Conspiracy theories???

[Loosehead]

Why is there a need to invent ever more bizarre explainations for incidents of the past? Moon, titanic, Diana, twin towers and the latest Lennon! Look up Occams razor and you'll see the simplest explanation is nearl always correct.

[jno]

unless of course William of Occam was wrong. Sometimes the complicated answer is the right one. For instance people at the time thought the Great War was simply started by baby-eating Germans invading plucky little Belgians; but historians have been able to point, quite convincingly, to a much wider range of causes involving German industry, British imperial decline and so on. Don't knock complexity; life is complex.

[Octavius]

Because inevitably the truth is boring.

[Loosehead]

but jno, according the Baldrick, the ww1 was started by

"a bloke called Archie Duke who shot an Ostrich cos he was hungry"

[Oneeyedvic]

I guess it is down to the fact that I (and hopefully a lot of other people) do not believe

1. Politicians (Bad day to bury news etc)


2. Newspapers (from Hitler Diaries to who sha*ged who)


3. Senior Policemen (Sir Ian Blair and the cover up on the shooting)

Personally, I think it shows signs of intelligence to question stories. Not everything is 'cearly always correct' and when you start to realise the amount of rubbish we are fed, all it does is increase the likelihood of more bizzare stories.

[Octavius]

The truth is out there, but lies are inside your head

[logman]

It seems to be uncool to be a conspiracy theorist these days and some people flock like sheep to pour scourn and make quik judgments. personally i enjoy the freedom to look at both sides of the story, analise it and make up my own mind. If their is any shadow of doubt, then why should'nt it be investigated independantly ?

[Grunty]

Many theories seem quite ridiculous, but there are a few others. As Hitler said (haven't got the book in front of me so can't vouch for the wording) "Aren't we fortunate that the people believe what we tell them?"

I think the term conspiracy theory has turned out to be a convenient way to shout down anyone who dares to question the official version of events.

[Loosehead]

OK well we've had some interesting answers, just a couple of points of my own:

- Yes jno sometimes the complex answer is the the right one but usually it isn't.

- Yes vic a natural distrust of politicians, newspapers etc does automatically make people doubt what they are told or even there own evidence

- Logman yes, I hope we all do that.

What I meant really was that often there is almost a determination to find a fantastical explanation for something rather than accepting overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The moon landings are a good example of that, the conspiracy theorists invent ever more bizzare explanations as their assertions are routinely shot down, rather than accept they are wrong. I suppose they sell their books and DVD's so perhaps that's why they do it. I wasn't for a minute saying we should never question what we are told but to be very careful buying into some of the incredible assertions of the conspiracy theorists that are usually easily explainable. I admit there is more to a lot of stories than meets the eye and there certainly is milage in a lot of occurences that are, shall we say supicious but please can we get away from these increasing mad ideas about things like Diana's death or the twin towers.

[gary baldy]

Conspiracy theorists seem to a certain breed dont they? I have given up being annoyed by them now and find them all a bit cute really.
You get the right wing ones who mostly are just away with the fairies or the lefty ones who have all got degrees in naivety and PHDs in stating the blinking obvious.
Anyway they are the backbone of the internet and poor old Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux would be out of a job without em eh!