Plandemic and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking

Faith & Science Conversation
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Katharine Hayhoe just posted this video on her facebook page.

She says,

John Cook is an expert in conspiracy theories. He did most of his early work on climate change, but these days he’s been busy debunking dangerous covid conspiracies.

Watch Plandemic and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking

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I watched this earlier today, and felt he did a good job. I wonder if those invested in conspiracy theories will listen, however. It may be too much to absorb all at once if you deeply into such stuff. I think it is good for those who are not involved to be aware of these traits in order to direct questions that can lead people to examine their beliefs.

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John Cook has a Youtube channel and a whole series on “Critical Thinking About COVID,” which looks at “different rhetorical techniques and logical fallacies in COVID-19 misinformation.” Not sure what these merchants of death have to gain.

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Scary that this can become so mainstream.

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Sinclair owns a local station here. I’m not impressed with the quality of their reporting – they have frequent spots on the local news. And that they’re one of the biggest owners of local stations… yeah, it’s concerning.

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Well, talking with my family member who do believe (they don’t believe it’s made by Fauci, but that there’s a conspiracy to take away our rights and enforce family planning–the Corbett Report is a major influencer), they truly are afraid that it’s like Orwell’s 1984. I’m not sure why they think anyone would want to take away their rights, or manipulate family planning, but they honestly think everyone is at great danger.

Some of the Internet, as the Zdogg broadcast shows by @jpm, fosters a big “us versus them” mentality–that there is someone evil on the other side. I think it’s a normal human reaction–some of your posts have demonstrated how people have formed conspiracy theories to explain other major catastrophes. I’m not sure how to help them with that. At this time, I’m trying to just talk calmly about other things. I think that sometimes they focus so much on this one thing that they’ve lost their sense of proportion. We’ve had some great family times by focusing on other things in the last few weeks–and maybe that will help them get perspective in the long run.

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He’s also created a cartoon themed app-game called Cranky Uncle to teach about fallacy in arguments, etc for the climate discussion. It’s very informative!

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I just saw that Sinclair has decided to pull that episode completely. Yay.

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