ajkula66 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:05 pm
zoltan87 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 1:42 pm
He is one of those people that the Internet hasn't helped to get more informed and clear minded, but has caused him to develop paranoia.
I doubt that Internet "caused" it. Pushed out some "deep and secret fears" as Jim Morrison sang is much more likely. But obviously you know your father and I don't.
A buddy of mine from another lifetime claimed that Internet was the work of the devil, and he was not necessarily a religious person. There's something to be said about the power of the said medium, for sure.
Definitely, my dad always had a very open mind to alternative theories, be that about aliens visiting us, a small very powerful elite group working against humanity, and inventions (particularly perpetual-motion machines, new power source/storage devices). But up until like 2009-ish he managed to stay fairly grounded in reality. The age of Youtube and alternative/new age websites really didn't help him. It pains me to see the state he is in now. We are at a point where we have to worry whenever we go outside into public with him, be that a simple shopping in the city centre, or some family gathering, wedding, funeral etc, as he only needs a minute to start going on with one of his theories. My mum is constantly afraid of public embarrassment because of him.
dr_st wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:10 pm
There seems to be some personality trait that draws people to the world of conspiracy theories, regardless of their intelligence. I've witnessed it in a few very smart people I personally know.
I have read about this, the main issue seems to be that as a species, we have evolved to recognise danger efficiently, as that helped our survival in the cruel nature. Seeing danger in something, that turned out to be harmless (making a false positive assessment) usually had less serious consequences to our life, than not taking something seriously, and then pay with our life for it in case of misjudgement (making a false negative assessment). We have evolved to survive, not to find the truth, so statistically our instincts will cause false alarms and fear in way more situations, than unjustified carelessness.
Also many people enjoy the feeling of knowing some "secret knowledge", that most people are not aware of.
My father used to write programs to a company he worked for (DOS based, it was in the early 90s) and I always considered him an intelligent person. Quite frankly the more I think about this as I write, I am starting to worry that he might has some underlying developing mental problem. Problem is, he is extremely against modern medicine and healthcare in general, so there is zero chance to get him to go to an evaluation or test.
Anyway sorry for being off topic, I might will start a new thread sometime about conspiracies in general, and how my dad started out, and has slowly reached his current state (actually I had a very similar mindset to him up until like 2004-2005). And just to be clear, I am not suggesting that this Covid-19 vaccine fear is pure ignorance, as I mentioned earlier, I have my doubts as well, even though in general I am 100% for developing new vaccines to cure diseases.
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