springrain wrote:Absolutely agree that 'the world is a confusing mess of greys.'
I (I cannot speak for other CTs) certainly do not wish to insult young voters and it is anything but 'blind'. Most CTs research assiduously and almost always risk mockery. Do you think we enjoy this? I have often backed down because of lack of courage. I freely admit this.
Few CTs try to force their views on others; we try to politely point things out, never attempting to arrogantly claim that there is only one way.
I don't doubt that CTs research assiduously - of course they do. BUT the starting point for their research is an already well-formed belief that conspiracies exist, and so you fall into the intellectual laziness of believing what supports their theory and dismissing as either ignorant, misinformed or - worse (and here is the self-propagating part of it) - part of the conspiracy itself.
Surely you can see the inherent fallibity of that process.
The true test of intellectual validity and truth is to come up with a theory and then assiduously search for 'evidence' which repudiates that theory; only when a theory has been attacked relentlessly and still manages to hold some kind of rationality can it be deemed valid or robust. And even then it can't be verified, because a new repudiation might be just round the corner, unfound and unexplored.
CTs not only fail that rigorous test; they do worse than that. They dismiss material and ideas which oppose their pre-ordained belief system as part of the conspiracy itself.
This is not a personal attack on you or other CTs btw.