Student Opinion: The Value in Conspiracy Theories
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The earth is flat—-The moon landing was faked—JFK’s assassination was an inside job. Conspiracies hold a sleeper choke on many citizens, not letting them stray from their extreme beliefs. People are entitled to these beliefs; that is what allows conspiracy theories to live, and some to even thrive. With how much of a hold these conspiracies have on their believers, it makes you wonder, are these people crazy, or are they just seeing something the rest of us are not?
Flat-earthers have been made fun of in the media and maybe even in your own minds for years. They have become sort of the martyr for conspiracy theorists. It is sort of hard to defend what they think. A group of flat-earth scientists even did a study to prove the earth was flat— they ended up proving themselves wrong. There is a rather large sum of evidence going against flat-earth believers, but I suppose they have their reasons. A reasonable level of distrust towards NASA and the government is definitely a leading reason. They also love to use it as a way to explain the ships missing at sea. “They just flew right off the side.” These are just a few ways they like to support their conspiratorial views
While flat-earthers may be the most famous example, they are far from the only conspiratorialists. Conspiracies have been made on just about every topic you can think about. A recurring theme in many of these is doubt in the government. They believe the government is hiding something and/or everything from us, which I guess is sort of understandable. People believe they are hiding extraterrestrial beings from us. There are also some more extreme government conspiracies such as JFK’s assassination being an inside job. This conspiracy even had some wood to stoke the flames of conspiracy recently, following the release of previously classified files relating to the incident. While most of the files seemed sort of irrelevant, I will not be doing a deep dive into the thousands of pages of information. I will leave that to you, or perhaps whichever news network you choose to trust.
On a slightly less political note, one of the most popular conspiracy theories is that aliens are not only real, but also being hidden from us by the government. Of all the conspiracies, this one, I feel could have a touch of truth to it. I feel like out in endless space we can’t be the only place with life. I don’t necessarily think the government is hiding this life from us, but I can see where these theorists are coming from. Extra-terrestrial life forms are extremely common in all forms of media and could definitely lead to some people being filled with intrigue on the subject. Their already strong stance mixed with the “UFO” sightings lead them to not sway one bit in their beliefs
Going just a little less out into the stratosphere is another of the most notorious conspiracies: the moon landing was faked - Apollo 11 just never really happened. This is understandable to some extent given the time that the US was in. The extreme times may have called for extreme measures, pushing the US to do some questionable things. This timing mixed with a few details theorists believe aren’t quite right lead these conspiracists to their beliefs. There is the flag “waving” in space, the non-parallel shadows, and the lack of stars. While all of these theories have been debunked through science, I still think their heart was in the right place—ish.
Conspiracy theories fuel people to think of alternate possibilities. While conspiracy theories are not always based on reason and intelligent thought, they are still important. Keeping a reasonable level of doubt towards anything is what leads to improvement of people. Thought compels growth in people. So, while I may not think that the earth is flat or that the moon landing was faked, I do think that conspiracy theories hold more value than we give them credit for. These proud theorists should not be shunned or looked down upon; they should be cherished for their outside-the-box thinking, regardless of how wrong they may be.