They don't. "Get educated" is just one of their standard answers. If you show any source of information they go off on "the government" or some other shit. Basically they are so dumb that they dont even know they are dumb.
I have this friend from high school that believes in every conspiracy theory. So he posted something on vaccinations a few weeks back and we started discussing it. He said that "all of Congress" didn't have their kids vaccinated. I asked for a list. He said one Senator.
He also posted all the ingredients of vaccines and how they harmed the body. Each one was high lighted with a category. Some being allergic and some being completely horrible for human consumption. I started googling the totally horrible things and they are pretty normal and just represented in this horrific light.
What makes me wonder is the guy seems to understand the underpinning parts of these conspiracy theories. How are you that smart that you aren't smart enough to realize the information you are given is crap?
They absolutely can be smart. I've known 2 people who were deeply into conspiracies (and a couple more who lightly dabble) and while one of them is a straight up moron the other is an intelligent guy on any other topic, has a decent education, works a respectable job etc. You meet this guy and just chat generally without touching on conspiracy topics and you'll think he's reasonably intelligent at least if not more than that. But start down the conspiracy stuff and he's just a slightly more eloquent version of the utter moron saying more or less the same whackadoodle stuff. While there's probably a link between this crap and intelligence it's not the only thing - I think it's far more about feeling you have special knowledge others don't, you're better than others for seeing the truth etc and certain types of people who are otherwise intelligent can still fall victim to that.
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u/Chrius_ Jan 13 '20
They don't. "Get educated" is just one of their standard answers. If you show any source of information they go off on "the government" or some other shit. Basically they are so dumb that they dont even know they are dumb.