Is it possible anymore for any major event to occur without conspiracy theories appearing? What kind of future is this leading to where skepticism to the authorities either gets turned up to 100 automatically or any suggestion that there might be a coverup is immediately dismissed since there is a flood of conspiracy theories about everything?
There are definitely cases where the theories have proven true, and authorities love to dismissive critics as wackos, conspiracy theorists, paranoid, etc. This is a particularly favored tactic in authoritarian regimes.
As to whether that makes you stupid for not embracing a conspiracy theory before it is proven true, I suppose that depends on how you look at it. Most conspiracy theories probably aren't true, and lots of them are very, very stupid, so you'd also look stupid treating them all seriously.
My general policy on this is to avoid making a grand claim to truth on the matter when there is no way I could personally know, and anybody who claims one way or the other that things definitely happened one way is probably mislead; even if they are right in that particular instance, they are right for the wrong reasons.
There are definitely cases where the theories have proven true, and authorities love to dismissive critics as wackos, conspiracy theorists, paranoid, etc. This is a particularly favored tactic in authoritarian regimes.
As to whether that makes you stupid for not embracing a conspiracy theory before it is proven true, I suppose that depends on how you look at it. Most conspiracy theories probably aren't true, and lots of them are very, very stupid, so you'd also look stupid treating them all seriously.
My general policy on this is to avoid making a grand claim to truth on the matter when there is no way I could personally know, and anybody who claims one way or the other that things definitely happened one way is _probably_ mislead; even if they are right in that particular instance, they are right for the wrong reasons.
What is a conspiracy theory proven true?
How stupid does one look when they labelled it a conspiracy theory beforehand?
IMHO, pretty fucking stupid.