Voices
in
Japan

quote of the day

Conspiracy theories are constructed on the logic that the central government is hiding something. These theories spread as people grow distrustful of government and politics, whose handling of the coronavirus pandemic continues to be inept.

26 Comments

Shoji Tsuchida, a professor of safety psychology at Kansai University in Osaka Prefecture, attributing the psychological state behind conspiracy theory belief and coronavirus misinformation to a desire to deny authority.

© Mainichi Shimbun

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

26 Comments
Login to comment

Funny how conspiracy theories always turn out to be facts in the end.

-6 ( +13 / -19 )

Funny how conspiracy theories always turn out to be facts in the end.

"Always"? It's happened like 3 times in history.

-2 ( +12 / -14 )

Very! very! very! TRUE! And the paranoia that that the government is out to get you is overwhelming, that is the mother of all conspiracies!!! Looking for any information out there no matter how ridiculous it is, to feed their paranoia!

4 ( +10 / -6 )

True, though I would mention the meandering and confusing narrative concerning the origins of the coronavirus. I suspect the experts know but are holding back for socio-political reasons.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Don't be naive. Power hungry people have been conspiring behind the scenes to grab territory, topple leaders, take over corporations, control populaces, etc. throughout history. Why not now?

While we shouldn't believe every outlandish conspiracy theory the media throws out as a smokescreen we ought to have as our default position that there is some backdoor scheming and conspiring going on. There always is.

We always find out decades later what actually happened.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

we ought to have as our default position that there is some backdoor scheming and conspiring going on.

That shouldn’t be your default position. You are already working from a confirmation bias. This is the pathology of conspiracy theorists. One thing you’ll find with them is evidence against their position is defined as untrustworthy. You only need to look at the mantra they have been force fed and regurgitate - MSM, legacy media, corporate media, lamestream media etc. There is some merit to the criticism but their reactions tend to be knee-jerk.

Funny how conspiracy theories always turn out to be facts in the end.

So, Paul McCartney did die over 50 years ago?

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Conspiracy theories are constructed on the logic that the central government is hiding something. 

Governments have been hiding things from the public forever. Why should we be the least bit surprised by it now? In fact we should expect it. The question is what are they hiding this time?

I believe that we ought to respect and obey the government, but they are as human as every preceding government ever and just as prone to lie, conspire for gain, take bribes, bow to corporate pressure, etc. I expect it.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

It’s in most cases only a question of probabilities and their distribution. Vaccines are the solution, vaccines don’t work at all… I we take those two opposing theories, one you would surely more assign official theory the other more as a conspiracy theory. And the result is of course and obviously anywhere between the both extremes, isn’t it. lol

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Does anyone actually believe that central governments are open and honest?

0 ( +8 / -8 )

The term 'conspiracy theory' is used to write off criticism as irrelevant by 'experts' who think they know better when really they haven't even checked.

It's not that we know better when we haven't checked, it's that you come to us with innuendo and questions, absent of fact, and expect us to treat it as equal to data, science, and fact.

I'm open to any conspiracy being possibly true. I dislike authority, and we all know there is some sketchy stuff going on out there. But in the real world, we look at probabilities, plausibilities, and actual data to determine what is real or what is not. We don't work off "I don't like the government and there are things I don't understand so it's a conspiracy".

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Vaccines are the solution, vaccines don’t work at all… I we take those two opposing theories,

Classic binary thinking. In the real world, there are almost never only two possiblities.

In the real world, the scientists aren't saying "vaccines and only vaccines". The scientists are saying "vaccines and good health for prevention, other medications for treatment, quarantines, masks, and social distancing to prevent spread". But binary thinkers only see the world in this simplistic world view of black or white, or in this case, only the vaccine or nothing at all.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

No @Raw Beer - But not EVERYTHING is a lie or conspiracy either. Although people like yourself are preventing the world from moving on with your madacp beliefs in conspiracy theories, its also good that you are now visible to more people, as the more crazy your comments become the more your message gets diluted and unbelievable.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Funny how conspiracy theories always turn out to be facts in the end.

That is impossible because there are many conspiracy theories that contradict each other, if one would turn to be true that would man other are false. That all of them end up being wrong is of course completely possible, and even likely.

Don't be naive. Power hungry people have been conspiring behind the scenes to grab territory, topple leaders, take over corporations, control populaces, etc. throughout history. Why not now?

That is the thing, using conspiracies as the never ending excuse to explain why things are like you believe they are and not how they can be demonstrated means believing it happens always, not just now.

The term 'conspiracy theory' is used to write off criticism as irrelevant by 'experts' who think they know better when really they haven't even checked.

That is false, it is a perfectly valid term to describe the situation where the whole point of one person is to believe things are like he wants to convince others without any evidence of it. If there is any evidence of something happening it is no longer a conspiracy theory.

Does anyone actually believe that central governments are open and honest?

Why would anybody need to? if a belief requires people outside of it to be in the conspiracy then you can still distrust the goverment and the conspiracy still unbelievable.

Is the goverment saying the opposite from the scientists? then the scientists are more likely to be right, are both groups saying the same thing? then them both are more likely to be correct than wrong, even if you don't trust the govermnet.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Sense making of the pandemic is basically on the individual to navigate. With new data coming out every day it’s a roller coaster ride. One day things are conveniently and quickly written off as conspiracy, but then the next day it turns out to be fact. Everyone’s heads in a spin and without competent leaders at the helm it’ll continue like this for a while. Onus is on the individual may be the best thing we take away from all of this. Critical thinking skills are turning out to be an absolute must and a calm mindset that everyone is doing there best!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Is the goverment saying the opposite from the scientists?

"The" scientists?

Interestingly, the government always seems to agree with those scientists who are pushing big pharma's narrative, many of them being actually funded by big pharma.

