The real conspiracy is using the cartoon villain shit to distract from the horrible shit that is literally happening in plain sight
I don't think conspiracys are equal to other interests I'm just arguing against the idea is that it arises from a lack of curiosity from its believers. The examples I gave were of curiosity that doesn't chanellege it's world view and that by itself is fine. To fall into conspiracies I think you need mix of curiosity, fear, creativity, a susceptible world view (shaped by the things mentioned) together with a lack of education and critical thinking skills. I think this is good news too, from this angle it is possible to address the issue by changing the media and increasing education. That might take generations to accomplish but there is no possible answer to a problem if the issue is a fundamental lack of curiosity inherent to a portion of the population
i think it’s fair to assume that media coverage of most worldly events is not necessarily honest coverage of what actually happened and likely never has been so i think it’s fair to believe in some “”””conspiracy theories”””” in that sense but it doesn’t help that people often talking about conspiracy theories are the dumbest people alive
That is the catch. Skepticism is good, but when you say something like "no the vaccines are not meant to sterilize the population" they turn it into you are the gullible one.
I’d maybe argue that fear and lack of critical thinking/education have more to do with conspiratorial thinking than curiosity or creativity. In my experience, those who are ambivalent and gullible, or who have insufficient worldviews and are looking to find something steady in our chaotic world, are more likely to land in that mess long term than those genuinely eager to keep learning and/or creating.
This conversation is one of many reminders that I really need to get the Naomi Klein book Doppelganger, lol.
I think that curiosity and creativity are extra ingredients you need to get from normal bigotry (fear and ignorance) to the insane land of modern conspiracies Fear and ignorance as the base is probably the difference between the old fun conspiracies, in addition to reactionary politics harnessing it as another source of fear to weaponise and propergate
I liked that it didnt have a "magic system". The magic was inconsistent, religious, superstious and fickle, and puts the audience into a medieval mindset. I havent read the books but I think the all fantastical elements and especially the white walkers wouldve worked better hidden behind the wall with the unrealiable pov perspective, in the show theres no mystery or doubt it just tells us they are a real super threat straight away but we are forced to wait 7 seasons for either side to take any action.
The magic system largely isn't even understood to be a magic which is great. The white walkers and dragons both looming was nice
If you take out the magic youre just doing War of the Roses which would be fine but we would have all these scenes where the characters are going on about religion, discussing it with each other, contemplating its meaning with no effect on the plot. Secular audiences would read those scenes as the characters being dumb and wasting time, concluding the point is "religion is bad" (because it doesnt work) but that is not psychological reality of the characters or the fun of the stories.
It was very good for 4 and then mostly very good for 2 then occasionally very good for 2. D&D were truly just god awful. The man literally wrote a novel series because he couldn't get it approved as a television series in the 90s - the blueprint for success was just "don't fuck it up"
For a good chunk of its run, Game of Thrones was very compelling television, made with amazing production value never before seen on tv. Now so much bad tv is made with gigantic budgets its easier to diminish what a big deal the show was in it's glory years. I wouldn't put the show up there with like The Sopranos or Mad Men or something of that caliber but it was good for a period. Obviously, D&D turned out to be hacks and tanked the show's legacy because they thought they could make a Star War but thats a whole other can of worms