People with autism and conspiracy theorys ?

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nicknoname
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13 Aug 2010, 10:08 am

Is there any link between people who are on the autistic spectrum and being a conspiracy nut is it more likely to occur or are conspiracy nuts really crazy?



Whats the difference between someone who is on the autistic spectrum and someone with aspergers ?



Celoneth
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13 Aug 2010, 10:17 am

Taken to an extreme - conspiracy theories may be a type of delusional or paranoid thinking, which isn't related to autism - but having autism doesn't preclude one from having those types of thoughts. Plenty of people, regardless of neurology, believe irrational things or things without evidentiary support.

Asperger's is part of the autism spectrum, as for differences between autism and Asperger's, the only formal distinction seems to be a lack of language delay in Asperger's.



leejosepho
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13 Aug 2010, 11:24 am

Celoneth wrote:
Plenty of people, regardless of neurology, believe irrational things or things without evidentiary support.


... and possibly just as many believe things are irrational simply because they cannot be proved beyond all doubt.

In my own case, I believe my obsession with investigation -- "More input! More input!" ("Short Circuit") -- and my attention to detail help make it possible to nevertheless discern facts even when other people do call me a "nut".


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frag
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13 Aug 2010, 1:11 pm

Maybe schizotypal that can have a few autistic traits.



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13 Aug 2010, 2:08 pm

My mom loves conspiracy theories, and she's on the autism spectrum. But so am I, and I don't tend to buy into any of those things. I don't think there's any kind of huge connection; we tend to be more paranoid because we're more often targets of abuse, but we also tend to be more logical because our brains just tend toward the concrete. So who knows... it may even out.


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Dnuos
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13 Aug 2010, 2:11 pm

My dad has a few AS traits (I wouldn't apply it to him, however) and is insane with religious conspiracies.

I tend to have more AS traits, more likely to get a diagnosis, and this is one of the things about him that I can't stand.



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13 Aug 2010, 2:54 pm

Conspiracy theories are almost universally stupid.

They usually rely on imagining a large number of people behaving in an identical way, without taking into account individual motivations, in a manner which simply does not happen in reality, people being the contrary, disorganised things we are. I think you can look at conspiracy theories as a classical example of failure to grasp that "theory of mind" thing - people aren't superorganised secret-keeping ninja robots, but oh! if they were, then couldn't The Man have fun with us... :lol: :roll:


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TeaEarlGreyHot
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13 Aug 2010, 3:24 pm

Conspiracy theories usually make me scratch my head in confusion. I don't get how anyone could believe stuff like that.


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leejosepho
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13 Aug 2010, 4:08 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
Conspiracy theories ... usually rely on imagining a large number of people behaving in an identical way, without taking into account individual motivations ...


Not the ones I have heard about. However, neither is "conspiracy" always an applicable term. For example:

There are many people who believe the earth is over-populated (or at least becoming so) in one way or another, and they would do just about anything they could to do something about whatever they believe about that. With or without even/ever knowing each other, some of those people promote various forms of population control while others try to rid the world of religious or political opponents ... and it can be said some of the most powerful people in the world at least inadvertently "conspire" with said others in varieties of ways.

"Conspiracy theory" is nothing more or less than a term coined/used by people either wittingly or unwittingly "conspiring" with whoever or whatever is behind all evil in order to try to get the rest of us to believe all evil is simply happenstance.


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Michhsta
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13 Aug 2010, 4:09 pm

anything is possible, but not probable.

Mics


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13 Aug 2010, 4:21 pm

It depends on the individual.


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13 Aug 2010, 4:29 pm

Dnuos wrote:
My dad ... is insane with religious conspiracies ... one of the things about him that I can't stand.


I definitely understand. I have been exposed to many of those kinds of teachings. Overall, maybe you can envision an overall battle between good and evil, or maybe between "the force" and "the dark side", or maybe just in our own personal struggles between doing right or doing wrong either by commission or omission. There really is no need for people to go around hollering about things like so many do, and it can often be very difficult to "just do the right thing" around some of them even when we want to do so and wish they could appreciate it when we do.


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13 Aug 2010, 4:52 pm

The USA was founded by freemason and all the elites are in it. So there must be conspiracies somewhere at the top. Especially between big business and government.



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13 Aug 2010, 5:37 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
Conspiracy theories are almost universally stupid.

They usually rely on imagining a large number of people behaving in an identical way, without taking into account individual motivations, in a manner which simply does not happen in reality, people being the contrary, disorganised things we are. I think you can look at conspiracy theories as a classical example of failure to grasp that "theory of mind" thing - people aren't superorganised secret-keeping ninja robots, but oh! if they were, then couldn't The Man have fun with us... :lol: :roll:


I have to respectfully disagree. Conspiracies, by nature, do not involve a large number of people, simply because they involve the need for secrecy. What a conspiracy needs is a few people sympathetic to the cause in key areas, and everyone else behaving as they normally do. The genius of the conspiracy is to be able plan well enough to pull off history-changing events without anyone realizing that a secret plan was involved.

Said small group does not have to behave in an identical way-everyone simply has to do their assigned parts. People are contrary-yes, but I imagine the conspiracy has a screening process. If someone happened to have an 11th-hour attack of conscience, there are safeguards in place. Or, maybe the whole thing does fall apart, and that's when we hear about it. The conspiracies that work we call theories.

Things aren't that disorganized in this world-I'm sitting in a cafe, and people around me are doing their jobs pretty competently. I have coffee from Brazil. I'm getting internet service from a satellite. I'm wearing shoes from China. Somehow, all of these things went off without a hitch-because people did their jobs. That normalcy is what conspiracies rely upon, both to function effectively and to provide such a screen of normalcy that any suggestion of conspiracy seems paranoid and "stupid."

We fail to imagine conspiracies simply because we have no need for them. Someone, somewhere, is imaginative enough to engineer things in a secret fashion because they are desperate.



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13 Aug 2010, 5:47 pm

Dulcue New Mexico was a special intrest for a while.


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13 Aug 2010, 5:55 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
Conspiracy theories are almost universally stupid.

They usually rely on imagining a large number of people behaving in an identical way, without taking into account individual motivations, in a manner which simply does not happen in reality, people being the contrary, disorganised things we are. I think you can look at conspiracy theories as a classical example of failure to grasp that "theory of mind" thing - people aren't superorganised secret-keeping ninja robots, but oh! if they were, then couldn't The Man have fun with us... :lol: :roll:
Exactly, conspiracy theories are made under the assumption that they're all just mindless robots. People will only cooperate as far as it benefits them.