But governments tend to disagree with people like Didier Raoult (one the greatest infectious disease experts), Robert Malone (creator of the mRNA vaccine core technology), John Ioannidis (a top epidemiologist), and many immunology/vaccine experts (Geert Vanden Bossche, Sucharit Bhakdi,...), and many other doctors who have very successfully treated countless covid19 patients (Pierre Kory, Shankara Chetty, Peter McCullough, Vladimir Zelenko)

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Does anyone actually believe that central governments are open and honest?

Yes. Children and people who want to be taken care of.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

@Raw Beer: Your whole rogues gallery you've listed had been discredited. Geert Vanden Bossche is a vet ! Sucharit Bhakdi...anti semetic conspiracy theorist! Claiming that Robert Malone 'invented' mRNA tech...well, I really wonder what alternate universe you are living in.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

"The" scientists?

Yes, the scientists, it is terribly easy to go around and read what every scientific institution is saying about some topic, most of the time you will find the same thing being repeated, sometimes every single one will say the same thing.

No, it is not believable that every scientists and doctor in the world is lying for money, this kind of belief may be something a person that is only interested in money may believe, but for the vast majority of the population of the world this is nonsense. It is simply impossible to believe that everybody is on life-saving jobs just for the money and that they can lie (and put in risk even their own families and friends) because some company have magically the trillions necessary to pay them all (specially because this fortune is spent to make billions).

If your only references are people with terrible morals, that have been found to lie and deceive repeatedly, manipulate studies, make unethical human trials, and harrass people that expose their lies instead of correcting them it becomes obvious that you have no actual source to prove your point and that is why you have to use the bottom of the barrel.

As always, if you can't find even one actual institution to support your beliefs it is safer to consider them mistaken.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

This question starts from a flimsy premise - that it's just central governments who fuel conspiracy theories. Conspiracies extend right through society at every level, it's just that government ones affect our lives more than most others.

If anyone takes what governments say at face value, they're asking for trouble. Governments lie us into war (Gulf of Tonkin, WoMD in Iraq), lie in order to bring in laws that otherwise wouldn't pass the sniff test (Reichstag fire), lie to entrench their own position (pretty much anything one-party state governments like the CCP, USSR, Cuba, and pretty much any Western government that's put in lockdowns and vaccine mandates).

Of course they tell you it's for your own good, but the cold reality for all time has been that they don't give a damn about you.

From https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-goering-falsequote-idUSL1N2LM23W

This is what the factcheck says the actual words are, and I have no reason to disagree:

In the book, Gilbert describes a discussion with Goering on how a government may force people to go to war, to which Goering responded: “…It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

Reminded by Gilbert that “in a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives,” Goering told him that “voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

Whether allegedly under attack from an external or internal enemy, the principle is the same. This time it's internal, and the attacker is not a tiny piece of genetic code with spiky bits on the outside.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Not really true. Governments haven't been inept. Whilst medical advisors care only about one thing, governments have to balance multiple demands, and that has not been easy.

The medical fraternity would have been happy to lock everyone up under armed guard for a couple of years, whilst they kept working and earning, and the military kept everyone prisoner. But the world is not a big laboratory and a more balanced attitude was required.

We have always balanced risk and reward. Everyone has found that difficult and ordinary people should take a lot of blame: should you really need a politician to tell you to wear a mask in a pandemic? That you may question the origin of the virus doesn't mean that you shouldn't be vaccinated.

Australia and NZ are often described as handling the pandemic well on here, but they chose Covid Zero, which is untenable, failed to roll out vaccines fast enough and undermined AZ. Now they are lagging other economies in opening up.

Conspiracy theories exist because governments are untrustworthy, corrupt and lack transparency. We do not trust them with good reason. They need to be more honest and more practical. They need to incrementally improve society from the state it is in, improving the quality of justice and reducing poverty, not attempt to manipulate or force it to match some ideological fantasy they have treasured from their student days as the perfect template of society. They should also not be using the pandemic to manipulate society, as it makes them look like shady con-artists and enforces public suspicions that they are up to something.

A good government would be trusted more, but they have to earn that trust. Most politicians are too lazy, too arrogant or too corrupt to bother.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The classic pseudo-argument of crypto-conspiracy theorists is that in the end all so-called conspiracy theories turn out to be true. And alternatively, you can try to prove the falsity of this claim. And alternatively, you can try to prove the falsity of the claim by trying to confirm the truth of the false claim.

So yeah...

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Onus is on the individual may be the best thing we take away from all of this. Critical thinking skills are turning out to be an absolute must

Actually, this idea that everyone has the intelligence to accurately come to conclusions over the experts, based on a few minutes research in the internet, is the most damaging "syndrome" we have going on in humanity right now. Telling people that the onus is on them, creates a bunch of people on the internet questioning experts on everything, causing unnecessary doubt. which harms us all.

The problem is that most people aren't smart enough to come to accurate conclusions on most things, even when they do have the information. You say critical thinking is a "must", the problem is, it's not something you can create. People either are smart enough or aren't. You can foster it in those with the intelligence to do it, but you can't foster it in the stupid.

What we need is more trust of each other, and we need to stop with this silly idea that armchair experts deserve an equal voice to real experts.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Australia and NZ are often described as handling the pandemic well on here, but they chose Covid Zero, which is untenable, failed to roll out vaccines fast enough and undermined AZ. Now they are lagging other economies in opening up.

Really? I've only read things that say their economies were doing better than other countries, Got anything to support this?

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Perfectly accurate.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Really? I've only read things that say their economies were doing better than other countries, Got anything to support this?

The lack of any supporting evidence, combined with the multiple down-votes, tells me that no, the poster doesn't have anything to support the conclusion that it would appear they just made up.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites