Not always. Some people believe in conspiracy theories for the sake of believing in conspiracy theories, others believe because they seem rational and probable.

I heard that if innocent Canadian blood touches American soil, Saddam Hussein and Satan will be freed from Hell to rule the Earth for a thousand years of darkness.

Perhaps to them they sound rational and probably, but that's only because it confirms what they already believe.

I see what you did there.

I can't take such things seriously due to the question: How would they know this in the first place?

Erm...

Which things can't you take seriously? And which things do they know in the first place?

If you want conspiracies that matter and may very well affect you today, then look into things like Monsanto. The things I hear about that company are truly frightening.

The things about Monsanto aren't even false though. That company is evil incarnate.

Oh yeah. For sure I believe the stuff dad says about Monsanto.

All to both.

I mean, first of all, someone may claim this or that is a conspiracy. I wonder how they discover something along those lines in the first place.

How does David Icke know the world is supposedly run by the Illuminati? Did one of them introduce himself? I can't seem to find the answers to the origins of such claims.

Oh, yeah. That's one of my other big objections to conspiracies; the clues that supposedly give them away are just so goddamn obvious.

If the Illuminati were so powerful, why are these theorists still alive and spouting their shit?
If 9/11 was an inside job, why would the organisers be so stupid as to use a missile to blow up the Pentagon and allow video footage that 'clearly' shows that be released?

If theorists suddenly dissappeared and people noticed then that could lend more credibility to their claims, perhaps even make them a bit of a martyr.

If they're left to their own devices they end up looking less credible because nothing is happening to them.

Now all we need is for such people to confess their treasonous thoughts and deeds (after being kept in a certain ministry to help them clear their heads) and we'll be set ;)

But if the Illuminati were true, they'd have the ability and power to catch the theorists before they make any revelations. And if they failed at that, they'd be able to wipe all record of said revelations from the public record. And we'd all be so hypnotised that we wouldn't have noticed them in the first place.

Well as they say perhaps the truth is somewhere in between :p

EDIT: Oops I was referring to such people in general rather than just the ones talking about the Illuminati specifically.

I suppose the truth may well be in between. But I'm betting on it being much closer to the sane end of the theory spectrum than the wackjob end.

That's true, though it's so damn hard to find out what is "really" happening when everyone (from mainstream media to more independed sources) seems to be giving conflicting information.

It gets even harder when looking up issues that have polarised opinions, especially when the truth is indeed somewhere in the middle.

By far the most common lies I seem to be seeing though are good ol' lies of ommission.

Yes, it can be difficult to ascertain the truth from conflicting information. Just remember to put our trust in our good friend Occam's Razor.

Right off to the ministry of love, room 101 for all of you.

Yeah. I stopped believing in conspiracy theories along time ago when i realized just how stupid most of them sounded. And i heard a lot of them. 9/11(multiple ones), The new world order, population control, the Kennedy assassination, and the staged moon landing(i never believed that one to begin with), etc. All that BS. Looking back on these things now, i feel stupid for believing in them.

I think that conspiarciy theories are actually pretty damn interesting. It's really cool to see how far people can strech a fact to make it fiction. I don't really believe in any conspiracies, but damn if they aren't imaginative at times.

Conspiracy theories assume that governments have so much more resources and far greater competence than they actually do. Best demonstration that they don't?

Watergate.

lets not forget this guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpFu_bYkomc

He's my favourite. He did a great piece on the Royal Wedding. How Britain isn't a part of the EU, how the public abhore the Royal family and how the British Royal Family taught the Nazis everything they knew.

- Rexy

Plausible deniability.

I think Nate is secretly an alien being, planning world domination with an army of clone soldiers, and until he has completed his ultimate doomsday device, he finds increasingly un-justified reasons to infract me.

I think you have one too many glukkon symbols.

Any plan that requires more than three vital things to happen is far too complex to be relied upon, since the chances of total failure rises exponentially with each additional critical variable.

Even then, the real limit is two, because only a complete idiot designs their plan to be as complicated as possible.

This

leads nicely back to this

which creates this:

Incompetent government + complicated evil plan = half failed evil plan that leads to conspiracies.

Actual conspiracies or conspiracy theories?

Actual conspiracies.

As in, if the plan was executed flawlessly no-one would ever know. But because they made it overly complicated some stuff went wrong and people got suspicious.