Psychology of conspiracy theories in 2020

Uncertainty and Projection in People Patterns

Screen capture from 2017 Atlantic article showing how everything of no value to the 1% status quo was “conspiracy.” Notice the conspicuous absence of the Twin Towers burning.

Wow, I searched online today for: conspiracies — giving your power over to conspiracy

Given Best Practices in this area I’m aware of, not much online insight on this topic. Either:

- Insight and research into why people accept and cling to conspiracies is still extremely primitive (see examples in references), or

- Google is editing results to only show anti-conspiracy ideas

…or possibly both.

I am a second generation student of conspiracies. My mother was into conspiracies in the 1960s: the Illuminati, UFO coverups, everything like this. I grew up seeing how conspiracies could be entertaining; and yet, did NOT empower my mother to solve more of her own life issues. Nor did I see conspiracies empower others significantly.

Then out of high school, in the early 1970s, I worked at The Aquarian Research Fdn., where among other things, we reviewed conspiracy theories, trying to separate fact from fiction from fantasy.

Since the 1970s I’ve kept abreast of most popular conspiracy theories.

Are all conspiracies false?