Paranoia as rational response

'Trust no one': Modernization, paranoia and conspiracy culture 

Stef Aupers, Erasmus University, The Netherlands

[p26] "Another prominent example is conspiracy theories, and the Internet plays a crucial role in their proliferation. " ---> The internet simply allows anyone to cheaply and easily publish to the world.

 

[p30] "conspiracy culture, too, is a response to existential insecurity in a disenchanted world" ---> Faced with the overwhelming complexity of the many problems in the world, it's tempting to identify one thing as "The Problem" behind everything else and then focus on that (ignoring all the real problems with no easy answers). 

Ronald Inglehart in The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics (1977)

This theory of intergenerational value change has two key hypotheses: (1) that an individual's priorities reflect the socioeconomic environment, with individuals placing the greatest subjective value on those things that are in relatively short supply, and (2) that the relationship between socioeconomic environment and value priorities involves a substantial time lag because one's basic values reflect the conditions that prevailed during one's preadult years.

April Fools

The only day people critically evaluate news articles.

http://imgur.com/dUF6nyJ