocks for miles around the WTC
thermite
super-thermite
painted on super themite
nobody on the planes
there was no planes
the jews did it
bush did it
cheney did it
bush and cheney are jews
no way a building could fall like that
it just goes on and on and on...


the sane ct'ers, however few they are, are doing something that should be done... the insane ones make it way harder for the sane ones...

According to the study that started this thread, the sane CT'ers make up some 2/3 of the population (based on the sample studied, which should be fairly reliable given it's size).

At any rate, I have a simple question...What happened to that 5th plane? Surely by now they must know...after all 9/11 was 12 years ago.

According to the study that started this thread, the sane CT'ers make up some 2/3 of the population (based on the sample studied, which should be fairly reliable given it's size).

At any rate, I have a simple question...What happened to that 5th plane? Surely by now they must know...after all 9/11 was 12 years ago.

Hinklmayr Metals Inc.Plainview,TX. dismantled it long ago!

So it landed safely after being hijacked?...Why didn't they say that in the news instead of just "disappearing" it like it was never there?

So it landed safely after being hijacked?...Why didn't they say that in the news instead of just "disappearing" it like it was never there?

Hinklmayr could probably tell you!

Why didn't he tell the 9/11 commission so we'd all know?

I'm not confused. The attacks on "Zionism" on these forums
are thinly veiled antisemitic attacks on Jews. Zionism is
inherently a Jewish movement to return to their ancestral
homeland.

The "Global Domination" and "Financial Domination" Zionist conspiracy
theories are all the same ones discredited as hoaxes a hundred
years ago - see the Wiki article about the "Elders of Zion"
hoax and the many references documenting it. It is known to
be a lot of hogwash since the 1920s at least!

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion is an antisemitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies that were distributed throughout the US in the 1920s.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis publicized the text as if it were a valid document, although it had already been exposed as fraudulent. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, it ordered the text to be studied in German classrooms. The historian Norman Cohn suggested that Hitler used the Protocols as his primary justification for initiating the Holocaust—his "warrant for genocide".[1]

If you think so, then you obviously think all Jews are Zionists and all Zionists are Jews, which is not a fact so you are glaringly mistaken when you lump all Jews together as one group of so-called persecuted people.



If you think some flimsy Wikipedia article is any kind of evidence that discredits the glaring facts you are mistaken.




So you have a few facts about when the Protocols were written, so what? You have no idea how long that document has been around before it was ever published.

The plan itself is being practiced openly in front of your eyes all over the world, not by Jews but by those who pretend to be Jews.



The nick name "Nazi" comes from Ashkenazi

In case you don't know it, there is an obvious glaring split in the people that call themselves "Jewish," and the people you perceive as being "Jewish" and they hate each other with a murderous passion, and they have been killing each other for centuries. When they are killing other Jews, they disguise themselves as something else, even claiming to be German or Catholic. Hitler was one of them.

Until people realize that there are two separate and completely different ethnic bloodlines that call themselves Jewish and that they are killing each other, people will forever be in the dark (like you are) making silly claims that anyone who exposes their murderous crimes is "anti-semitic."

Crimes are crimes, murder is murder. Whether this bloodline calls themselves Zionists, Jews, Catholics, Germans or anything else.

Bullmalarky,it is actually short for NAZIonal Sozialist!(National Socialist)

Bullmalarky,it is actually short for NAZIonal Sozialist!(National Socialist)