Re: A Better Way to Think About Conspiracy Theories

Just for further background reading, this interview

PART 1 https://www.salon.com/2021/02/20/conspiracy-theories--unmasked-from-winston-churchill-to-qanon-in-a-few-easy-steps/
PART 2 https://www.salon.com/2021/03/06/the-dark-truth-about-conspiracy-theories-theyre-everywhere-can-they-be-stopped/

Just on a purely personal note, i became a skeptic when as a schoolboy i 
fell hook, line and sinker for Von Daniken's 'Chariot of the Gods', to 
later discover his blatant distortions of facts and events and concluded 
that they were not blunders but purposeful deceit.

Selective reading of only 'friendly' and 'trusted' sources reinforces a 
closed mind.

 As witnessed, my politics are far apart from those here (even your 
resident 'dissident', Anthony Marsh, is a right-winger compared to me) yet 
we can find common cause in understanding one particular incident, the 
murder of JFK by LHO. It is one of basic analysis on how to accept and how 
to reject particular evidence.

Do i deny conspiracies exist? No, not at all. But they are hard to 
distinguish from the 'normal' practice of media manipulation and political 
spin.