Some just want to promote conflict, cause chaos, or even just get attention.

There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content.

They are opportunists. These people share conspiracy theories to promote conflict, cause chaos, recruit and radicalize potential followers, make money, harass, or even just to get attention.

There are several types of this sort of conspiracy-spreader trying to influence you.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    2 hours ago

    I love watching tankies squirm under adequate questioning of their morals.

    You all fail to be genuine and it’s genuinely amazing.

  • basmatii@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    Or, you know, it’s fun. It’s not fun to admit there are 1200 diagnosed psychopaths with the same amount of money as 95% of all humans to have ever existed combined that all got there independently and without alien or demon help. It’s just depressing to admit these few effectively own most governments, not due to secret abuse rituals or aliens, but simply because their amount of money is high enough that most governments cannot resist their influence.

    It’s depressing to acknowledge that reality as it really exists for 99.9% of humanity is inescapable, irredeemable, irrifixible, garbage made so not by nature or external fantastical factors, but by just a few people with more money and influence than the rest of us.

    So why not have fun? The moon is a hollow satellite built by reptiles to overtake the natural reincarnation process in order to trap people here forever so they can harvest the energy created by our suffering, these reptiles of course wear skin suits and place themselves in the highest levels of society and government so they can watch their farm of infinite suffering grow.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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    4 hours ago

    The bigger concern why some of the “conspiracies” turn out to be true later and fake news never held accountable for their bad faith shilling when they sometimes even know it is false…

    How about that one?

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      2 minutes ago

      If I pump put baseless conspiracies nonstop then statistically I’ll something sort of right at some point. It doesn’t mean I was right to espouse that bullshit on the first place. Showing your work matters. If you got to a right conclusion accidentally by making shit up , it doesn’t mean you were “right” or that people were we’re wrong to laugh at you. There’s a thing called Epistemology. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years. Learn about it .

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    Frankly, some of it is push back against busy-bodies who seem to be totally incapable of parsing the concept that the Internet isn’t some sort of bastion of absolute truth. It’s sarcasm that idiots take far too seriously. More than a little is because certain autocratic wanna-bees seem to desire to use the Internet to intrude upon people’s most private thoughts and moments.

    But yes, explain it all away as some sort of nefarious plot to justify even further intrusions into people’s lives.

    • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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      2 hours ago

      Pretty sure that’s why the US does war stuff. They think it’s fucking hilarious.

      The fact you don’t find it funny is your problem 🤷

      (You’re a hypocrite if that burns at all)

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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      3 hours ago

      I’ve sometimes thought about that. Maybe in an alternate reality there’s a someone with my face who isn’t held back by any sort of morality whatsoever. Once you open that door, you can totally start spreading the stupidest ideas you can think of, and you’ll find someone who believes it and becomes your devout follower. I have a feeling that Scientology came about as a result of this sort of thinking.

    • sir_pronoun@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I still find it insane how people can take almost anything on the internet at face value, apart from maybe reputable news outlets and properly reviewed research and technical stuff - and even THAT with a grain of salt.

      It’s just too much fun to post bullshit, and obviously there are too many people bullshitting for so many reasons.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        We used to call it “shooting the shit” in the pre-authoritarian days, and it was just an ordinary part of socializing with like minded individuals. I’m convinced that the only reason the Internet was allowed to be good at first, was to lure everyone into holding personal conversations on social media and messaging apps, so that they could police everyone’s everyday speech.