I've been discussing conspiracy theories lately, and they're not exactly a lie (to some extent that's what they are though), so I wrote about that. That topic and answers are listed here:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-lie-that-youre-tired-of-hearing
I just wrote a post about fluoride in tea in the main blog I write, Tea in the Ancient World (the one some people actually read). I wasn't researching that related to any sort of conspiracy, instead about a question in a group about if the fluoride in tea poses any health risk. I didn't know, so I researched it.
The short answer: there is probably no risk. Or maybe, depending on other factors, but this post isn't about that. It's also not about the theory that adding fluoride to water could be part of a government mind control conspiracy. I guess the idea is that it lowers IQ, making people easier to control, although in lots of discussion the general point is never really clear.
Since I've mentioned it I'll add a link to that fluoride post, and go on to the content of that answer:
http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2017/07/fluoride-in-tea-good-or-bad-how-much-is.html
Answer post:
It’s not exactly the same thing but conspiracy theories are getting under my skin a little lately. If it’s a conspiracy theory about something so clearly known that it’s absurd (eg. the earth is flat) then at some point that does clearly trace back to someone making something up, posting Youtube videos that propagate nonsense, so lying. If a climate scientist receives funding from oil or other fossil fuel interests and as a result concludes that climate change isn’t certain then that’s another case of lying. A poll just confirmed that most Americans don’t realize that 90% of all climate research scientists accept that it’s all proven (the basic understanding, that climate change is certainly occurring; the models will keep evolving), and that’s part of the background.
Beyond not keeping up with what is currently known people tend to want to believe in nonsense, it seems. They want nameless, faceless, powerful forces to be shaping reality in harmful ways based on lies, for whatever their reasons. At a guess it somehow seems nicer than believing the world just is as it is, a bit unfair, flawed in various ways, and that they aren’t personally more successful because of a stacked deck. Related to the theories everyday circumstances wouldn’t necessarily be tilted against the people that believe in those ideas, at least in ways that they can pin down—most of it isn’t about suppressing economic opportunities—but at least some other supposed examples of altered reality turn up that they can cite.
Examples:
-Fluoride added to water: The current research evidence shows that fluoride is not harmful, in ordinary amounts, within a relatively clearly defined exposure range, and that it does protect teeth. But people want to believe that something else is going on, either a government mind control program or something else less clearly determined.
-The 9/11 terrorist attack: this was clearly a case of terrorists using planes to destroy those buildings but people want to believe that somehow a separate conspiracy-related demolition activity occurred, or the US government was in on it. There is no clear reason why this has better explanatory value, and the supposed evidence put forward is usually easy to explain away as misunderstanding. One example cited is that the buildings fell downward, that they didn’t tip over, but falling straight downward is what is expected to happen if fires caused by plane impacts and burning jet fuel caused them to fall. People cite that steel doesn’t melt at the temperature at which jet fuel burns, and it doesn’t, but a guy in a youtube video shows how soft and flexible heated steel becomes at that temperature, so that it couldn’t continue to function as a building frame. The problem isn’t about one piece of evidence not holding up in any case, it’s about working backwards from a false conclusion, even fabricating evidence if necessary, but more usually twisting interpretations in strange ways.
-The moon landings: either that was by far the most comprehensive hoax ever pulled off (continuing to this day? so the Chinese really don’t have rovers on the moon now?) or else NASA really did send people to the moon, but it’s more interesting to some to believe that they didn’t. NASA just released a lot of photographs taken there to put an end to all of it but as with flat-earthers rejecting lots of real-time satellite feed images of the spherical earth it’s really not about analyzing evidence anyway.
At least in the case of climate change there is a good reason for people to hope that the world as we know it isn’t coming to an end, even if rejecting the current conventional understanding of reality is not a reasonable step to take. For the rest it’s more a preference for there to be a conspiracy, probably in lots of cases initiated by people that are either intentionally “trolling” (saying things just to get a reaction), or making money off Youtube video views and such.
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