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   Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:04:31 JST Auscandoc

   How Three Big #ConspiracyTheories Took Root in Canada | The Walrus https://thewalrus.ca/conspiracy-theories-canada/ (1/4)

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     Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:04:27 JST Auscandoc

     in reply to

     “Fringe beliefs are fringe until they’re not, and the mainstreaming process can be aided by academics and other prominent thinkers. Education is an important tool in building up bulwarks against conspiratorial thinking, but it’s not a silver bullet. Conspiracism masquerading as legitimate thought is influencing educated, powerful Canadians.” (4/4)

     Bill repeated this.
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     Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:04:28 JST Auscandoc

     in reply to

     Rather than accepting that negative circumstances were often the result of individual choices in the face of a global pandemic, #AntiVaccine conspiracists evoke global-domination conspiracies about the #WorldEconomicForum to explain away a complicated situation and ameliorate responsibility for personal circumstances.” (3/4)

     Bill repeated this.
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     Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:04:29 JST Auscandoc

     in reply to

     “An important dynamic of people falling into a #conspiratorial milieu is how such theories can help rationalize difficulties an individual may be experiencing by flattening complexity and providing answers that soothe and distract from uncomfortable realities. (2/4)

     Bill repeated this.
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     Harold Jarche (harold@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:34:15 JST Harold Jarche

     in reply to

     • WhippoorwillSong

     @auscandoc @WhippoorwillSong

     From The New Republic 2021— "Democrats should try campaigning on the truth: The Republican Party is controlled by intelligent, college-educated, and affluent elites who concoct dangerous nonsense to paper over a bigoted, plutocratic agenda and to justify attacks on the democratic process. "

     https://newrepublic.com/article/161266/qanon-classism-marjorie-taylor-greene"

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     Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:34:16 JST Auscandoc

     in reply to

     • WhippoorwillSong

     @WhippoorwillSong Yes the article speaks to this. Quite elegantly put I think.

     “It’s commonly assumed that education inoculates against conspiratorial thinking. However, schooling is not a foolproof safeguard against paranoid thinking.”

     And

     “Education and conspiratorial thinking have an ambivalent relationship”

     Bill repeated this.
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     WhippoorwillSong (whippoorwillsong@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 09:34:17 JST WhippoorwillSong

     in reply to

     @auscandoc

     One: Education doesn't necessarily correlate with intelligence. We all knew that rich airhead who took 6 years and 3 majors to scrape by with a D average to get a degree.

     Two: Educated people who are sharp and crave power and influence, can be sly and cynical and exploit the rubes, using conspiracy theories and the like, when it suits them. The current cultural climate suits it perfectly.

     It's disingenuous to see education as any bulwark... People are nuts, educated or not...