Asklemmy

47732 readers

1511 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

125

How did we get so casual about conspiracy theories? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago by Yondoza@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How did we get so casual about conspiracy theories?

I was talking with someone today about nutrition. This person has a PhD in material science. They mentioned eating beef daily and I asked about the cholesterol implications. The answer was about a vague 'they' wanted us to think that, but it wasn't true anymore.

I hear the vague 'they' so frequently now it's just a normal conversation. In truth, as soon as I hear the vague they I dismiss the speaker's credibility on the subject, but how did we get here? Vague they wanted us to think X is a valid counter argument by the most highly educated people in our society?

This sounds like more of a rant than a question, but I do truly want to know how this happened? Was it pop culture like the X Files that made conspiracy theories main stream? Was it social media? When will the vague they stop being an accepted explanation? Has it always been this way and I didn't notice?

Thanks, love you!

(page 2) 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

I think it's quite simple, really. In the absence of truth comes speculation. It's not important who the "they" is and is irrelevant to the topic being challenged. What is important is to find a path to truth that can regain the public's trust. "Extreme" transparency will now be required in order to regain that trust. As always the pendulum swings to great lengths and effectiveness.

load more comments