Do you think the conspiracy/hoax nuts tend more to be conservative or liberal?

Question

The 2012 predictions, the government UFO/alien coverup, the fake moon missions, the US government being behind the 9-11 attacks. Do you think the believers in these things tend to be more to the right, more to the left, or equally mixed?

Answer 1

i guess i'd be one of these 'nuts' and i'm not really a severe left wing nut job or anything...

i tend to be more liberal tho... but i've known republican nut jobs, anti-american nut jobs, they come from all over the place.... there really is no set group you will find them originating from.  

Answer 2

I know many FAR RIGHT CRAZY conservatives who are in lockstep with the leftist extremists over 9/11.

All conspiracy freaks I have known have been at one end or the other. Never moderate or centrist.

Answer 3

"Right wing" and "conservative" don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. In many ways, I'm conservative, in that I like things to be weighed up, and I believe in improving the condition of the people. I'm also a "born-again" Christian (mate, hasn't that term been hijacked?), and I believe strongly in secular government and institutions. But you're not really talking about me, are you?

I think suitti is correct, but he didn't express it well, or over-generalised a bit. A mistrust of government is a trait of those who lean to the right, much as it can be generalised. But it doesn't necessarily go the other way. Not all "right-wingers" mistrust government.

So what makes those few of them mistrust "The Government"? It can be a sign of less education, not because you have to be smart to know, but because some people (not all) learn at the School of Hard Knocks to blame someone else for their troubles.

But another question is, how many of the ones we hear from are true "conspiracy nuts", and how many just take it on because they think it's a way of looking intelligent by thumbing their noses at the "clever b******s", and don't really care?

It would have been interesting to see the responses if you'd asked this in the early hours of the morning, your time. Isn't that when they come out? : )

Answer 4

The nuts are of all flavors.  However, they tend to be true believers rather than scientists.

Answer 5

You know that is an interesting question. I would probably say conservative.

Really, it I think it is more about religious beliefs. According to one question I answered, the Bible supports planet x (one more reason not to believe in anything it says). Certain sections of the Bible also say that man is basically incapable of leaving Earth, though these sections were "edited" at the start of the space program, and the Catholic church started treating the Bible as more of a story book because of all the obvious scientific inaccuracies.

But really, the uneducated bunch seem to believe in these the most. And they stem from all political and religious backgrounds so it is really hard to say. It is pure ignorance of man that leads some people to believe that the moon landing was fake, and that we are hiding aliens. I think that some people are so blinded by this thick fog or ignorance that they ignore scientific backing, and pure logic when it comes to the moon landing, and alien coverup.

Answer 6

The true believers tend to be fundamentalist - everything is black and white, good and evil.  I'm afraid that makes them right wingers.

Answer 7

it depends what conspiracy/hoax/crazy theory you mean.

like the moon hoax, it transcends parties. you don't have to be a liberal to believe it, you don't have to be a conservative, you just have to be ******* nuts.

Answer 8

hmmmm.... a poser.

i am not even certain whether i am liberal or conservative.  I once did a test that scored me 19/20 as a Liberal, yet I am a strong believer in LESS government, a strong military, no Income Tax only a user tax, sentencing rapists to a tiny cell with only a huge anatomically correct robot (that wouldn't stand a chance at passing Asimov's 3 Laws) as a cellmate...

I guess I am mixed...

Hoaxers are probably mixed, too.

They have a strong distrust of government, yet follow the Aluminum futures like a commodities trader... after all, tin-foil hats aren't free.

Answer 9

Liberals.  'Cause they're all a bunch of loonies anyhow.

Answer 10

I don't know, but said people are freakin' weird!

Answer 11

I don't think it's correct to generalize about who comes up with the most "conspiracies/hoaxes."

If you're a Republican, the answer is probably "far left liberals."

If you're a Democrat, the answer is probably "far right conservatives."

If you're neutral, the answer is probably "equally mixed."

So I'd say it's the idiotic, uneducated people who make this stuff up.

Answer 12

Not just liberal, but it is the FAR LEFT CRAZY liberals that are mostly conspiracy nuts, just look at the 9/11 thing.  Normal liberals and conservatives are fine.

Answer 13

Political parties have nothing to do with it.  Either conspiracies exist or they don't...

The whole story about 9-11 won't be told, in that those who did the dastardly deeds won't ever be brought to justice.  We just know the US administration lied about it all - Bin Laden did not organise it or run it, etc.  US government/military agencies were involved, were complicit with the act - why weren't military planes scambled and intecepted the hijacked planes?  They had the time to do so.  Not just once, but twice and thrice - yet they did nothing?  Bush was told, when the 2nd plane hit the towers - why did he just carry on telling the story about the Goat..  Why did he simply fly around the country, afterwards - when other planes were grounded...

Most people don't want to do the research to find out, who lied to us...

Answer 14

I usually see that go hand-in-hand with religious conservatism.  It's the type that don't look for reasonable reasons to accept something.  And if you didn't come to a conclusion for a logical reason, no amount of logic will talk you out of that.  I see it in religion and moon hoaxers.  Nothing will ever convince them they are wrong.

Answer 15

Hi Brant,

I think they crazies fit the category.  On the other hand  grass root party thats  tends to forego all  that. We however have our own agenda. Have a good night. :0)

Additional Details: the US government is something all together strange anyway.

Answer 16

I don't think there is any correlation between people's political leanings and their belief in hoaxes and/or conspiracies.  Of course, no studies have been done to determine whether there is any such correlation.  There is also a great variety of hoax and/or conspiracy theories.  Many of these are patently false and some may be true.  I don't believe they can all be lumped together and assigned to one group of people.

I should add that many of those who believe in the 2012 nonsense and moon landing hoax seem to be young and impressionable.  They see something on the Internet and believe it.

Answer 17

They come in all political stripes. There are definitely nutbars on all sides of the political continuum.

What they have in common is that they are all anti-authority authoritarians. Authoritarians in that they have the need to be told what to think. No person in his right mind thinks that the Mayans predicted that the Sun would cross the galactic plane, causing magnetic polar shifts which would then generate massive earthquakes, hurricanes, and cats and dogs sleeping together. If you believe that nonsense, it's because you have an important internal need that the belief satisfies: to be told what to think. Thus they need authority. But they also hate authority, which is obvious from their accusations of science as being too dogmatic. Not sufficiently open-minded to consider mystery planets knocking the sun out of orbit and causing earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.

So they all have a serious internal contradiction in their logic processors. The only way to resolve this conflict is to convince others, thus justifying their (mutually contradictory) beliefs. Enough converts, and their beliefs become so justified that they cannot possibly be wrong, because the believer's psyche is so wrapped up in them. This is why, when 2012, or any doomsday, comes and goes, the true believers will never be convinced that they were wrong. They are too emotionally invested. It wasn't 2012 after all. They got their sums wrong. It was 2015. Watch out for doomsday 2015!

Answer 18

Speaking as someone who is politically active, left and right (liberal and conservative) are NOT the only two choices.  Just because Democrats and Republicans have managed to dominate politics in the US with their cartel doesn't mean nothing else exists.  Now, to answer your question, neither.  Liberals and convervatives both want HUGE ($2 trillion/year) federal government.  The people who believe in government conspiracies have a distrust of the government and therefore tend to be strongly against the federal government.  Liberals would call these people conservative and conservatives would call these people liberal.  That should be proof enough the liberals and conservatives are both equally wrong.