Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
In my observation, you have two types of Serious Believers;
1) True Believers, who do deserve the same level of pity as any other extremist, and one should be careful around like anything else that is potentially dangerous.
2) Hucksters, who are trying to sell you something, either for money, or political power in some form.
Note this generally applies to other groups like political parties and religious groups as well.
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I find this generally true in occult thought as well, though I would add a third group: the poets and philosophers who often contribute to that thought (not sure if that applies to conspiracy theories as well). Sometimes, you'll find shades of all three in the same person, though.
That said, there
are real conspiracy theories. The
business plot,
L'affaire des poisons,
Project MKUltra and the Thule Society were all really things, and the last certainly contributed to the fascist takeover of their country. The problem is not believing in conspiracies, it's refusing to see evidence, and attributing godlike power/competence to these conspiracies, and then attributing your problems to them, turning them into a foe you can face or an excuse for why your life sucks, as opposed to finding a way to deal with it. The Bilderberg Group is
real and they surely impact world events... but they are not the reason you can't get a job or why your girlfriend broke up with you.