The Human Need for Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories have always been a part of our consciousness, from the Kennedy assassination to the Denver Airport to Sandy Hook, there have always been speculative opinions made against the mainstream. Yet, it seems that conspiracy theories and people spouting them have become more pervasive in this social media fueled hellscape that is the modern world.

I want to talk about the appeal towards conspiracy theories. I don’t want to condone them, but I want to talk about what I believe makes them appealing, and how we can protect ourselves from going mad under such chaotic conditions. Reality is Malleable, I have always been concerned about the breakdown of reality, and at the forefront to this assault on the real are conspiracy theorists.

Now, silencing the theorist, especially on a governmental level, should never enter the mind of the truly liberal. We all know that it will turn them into martyrs, their pride and righteousness will grow at a catastrophic level. To neutralize the conspiracy, is to inoculate the society through understanding and education.

I cannot do this on my own, this is something that needs to be done on the cultural level. The celebration of education and intelligence must be encouraged. I simply want to help in this endeavor, and by understanding the appeal of conspiracy theories, we can be better equipped to protect ourselves.

The need for myth

Since humans have had the need for stories, particularly to explain concepts of seasons or weather or the sun rising, humans have created myths. While this practice has faded following the enlightenment and the supremacy of science. The need for myths as an explanation for the unexplainable has been reduced.

Please note that I said reduced, not erased. There is one element of humanity where mythmaking thrives. And that is with conspiracy theories. One of the major draws to conspiratorial thinking is how you can spin an epic tale of intrigue out of nothing. The plague wasn’t due to rats (and the fleas they carried) getting onto ships and spreading the black death, it’s the Jews. The Jews are extremely popular targets for conspiracy theories, from international finance to kidnappings to even controlling the weather.

Jews are often the center of the conspiratorially minded, the big often eldritch entity that is the source of all evil in the world. Follow any conspiracy theory long enough and you will find a nebulous group of people. Just like how the Greek gods are responsible for everything that happens in the world. Every conspiracy myth will have either the Illuminati or the Jews, or the Stonemasons, the Satanists or the gay elite.

The knowledge of myth, the way of explaining all the scary chaos, the absence of security within the self or a yearning for an impossible past are integral. Conspiracy theories offer a reality that is narratively satisfying, one that has heroes (you the believer), the villain (Whatever belief you hold, this can be anything from doctors to the education system) and the backstory, ( epic in proportion and scale) The conspiracy fulfils the human need for stories, as a way to understand chaos. It’s no wonder that conspiracy theorists tend to manifest most potently within countries that have low literacy (such as the US).

If you are unable to understand the complexity of the world, unable to comprehend it. You will start looking for explanations that are easier to comprehend, easier to believe then difficult to understand concepts like geopolitics.

Are you going to understand that most of the money for Ukraine goes in the form of old military equipment or that we are sending dump trucks of money to a country well known for money laundering?You decide what is more plausible.But at the end of the day, humans crave closure, they crave simplicity in the world. That’s what conspiracy theories offer, a simple, easy to understand universe where everything fits into neat little boxes. No room for error, no room for nuance or difference, there are only two genders, there is only ever one correct group of people.

You are always the hero of your reality. You are fighting against an opponent so weak they can die in concentration camps but also so strong they can control literally everything.

The myth doesn’t need to make logical sense, the logic is only applied selectively, the need for narrative is more important, the need for closure, the need to feel special in a chaotic world. We need to feel like we are worth something, to stave off the sensation that we are insignificant within the vast uncaring cosmos.

People fear what they cannot understand

Fear of the unknown is a pervasive factor of the human condition; nobody is immune from conspiracy theories no matter how educated you might be. Academics like Kevin McDonald (of The Culture of Critique fame) is a famous neo nazi and believer in Jews ruling the world type conspiracies, He is also an evolutionary psychologist. Scientist Richard Lynn believed reverently in the inferiority of black people and Stalin was convinced that Jewish doctors were poisoning him.

The reason why I am talking about this now is to ensure you understand that you don’t have to be uneducated to believe in conspiracy theories, it can help, but humans when gripped by ideology will spin stories to explain reality how they see fit.

