Negative social impact of conspiracy theories?

[LordEd]

Why did the Vancouver Stanley cup riots happen?
...
Why do people obey those in authority?

These two statements are contradictory. Those in the riot were not listening to authority, as authority was saying 'stop rioting'.

[Fancy]

Fancy's problem is that he only thinks of one thing when he hears the word - conspiracy. The only
thing he's capable of thinking about is what the 'herd' thinks about when they hear conspiracy theory - the anti-vaccine movement.

Repeat - what happened in GSK offices was one of the biggest conspiracies on earth.
..

You're missing the difference between conspiracy and fraud.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/glaxosmit ... -1.1257287

[sanfish]

^^^^^actually Fancy , you're missing that many conspiracies are " more than one person conspiring ( read planning) to commit fraud. In fact, in one form or another , all conspiracies are to commit some kind of fraud ( if not the act then the fraudulent cover story)

[Thinktank]

Those in the riot were not listening to authority, as authority was saying 'stop rioting'.

Do rioters have a herd mentality?

Do flu shot panic people have a herd mentality?

[sanfish]

Why are you avoiding the question? Seems you've posted about the cheating on other threads. But my question revolved around the vaccines themselves - they do work - no conspiracy there.

Your blanket statement is not only factually wrong, but quite potentially dangerous. At most, you could say that some /many vaccines SEEM to work in the short term ( u site of mutations to "super bugs" or long term effect on natural immunity etc), while others have been clearly shown to not only not work but have had some serious/fatal consequences . Perhaps if you were even a tiny bit less absurd , you could be taken a little more seriously? Again, don't take that as gospel, it's just a theory I ( and more than one other friend of mine ) have

[LordEd]

Do conspiracy theory subscribers have a herd mentality?

Its always interesting to note that the typical CTer does not subscribe to just one particular theory and tends to latch onto several.

[Fancy]

Do conspiracy theory subscribers have a herd mentality?

Seems like it from their websites.

[Fancy]

Do flu shot panic people have a herd mentality?

Panic?

[I Think]

Let’s start with the flu vaccine, which has a high safety profile and most people receive for the obvious reasons–flu prevention. However, we are aware of other benefits of the flu shot, including providing somewhat better outcomes during pregnancy. In an article published on 21 August 2013 examined a previously suspected, but not firmly established, benefit of the flu vaccine was examined. This study found that the risk of getting a heart attack was about 50% less amongst patients who were vaccinated against the flu compared to a group that was not.

Now, the study does not show that the flu vaccine has some miraculous anti-heart attack component, it might reduce the risk of catching the flu, or possibly reducing the severity of the infection, which reduces the risk of having a heart attack. In fact, the study’s original hypothesis was that catching the flu might actually increase the risk of a cardiovascular event, specifically a heart attack.

Furthermore, the researchers observed that the flu vaccine reduced heart attack risk even when the vaccine’s effectiveness was shown to be not very high. This conclusion itself debunks one of the huge myths of the antivaccination crowd (which is essentially that if it’s not 100% effective then we must conclude that it’s 0% effective, an application of the Nirvana logical fallacy); sometimes even when a vaccine isn’t completely effective, it still has some net positive effects.



http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skeptica ... -evidence/

[sanfish]

Do conspiracy theory subscribers have a herd mentality?

Its always interesting to note that the typical CTer does not subscribe to just one particular theory and tends to latch onto several.

Perfect example of what I take issue with. It's not "CT'ers" that do or don't have. It's humans in general that tend to show/behave in a herd mentality ( eg group think , mob mentality, the panic that spreads like a wildfire during an emergency if allowed to get out of hand, etc etc etc. ). So some/many humans ( depending on perspective) that blindly follow "conspiracy theories" show a herd mentality no greater no less than those that automatically shun those that do.

[Thinktank]

Do conspiracy theory subscribers have a herd mentality?

There's no such thing as a conspiracy theory subscriber.

Just because most of us believed there
were WMDs in Iraq doesn't mean we were conspiracy theory subscribers. It just means
most of us are a bit on the simple side, and we didn't think our government would lie to us.

[Fancy]

There's no such thing as a conspiracy theory subscriber.

Seems there's an explanation in Wikipedia.

[sanfish]

Oh well if Wikipedia says it it must be true haha

[Thinktank]

A lot of Castanetters subscribe to the conspiracy theory that says nothing
can be true unless there is a link provided.



..

[Fancy]

A lot of Castanetters subscribe to the conspiracy theory that says nothing
can be true unless there is a link provided...

Haven't come across that one before - link?