TollandRCR wrote:
There is at least a small group of idiots who are into the idea that the Aurora theater massacre was a government plot, Leo among them. There is also the idea that four shooters were involved at the Sikh temple, again a government plot. Then there are the 9/11 and 7/7 conspiracy theorists. A major theme on conspiracy sites today is that the U.S. will be put under martial law in October, following a financial crisis, and that UN troops are already positioned to enforce it. This combination of fear and hatred comes out of something in the culture, not just out of the delusions of mental illness.
Yeah, unless the specific conspiracy wanders off into rather bizarre conjecture (e.g., Justin Bieber was secretly responsible), there's little reason to assume mental illness. Rather, the tendency towards these sorts of conspiracies is far more likely driven by a base fear of the world as a disorganized and chaotic place.
The Aurora massacre, the Sikh temple shooting, 9/11, 7/7...these were all senseless horrors, carried out by utter nobodies. For some people, rather than accept the senselessness of the events, they're internally compelled to believe that there must be SOME sense of order behind them. It's uncomfortable to believe that a theater of Batman fans could be shot up by some schmuck, or that the US intelligence agencies simply could have missed spotting the 9/11 plot in advance. For some people, it's actually more comforting to believe that there's a greater order out there, that the Batman shooting wasn't random, that 9/11 wasn't missed, even if that means believing that there are evil and nefarious organizations with Illuminati-style schemes.
In other words, for the conspiracist, it's more comforting to believe that someone evil is in charge than to accept that NO ONE is.