Tag: conspiracy-theory

Predictive Programming

Predictive programming is a made-up element of conspiracy theories that supposes conspirators hide references in popular media before an atrocity takes place. When it occurs, the public has supposedly softened up and accepts it rather than resisting.

Conspiracy theorists invented the so-called predictive programming to allow them to use similarities in books, music, movies, etc., as “evidence” that the atrocity was intentional & caused by a conspiracy. It also gives them a convenient excuse to justify why these conspiracists would even purposely leak their secret plans of an atrocity in popular media.

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(April Fools) DHMO Awareness Campaign

DHMO (dihydrogen monoxide, or hidroxic-acid, μ-oxido dihydrogen, dihydrogen oxide, oxidane, hydric acid) is a non-organic chemical. It is transparent, odorless & tasteless but can cause frostbite and blunt trauma in solid form, suffocation in liquid form, and thermal burns in gas form. Additionally, it can also dissolve heavy metals and accelerate corrosion.

There are many conspiracies involving DHMO in their modus operandi. DHMO is the primary component of chemtrails. Attempts of weather modification by the global scheme can result in a downpour that contains a large amount of DHMO. In the so-called “space industry,” both Neil Armstrong and Wernher von Braun reportedly often consumed DHMO. All genetically engineered plants are known to contain DHMO. And the new world order governments are knowingly feeding DHMO to the population.

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Fact-Fabrication Blending in Conspiracy Theories

Perpetrators of conspiracy theories, including flat Earth, like to mix real-world facts & their fabrications. As a result, the victims cannot differentiate the fact parts and the fabrication parts of the conspiracy, then wrongly use references to the fact parts as “evidence” of the fabrication parts.

For example, they often wrongly use the fact that Illuminati was real as “evidence” they control our lives. In reality, Illuminati was a real-world, historical secret society. But it does not prove that Illuminati is controlling everything in our lives.

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Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory

The chemtrail conspiracy theory presupposes the erroneous belief that long-lasting contrails left by aircraft are, in fact, “chemtrails” intentionally sprayed for nefarious purposes.

The so-called “chemtrails” are just normal condensation trails produced by aircraft engine exhaust. Contrails are composed of water in the form of ice crystals. Depending on the temperature and humidity, contrails may be visible for a few seconds, or they may persist for hours, resembling natural clouds.

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Conspiracy Theories are Immune to Evidence

Conspiracy theories are immune to evidence. They are inherently self-sealing. Evidence that disproves a conspiracy theory is reinterpreted as originating from the conspiracy.

When faced with evidence that disproves flat Earth, rather than considering the evidence, flat-Earthers will simply invent an “explanation” that the evidence was fabricated by those in the conspiracy & include those who told them the evidence as being part of the conspiracy. Sometimes even evidence that can be personally verified also gets the same treatment.

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Controlled Opposition or Psyop

Believers of a less ridiculous conspiracy theory often wrongly claim that a more ridiculous one, like flat Earth, is a psyop or controlled opposition intentionally created by the authorities to undermine and discredit all the other conspiracy theories.

In reality, conspiracy theories like flat-Earth can form due to ignorance, emotion, and prejudice. It is not necessary to invent a conspiracy theory to explain the existence of another. Moreover, all conspiracy theories are more similar than different from each other, including flat-Earth. They differ only in the severity of ignorance, emotion, and prejudice needed for someone to become a victim of a specific conspiracy theory.

Information that Involves Accusations of Malice

If a piece of information requires us to accuse others of malice before it is possible to believe it, then there is a high probability it is not true. Such information is usually highly emotional. It can be very tempting to believe it, and we need to be cautious.

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Seven Traits of Conspiratorial Thinking

These are the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking: contradictory, overriding suspicion, nefarious intent, something must be wrong, persecuted victim, immune to evidence, reinterpreting randomness. Flat-Earth is not a scientific problem, it is a conspiracy theory. Like other conspiracy theories, these traits also apply to flat-Earth.

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Disaster Conspiracy Theories and Crisis Actor Hoaxes

Conspiracy theorists often make false and cruel accusations that some disasters are staged and that the victims and their families are being played by what they call crisis actors. Their “proofs” are just that persons resembling the victims or having similar names are still living. They will even go as far as harassing these people in real life.

Flat-Earth is an extreme conspiracy theory, and its followers are also susceptible to making the same claims about crisis actors for related disasters, like the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

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Incitement: How People Can Believe Scientific Hoaxes, Even a Blatantly Wrong Ones, Like Flat Earth

People can believe scientific hoaxes —like flat Earth— not because of their sheer stupidity, despite the appearances; but because they are being misled into believing it emotionally. In another matter, these people can still function just like normal human beings.

