How did we get so casual about conspiracy theories?

I was talking with someone today about nutrition. This person has a PhD in material science. They mentioned eating beef daily and I asked about the cholesterol implications. The answer was about a vague ‘they’ wanted us to think that, but it wasn’t true anymore.

I hear the vague ‘they’ so frequently now it’s just a normal conversation. In truth, as soon as I hear the vague they I dismiss the speaker’s credibility on the subject, but how did we get here? Vague they wanted us to think X is a valid counter argument by the most highly educated people in our society?

This sounds like more of a rant than a question, but I do truly want to know how this happened? Was it pop culture like the X Files that made conspiracy theories main stream? Was it social media? When will the vague they stop being an accepted explanation? Has it always been this way and I didn’t notice?

Thanks, love you!

  • wolfinthewoods@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    21 hours ago

    Honestly I think that this isn’t in inherent to the modern world, in earlier ages it “they” was probably attributed to gods and what not. “Why does lightning spark fires in the fields”: “They (the Gods) are probably angry at our insolence”. Fast forward to the present where religion and the supernatural have less hold on human thinking and that type of idea is shifted to a nameless, faceless “they”, orchestrating and manipulating events in secret.

    For a fun look at this occurrence, read James Tynion’s fantastic Department of Truth comic that deals with the truth and popular American conspiracy theories.