Conspiracy and aimless faith
TL;DR: The desire for belief puts you at the mercy of the charismatic tongue.
There's an infamous conspiracy poster that I'm sure everyone has seen in their weird uncle's basement. It reads "I want to believe" in big bold text, below a blurry picture of a UFO. The surrounding woods and off tilt angle give reason for the poor photography. This image exists despite photography, in fact, the photo itself doesn't matter. It's unrelated to the true subject of the poster. This subject does not require photo evidence, belief isn't important to this world view, what matters is merely the desire to believe.
This is an incredibly weird, vivid quote to me. It comes from a place of clarity I wouldn't expect from someone who would make a UFO poster. It really says the quiet part out loud. The act of believing is framed as a virtue that exists despite truth. It's almost like the religious virtue of faith, faith as a quantitative product of will. The difference is the direction of the faith doesn't matter. As the famous Śūraṅgama goes, religion is the "finger pointing to the moon."1 Here the subject still cleanly lies upon the moon, and more importantly the distance between us and the moon. This is belief. Wanting to believe, however is the finger pointing at the finger. It's the act of pointing, it doesn't matter what the subject is. This is a perfect formula for the former religious/conspiratorial mind. Karl Popper said, "the conspiracy theory of society comes from abandoning God and then asking: 'Who is in his place?'" 2 The skeptic voices their complaints, the conspiracist replies: "yes, yes. I know. But you aren't getting the point. Nothing causes my belief. To me, things start with belief and move upward." Starting with this conclusion is absolutely teleological. It's assuming trees exist to provide humans with shade.
The poster is associated with the X-Files. It’s a phrase from a character named Mulder. This character's motivation is finding his lost sister who was taken by aliens or something. I haven't seen the show. I bring this up to point out how much of an aesthetic thing this is. Mulder’s obsessive research will lead to a worthwhile goal, finding his sister. This is this is why he wants to believe. What then is the motivation for this self-justifying belief for someone in real life?
When the conspiracy theorist finds the hidden CIA cameras, busts down the door of a hidden attic, and finds his entire life being controlled from a terminal, he is not filled with fear. His worst nightmare has not come true. In fact, it’s the opposite! His wildest dreams have come true. He is filled with relief! He was right! He wasn’t crazy. 3 Like everything humans care about, the conspiracy tells a story. The best story gets the most believers. Those with a distrust of the government will talk about Pizzagate. The fascist, begging for a reason to hate, will believe in the great replacement. As Natalie Wynn points out, "(conspiracy) is pre-modern thought applied to postmodern politics."
My final point is that although these theories vary greatly in their intent and material effect, the reasoning behind them is the exact same. If you are willing to believe, it doesn't matter what is true. Your desire will be fulfilled by the best story teller. Is it any wonder that such a chunk of the free love movement of the 70s swung totally back to the right-wing? Is it really surprising that the "just asking questions" mentality of Russel Brand and Joe Rogan lead them slowly and surely into alt-right nonsense? 4 5
Links
Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) has an amazing video on Conspiracy theorists. You can watch it here
Footnotes
Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.204, Routledge↩
I think this metaphor is from a Zizek book. Maybe Less Than Nothing? I can’t find proof, so maybe I made it up and I’m super smart and everyone likes me.↩
The science behind Russell Brand's shift from comic to conspiracy theorist↩