The stupidity of conspiracy theories

[tulipsandroses]

Funny but true story - After Obamacare was passed, my nutty conspiracy minded friend started telling me that Obamacare was a way to track people with "implanted chips".
He knew this because "he did his research".
He was locked into this stupid idea. I asked him how will the chips get implanted?
At first he had no idea, but since I had talked about how many people I was seeing getting treatment at the hospital because of Obamacare, that was his next claim. Doctors and nurses would put them in.
Wait, you mean that doctors and nurses are going to implant something into people's bodies without their permission?
Yes if they don't agree. According to him, most people would agree because they wanted healthcare.
This is someone I was friends with for half of my life. I said wait you know me, you think that I would forcibly implant something in a patient? I would have to, he says.
I said OK, you do realize that would be a crime? You think I am going to risk going to jail for battery to put in a chip for the government to track you?
If I wanted to keep my job I would have to. They might tell me it was something else and I would be fooled into putting it in. It just went round and round with no end. He would counter everything I said with more stupidity.
He became more desperate to hold on to this stupid idea than just say, oh OK I misunderstood what this was.

A quick google found that he was referring to devices already implanted -


The Claim: Beware, Obamacare is going to implant a microchip in you, cautions yet another chain email batting around the internet: “This new Health Care (Obamacare) law requires and RFID [radio frequency identification] chip implanted in all of us. This chip will not only contain your personal information with tracking capability but it will also be linked to your bank account.”
The Reality: As Snopes points out, “[C]laims that health care reform legislation will require such implantations date to the Clinton administration” and are “often linked to the ‘mark of the beast’ referenced in Revelations.” The sections of legislation referenced in the email and others like it pertain to a passage in a previous version of the health care law that called for the creation of a registry that would allow the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collect data about medical devices “used in or on a patient”—such as pacemakers or hip replacements—in order to track their effectiveness. Nothing in the Affordable Care Act calls for the government to stick a microchip in your wrist.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/7-obamacare-conspiracy-theory/

We are talking about an otherwise "normal" person when he's not going down the rabbit hole of stupid conspiracy theories.
I think about him whenever people think that there is something that Dems can say to convince people that believe propaganda.
Its futile.

[Jeebo]

1. Not only stupid, but also gullible.

These people who believe these crazy ideas are incredibly gullible. They accept stupidity much too easily.

Try telling your friend, "If you really believe that nonsense, I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you."

— Ron

[sakabatou]

2. As the saying goes...

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals."
-Agent K, "MIB"

[ItsjustMe]

3. George Carlin: A bullshit story

[Midnight Writer]

4. I was reading about a conspiracy theory just yesterday. It goes like this...

In the 1960s a young John Birch member named Paul Weyrich embarked on a campaign to bring down the American government. He enlisted the help of rich donors like Adolph Coors and Richard Mellon Scaife and started the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, American Enterprise Institute and other non-profit organizations designed to take over our political system so it can be eventually destroyed. Soon other wealthy and corporate entities joined his movement, many of them surreptitiously. Weyrich's goal was to reduce the functions of the American government to national security and only national security.

Later, he partnered with televangelist Jerry Falwell to start the Moral Majority, exploiting people of religious faith to influence their political views.

Weyrich centered his strategy on issues like abortion, civil rights, public education, welfare for the poor and disadvantaged, and tax cuts. He didn't actually care about abortion but saw it as a wedge to drive Catholic and Evangelist voters out of the Democratic party. He exploited racial bigotry and resentment, stoked fears of children being groomed as Communists by public school teachers, started the meme of "welfare queens". He attracted more wealthy donors by pushing for massive tax cuts for the rich and corporations. He fostered a separate "conservative media machine" through talk radio and RW publications.

60 years later, although Weyrich himself is gone, the foundations and political infrastructure he founded live on. They affect the lives and livelihood of every American citizen. These foundations are consulted by Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and political reporters every day. Now the takeover by the oligarchs is imminent. They have been startlingly successful, which is why the United States does not have the benefits of Universal Healthcare, that our education system is "dumbed down", why racism and bigotry not only flourish but are the basis for public policy, why economic inequality is at record levels and growing fast.

Crazy stuff, isn't it?