When you see people as “the other”, often the face of a much larger, invisible force that makes life bad for you/your group, you are going to want to understand why. This feeds into the Ego, the brave soldier fighting against the eldritch horrors seeking to destroy you. This “other” can be literally anything outside the group.The conspiracy theorist doesn’t operate outside the world of fiction, to them the fiction is the reality, and the enemy is what they don’t understand. We saw this with Covid, anything was floated aside from the obvious, any change to the story as updates occurred is confirmation that the nebulous evil is behind it. Villains spun out of whole cloth from lies, misunderstandings or even mistakes by the administration.

The chaos that Covid wrought, much like the Kennedy Assassination, was ripe for conspiracy theories.

People cannot handle the idea that life is a mad game of chance, ruled by choices made under stress and a series of coincidences that allow for the dominoes to fall. That thought of chaos, the horror of humanity only ever being seconds away from destruction scares the hell out of people. There is security in a story, the safety of narrative that feels fulfilling and less existentially terrifying.

This need for narrative, the need for closure is the birth of conspiracy theories. The Beatles didn’t break up due to behind-the-scenes bs about money, no it was Yoko Ono who broke them up. No 9/11 wasn’t just some people who hijacked a plane and changed the course of world history, it had to have been Bush.We don’t feel so insignificant if we feel we are in control, or at least able to fight back against chaos. Nobody wants to feel like the insect about to be crushed under the boot heel of the cosmic horror that is chaos. Lest we all go mad.

Ego and Conspiracy

Not every conspiracy theorist is a narcissist, but there are narcissists that are conspiracy theorists. It is not difficult to see why, when you have information that nobody else has, that you are saving the world from [insert group you hate here]. You can imagine that there is a certain amount of ego stroking involved. You know more than scientists, doctors, politicians on whatever topic you believe you know more about.

It’s shockingly boring in all honesty, it’s one of the many reasons I struggle to fall into conspiratorial mindsets. It’s just boring, it’s a shallow, cheap way to feel special, to feel like the hero by the pure existence of you.But that is just me, I am in the minority here, plenty of people lead boring lives, never amounting to anything of importance (including me). There is something pleasurable in feeling like you are fighting something bigger than yourself. It elevates the nagging sense of insignificance in your life, you don’t need to fight the feeling that you will never write that book you wanted to write during your nine to five. You don’t need to think about how your love life is unfulfilled, you are fighting against the globalists!

When you are fighting against the satanic cabal of Q Anon, you are thrust into an exciting world of intrigue and the promise of a better tomorrow, better yet, you are working towards that better tomorrow, where you will benefit from the glorious golden age of a tyrannical America. You are saving children from the (conveniently) democratic paedophiles, you never once have to comprehend the possibility that you are wrong, that you might have been lied to. Would your fellow comrades in arms, saving the world lie to you?

Humans need excitement, one of the failures modernity has is giving humans a greater purpose. Religion often provides, but given that religion has been declining, what could offer a solution to the sense of cosmic lacking? Conspiracy theories tend to provide a solution. Granted, this is for agnostic and atheistic conspiracy theorists. On the anecdotal side of things, you can see that most conspiracy theorists tend to be of the religious persuasion.

How and why, I am not sure, but I do suspect that it might be due to the susceptibility to accept stories as a standard for reality.

If we take the observation at its face value, what do conspiracy theories provide that religion already offers?If we take the idea that conspiracy theories fuel the ego and embolden the faithful towards the conspiracy theory? Well, I could argue that the conspiracy theorist uses religion as an excuse to enact the conspiracy. Religion and conspiracy theories often go hand in hand, from blood liable to Q-Anon to even weather control devices. By tying a righteous motive to the faithful, you can make people do or believe in anything.

Maybe it’s the predisposition towards believing in the fantastical that helps you believe in other fanciful things? Either way, believing that it is your divine duty to install a man as king of the world is a lot of things, but stroking the ego is certainly one of them. And when you are on God's chosen journey, you will believe and do whatever it takes to fulfil that mission.

What can we do about it?

It’s a long and torturous process to bring a conspiracy theorist to reason. There is that problem we have, where the conspiratorially minded are unwilling/incapable to see the world outside of the predetermined worldview. Conspiracy theories are self-insulating as are the people who believe in them.

This problem requires a pre-emptive effort, via education, especially in regard to literacy and media comprehension, critical thinking is vital as well to help protect ourselves from losing track of reality. There is always going to be an appeal towards conspiracy theories. They explain, they soothe, they appeal to our desire to be in control of our lives. They serve the same purpose of stories as they have done for centuries. But as they are, they can be destructive to society.