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Ex-conspiracists, what made you stop believing conspiracy theorie(s) you believed? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by Merlu@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Let's be clear: i'm not saying conspiracies doesn't exist. By conspiracy theories, i mean the plots whose existence is at best highly unlikely, at worst totally senseless, notably if:

-They are breaking the laws of physics.

-They are too costly (logistically and/or financially) to be profitable.

-They are defended by untrustworthy sources (populist or cult leaders, random people, celebrities without expertise in the concerned domain, parodies taken seriously,...).

-They are often involving far-right's scapegoats.

-They are involving a large amount of people.

-They reject science by principle.

-The interests of the supposed conspirators are unclear or incoherent.

-Their so-called proofs are incoherent, manipulated or are proving nothing at all.

-They would be funny if they were published as parodies in The Onion.

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[–] beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 3 days ago (4 children)

For me it was a call on Coast To Coast AM. I used to be suuuuuuper into all that shit. I was a regular listener to C2C and believed 70% of the crap they shoveled. The 30% I didn't believe (ghosts and the supernatural) were because I had personally tried astral projecting, recording evps, ghost hunting, etc. and none of it worked for me.

Anyway the call was in the early 2000's and Art Bell was hosting. The caller claimed to be a scientist working for a secret government lab working on portal tech and had accidentally opened a doorway to another where filled with hostile beings who took control of the facility. When the caller identified themselves as Dr. Gordon Freeman I realized anyone could just say any bullshit and these idiots would believe it.

It took like 10 years to fully flush conspiracy thinking out of my brain and I overcorrected hard by becoming one of those obnoxious skeptics for a while.

Though given the times we live in today I've seen a few theories online that have an uncomfortable amount of truth to them and have to admit I have been tempted.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

You're right, that call was ridiculous. Everyone knows he doesn't talk.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Good old half life... Lol

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I only heard Coast to Coast a few times. The first couple of times I thought it was some kind of radio play (like the ones they used to play late on CBC) or art project. When I realized the callers were sincere, it just seemed sad.

[–] beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago

Oh for sure, especially with the ghost and alien abduction stories, but I always got the sense a lot of the callers were either, bored, lonely, crazy, or some combination of those three.

[–] hansolo@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

I also used to listen to C2C like it was from up on high.

I've recently started listening to classic C2C episodes, and in hindsight, WOW, it was so much BS. Like, sooooo much. I'm fairly tolerant to woo, but there just so much hyped made up whole cloth.