Conspiracy and Science

Some folk like tests so why not try this one: On a four-point scale, from one (strongly disagree) to four (strongly agree), please rate the following statements: “The Apollo moon landings never happened and were staged in a Hollywood film studio”;

”Princess Diana’s death was not an accident but rather an organized assassination by members of the British Royal Family who disliked her”;

“The Coca-Cola Company intentionally changed to an inferior formula with the intent of driving up demand for their classic product, later reintroducing it for their financial gain”; and “Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activities cause climate change.”

Huh? You may say. Do those things go together? I’ve read several articles recently that indicate they do. One from Mother Jones by Chris Mooney ; another in the Huffington Post ; another from Live Science ] and the list goes on.

But apparently folk who are big into conspiracy theories are predisposed to reject scientific information that global warming is a real issue and things of that nature. Folk who believe in free-market ideology are less likely to believe in climate change.

The term for this is motivated reasoning, or we believe what we want to believe and disbelieve things or information that challenge our assumptions. For example in the 60’s when the Surgeon General said there was a correlation between smoking and lung cancer, smokers tended not to believe him.

Now you get a bunch of these folk together they reinforce each other mistaken beliefs and rationalize the positions all the more. The old joke, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up,” turns out to be true. The poet T.S. Elliot, who I have quoted before had a character of his, the bird say it this way, “Humankind cannot stand very much reality.”

So here is a prediction; if you are a libertarian, who believes in a free-market world view, and that HIV and AIDS are not related, that Lee Harvey Oswald had help in murdering President Kennedy, that members of MI5 killed Princess Diana, that the Apollo Moon landing was faked, you likely don’t believe in global warming or even evolution.

We people are really interesting. Now if we can just keep from becoming extinct.