
An epidemic of conspiracy theories is another sign of our time. Mass shootings become ‘false flags’ staged by governments. Teenage survivors telling their stories are dubbed crisis-actors. Attempts to censor these delusional rants are taken as proof of a conspiracy to bury the truth.
Mob hysteria, or Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), has always been around, with a superstitious, fearful and powerless peasantry in days gone by susceptible to the spread of wild ideas. But it does seem to be worse at the moment, in part fuelled by an anti-government streak in the American psyche; as well as in other countries where governments undoubtedly do get up to no good.
The internet provides a welcoming series of echo chambers where lone wolves can meet kindred spirits, so the critical mass rises as they reinforce each others’ beliefs.
The Worldwideweb was launched in August 1991 under the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, a Millenial event. Uranus Neptune has many positive attributes but one side effect can be to create emotional and psychic confusion; and contributes to an inability to digest rational evidence if it contradicts firmly held views. Pluto in Scorpio will also be at work, making for entrenched opinions, as well as deep and dark suspicions. Not that all conspiracy theorists are Millenials. Most high-profile ones are older, but without the internet they probably wouldn’t exist/or have much traction.
What is noticeable in both Alex Jones (Infowars) and David Icke’s chart is a Sun square Mars – they’re angry, especially at authority figures; father in childhood and father-figures (rulers) in adult life; as well as having an accentuated and rebellious Uranus close to their Moon.
You’ll have to forgive the psychobabble but paranoid personalities fascinate me. Leave aside for the moment ‘the paranoid is the only one who sees the truth’, of which more below. Paranoia occurs in the first months of life, when a helpless, highly anxious infant tries to cope with a mother, who can’t be on tap 24/7. So mother gets split into good (when she’s there) and bad (when she’s otherwise occupied). Negotiating this phase by understanding she’s both wonderful (idealised) and frustrating (loathed) is a step along the way to maturity, leading to mourning for the lost paradise and an acceptance of separation.
The paranoid feelings will recur through life, but for some, they remain stuck in this splitting stage where people are either all good or all bad. Usually what happens is they perceive the ‘bad’ to be those on the outside, while they protect their image of themselves as shining white. Them are irretrievably guilty; I’m morally upright. Trump? It’s an inability to develop complex thinking and feeling. People, even the good-enough parent, are a mix of pluses and minuses; as is the individual themself.
Out in the howling internet, one of the fallacies that such simplistic splitting leads to is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ For example, the USA has got up to all manner of dirty tricks, so is bad; therefore anyone against the USA, for example Russia, has to be good. Rather than facing a variety of horrible truths; 1) there may be no goodies amongst rulers anywhere; 2) some are better/worse than others; 3) both will have positive attributes which are not negated by their bad behaviour.
Splitting does make life easier for a lazy mind – I’m right and you’re wrong. Rather than facing the uncomfortable fact that “genuine tragedies are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.” (Hegel). That is not a conundrum that is easily assimilated.
None of which ignores the fact that governments in varying degrees at varying times act egregiously badly and manipulate the population. “It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be moulded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” (Goebbels) Or to carry out provocative acts and blame it on the other side to justify starting a conflict; of which there is copious evidence. See URL below.
But to move from an understanding that bad sometimes happens, to a mindset which is suspicious of every incident, even turning videoed mass shootings into ‘false flags’, is an indication of a pathology (illness).
http://washingtonsblog.com/2015/11/the-first-question-to-ask-after-any-terror-attack-was-it-a-false-flag.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/28/florida-shooting-conspiracy-theories-youtube-takedown