Skeptic Project

The other day a friend who I don't know very well but text occasionally mentioned something about government, how incompetent it is, etc. We exchanged a few messages on that subject and he said something to the effect of "they're sure doing their best to screw us." I replied that it's far more likely the failures of government can be chalked up to incompetence and inefficiency than any conscious design.

I was shocked when he texted back, "Don't you believe in the Illuminati?" I replied saying that the Illuminati died out 200 years ago and had no real power anyway, so no, I don't believe in them. My friend was unconvinced but we didn't discuss it further.

This guy has never said anything remotely CT-related before, and I'm not aware of him listening to Alex Jones or being a fan of other CT'er type outlets. He seems like a relatively normal fellow.

This is not my first experience encountering CT beliefs in people who don't otherwise seem to be that interested in CT's. This is kind of disconcerting because it suggests there may be a lot more CT'ers out there than are immediately visible--people who don't go out of their way to talk about the New World Order or chemtrails, but who seem to believe in them sort of passively.

I find this quite disturbing. Thoughts?

Yup I think there are more CT'rs that dont talk about it because they have jobs and are not only internally scared to do so, but dont want to be the butt of any jokes or attacks from the man.

So yeah I think theres thousands of them not saying anything, probably even millions.

I don't really buy into the "CT'er" label unless someone is showing serious signs of CT-nuttiness.

I don't have data to back this up, but I would assume that there are a lot of people "near" the fence on both side and gradually fewer people the more you approach professional skepticism or Icke-type CT beliefs; similar to the political realm where there are a few loyalists on either sides, some weak supporters and a lot of somewhat undecided voters who vote for whoever they find most convincing at the moment.

It would surprise me if this were any different regarding CTs, it would be interesting though to see some actual numbers.

Improvised graphic:

No. Why?

This lady was cutting my hair and we were talking about websites we frequent. Suddenly, she told me about this website where she learned that 9/11 was an inside job and proceeded to tell me about how suspicious the whole thing was. I didnt want her anywhere near my head with scissors from that point on. The rest of our conversation was totally normal.

Kaiser, I once was getting a haircut and was asked "do you know the real meaning of Easter?" and then proceeded to tell me about Jesus for a while, I nodded pretending to - kind of - agree... Was suddenly worried he would give me a crap haircut ... or worse... if I disagreed. Not sure i'd be able to hold back with a truther!

^ I feel exactly the same. I fear CTism is becoming mainstream, and I find it very troubling. A friend of mine is absolutely convinced HAARP can control the weather and another is, just like the above mentioned girl, convinced that there's "signs" for Illuminati control in music videos and that Lady Gaga is part of it. This is obviously the Internet's fault. These kids go to YouTube to watch their favourite music videos and read the comments. You cannot read one page of comments on a Rihanna video without getting at least one "This video has Illuminati written all over it" or "It's Illuminati brainwashing, part of project MKULTRA, google it ;)" or the mandatory "WAKE UP SHEEPLE". Lacking critical thinking skills, they google it, and voilà-hello mister Vigilant Moron. Another friend of mine bought into the whole 23-enigma crap. He proves his point, by showing me a clip of a TV series (mind you, a minor series here in Germany) in wich a phone number given by a character adds up to 23...

I agree. But now these people have a real voice. They can spread their bullshit without anyone being able to see who's behind it, and everyone can make somewhat professional seeming films. Just looks at ZG and LC. These morons would have been standing in malls with their stupid pamphlets back in the day and nobody would have given a shit about them.

Vasper8
Thanks I forgot about those.
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But anyways CTs had been slowly making inroads since the 1970's. I feel that there were three things that played a role in this.
1) After the 60s on 70's the American people lost most of their trust that they felt for the Government. This was a result of both the Vietnam War and Water Gate.
2) This attitude that came with the Entertainment Industry in the 80’s and 90’s that CTs are all in harmless fun. This of course leading many of the movies, books and TV shows that I mention before.
3) The last and greatest tool that has helped in the spread of CTs is of course the Internet. And the event that springboard for this was of course was 9/11; which has become are generations version of JFK.