If the concept being presented requires us to accuse others of malice before we can accept the concept, there must be something wrong with it, and we must be careful. Real science does not depend on such accusations to be true. And thus, we can rule out many of the things being presented as science, but actually not, without having to delve deep into them.

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Conspiracy Theory Spectrum and Demarcation Line

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Conspiracy theories — like flat Earth — exists on a spectrum, from the fringe to the mainstream.  Each of us has a different demarcation line where we divide the spectrum into the reasonable and the ridiculous.

Flat Earth lies on the extreme end of the spectrum. Anybody who believes in a flat Earth also has its demarcation line on the far extreme, too, and as a result, tends to believe all sorts of other conspiracy theories. However, less extreme conspiracy theorists might find flat Earth ridiculous. By learning how people can believe in a flat Earth, we can avoid believing other, baseless conspiracy theories.

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Global Conspiracy Smoke and Mirrors

Some flat-Earthers use the so-called global conspiracy as an ‘escape hatch’ to abandon a losing argument. When being cornered, some flat-Earthers will tell us that flat Earth is a work in progress; it is normal for it to be incomplete, for now. “But the most important thing is to uncover the global conspiracy and save the world from these unscrupulous few!”

In reality, the global conspiracy theory is only one of so many concepts invented to prevent flat Earth from being falsified.

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Psychological Projection

One reason a person can believe in conspiracy theories is the psychological projection. They attempt to deny their negative attitudes by assuming that instead, others have them, even though it is not necessarily the case.

Some people believe others are in a conspiracy against them because of their moral problem: if they were in the same positions of the people they are accusing, they would do the same thing they are accusing others of doing.

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Slander & Extreme Prejudice are Necessary to Believe a Flat Earth

To believe a flat Earth, it is necessary to accuse impossibly large amount of people from all over the world, spanning more than 20 centuries, to conspire together to deceive the rest of the human population.

On the other hand, to understand that the Earth is a sphere only requires simple observations that anyone can do themselves. In accepting that the Earth is a sphere, there is no need to throw a single baseless accusation to another person.

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Tim Peake’s Scientific Demonstration on the ISS and the Green Screen Conspiracy Theory

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In 2006, astronaut Tim Peake from the UK was tasked to perform some physics demonstration on the ISS for the National Space Academy. Tim performed the demonstrations in front of a gridded background specifically made for the purpose.

One of Tim’s video appeared during the former US president George H.W. Bush’s visit to NASA’s Mission Control Center. Flat-Earthers discovered the footage and quickly claim that it used a green screen background for CGI purposes. Such allegation was only from their ignorance and the eagerness to accuse others of lying. Tim’s videos are published in the National Science Academy’s web site as is, proving the background in the videos was merely an ordinary background, not a green screen for CGI.

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Priming: How Flat-Earthers Lead Their Victims to Believe Things That are not There

Priming is a manner in which exposure to early information influences the behavior of an individual later on, without them being aware of it. Flat Earth personalities employ this technique to instill specific biases and opinions in the mind of their targets, and for example, to lead them to believe all footage taken in space were faked.

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The Antarctic Treaty Conspiracy Theory

According to flat-Earthers, the shape of Earth is a flat circle. In the center is the north pole in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica is not a continent, but instead an ice perimeter surrounding the ‘flat Earth.’

The problem is that there are people who visited Antarctica, and their information about Antarctica does not fit the flat Earth narration. To ‘deal with the problem,’ they invented conspiracy theory and assumed every person who claimed to have visited Antarctica is a part of the grand conspiracy; and they spread the information to deceive us. This way, flat-Earthers’ narration about Antarctica is no longer falsifiable. If something stands against them, their ‘solution’ is merely to add more people to the list of persons that are part of the grand conspiracy.

The existence of the Antarctic Treaty System is convenient. Flat-Earthers use it to support their narration.

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The Long Chains of Ad-Hoc Hypotheses to Defend the Flat-Earth Model

The flat-Earth model survives not because the Earth is flat, but because every time a problem is found, its proponents would quickly invent an ad-hoc hypothesis to explain the problem away. In turn, if they discover another problem in one of these ad-hoc hypotheses, they would be happy to invent another ad-hoc hypothesis to explain the problem away. And so on, and so forth.

These ad-hoc hypotheses are there to save their core belief —that the Earth is flat— from being falsified.

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