People complain about how bad the world is, that there is this oppressive establishment elite, evil billionaires etc

But it’s all very vague. However, as soon as you ever suggest anything tangible as to who is causing problems and how and why and what can be done about it, you are shouted down as a ‘conspiracy theorist’. Apparently you’ve got to agree with everything the same establishment you apparently hate, tells you to think. No wonder bad things continue to happen if all it takes to shut someone up is to call them a label. Apparently fighting the system is nothing more than making statuses about establishment approved causes to fish for likes.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

hartfire · 61-69

It's true that that kind of "shouting down" occurs a lot on social media and in public life.
But it's generally either from people who are poorly educated, or from pollies trying to get away with sloganeering. Even the cry "conspiracy theorist" has come to be misused - a kind of red herring thrown where it's perfectly obvious there's none. real conspiracies are the ones we never here about till long after the events.

pianoplayingsteve · 31-35, M

@hartfire it’s got to a point now where I’ve seen the term ‘conspiracy theory’ thrown at anything, no matter how factually true, that just so happens to contradict a narrative that someone happens to have that day

hartfire · 61-69

@pianoplayingsteve exactly. Unless someone can point to evidence of a conspiracy, their claim can safely be regarded as nonsense.
Normally at that point, I'd politely disengage and go chat with someone else.
But on rare occasions I might get curious and ask them more about their own ideas and why they are so sure about their view. I usually discover that their views derive from their social environment and sense of identity; they've never seen the world outside their limited area and they actively avoid anything on the net that might contradict or challenge their views.