I tend to think that belief in conspiracy theories, like flat earthism, help some people to feel relevant in an increasingly complex and hard-to-understand world. In the almost every field of learning, and especially in the sciences, it take years of dedication and learning before you even have a hope of contributing to your field of study. It often takes a degree in a subject just to understand what the experts are talking about — i.e. you are one of a select few who do.
Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, can be understood by anyone, but they are only believed by a relatively small community of people ranged against the massive edifice of the scientific establishment or the globalists, the New World Order, etc. — the powers that be.
So conspiracy theorists believe they know better — they have some special knowledge that the "sheeple" around them can’t see, or refuse to see, and it makes them feel special, superior, in the way they imagine those so-called real experts must feel when they talk in esoteric terms about subjects the common folk can barely understand, but without having to go through years of hard work to get there.
It’s also how conspiracy theorists bring order to chaos — they believe that the chaos and random events in this world are just made to look that way by a controlling globalist elite, and are really part of a meticulous long term plan to enslave the human race (after killing off most of us). Again, figuring this out makes them feel superior to those around them who are still blind to the facts they see clearly.
Of course, in turn, if we’re brutally honest, those of us who engage with the conspiracy theorists are typically doing it because it makes us feel superior to them, since we’re not dumb enough to fall for their nonsense. But that’s okay… isn’t it?
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