Government will find autistic / lonely / genuinely retarded people and then give them meaning to life for a few months followed by decades in prison. They will suspend disbelief because it is tied to their only source of companionship -- their fed/CI friends

One needs to contemplate that the normal explanations for school shootings and similar topics of conflict likely causes them a greater cognitive dissonance.

Some people are just very susceptible although I think it's probably worth saying that everyone interesting probably has some beliefs that seem quite odd if written down in a very matter of fact way by a journalist who doesn't like you.

I suppose the most concise answer is really just "ideology".

Part of it might be the normalization of extreme and obvious paranoia, falsehoods, and anger. Even mainstream leaders do it - look at the Republican party talking about people eating cats, and what was (and is) said about toward trans people. Somewhat more fringe talk(ed) about pedophile rings in government, etc. Is the consipiracy theory you cite so far advanced from that?

I think it's an information diet thing. Once you accept Fox News as being truthful, you move on to at least giving some thought to what folks like Alex Jones are saying.

And the first thing fringe folks tell you is, "you are right, you are smart, you are clever. You've seen that they are covering up the truth, and you are wise to start questioning everything."

Once you get isolated by a bunch of media that tells you how impressive you are and tells you that anyone questioning you is trying to hold you back, you get separated from those who care about you. Once your loved ones give up on you, you turn to forums and chat groups of others in similar situations. They also tell you that you are smart and clever.

It's a classic abuser playbook, and unfortunately it's really really hard to unwind after a certain point. And we value freedom of speech too much to cut off the early on-ramps to this path. But we don't fund the education or the high quality information sources enough to help provide alternatives or defenses.

I think there should probably a a rule adjacent to #34: if it exists, there’s a conspiracy theory about it.

In this case, I would imagine it’s: school shooting happens. Politicians use it to push for gun control. Therefore politicians made it happen, so they could use it.

Both sides of the political aisle do this, and plenty of people do it about less political things as well. It’s honestly my least favorite part of the public discourse right now.

YouTube recommendations can be enough…

It starts with sorting by moral judgements. Reactionaries are particularly sensitive to unfairness, betrayal, subversion, and degradation of sanctity. Weave these things with a narrative and you can capture interest.

One vector is feeling that your life not being what you'd like it to be is somebody else's fault. Convenient explanations of the situation are easier to accept that those requiring an honest appraisal of the situation. Conspiracy theories fall into the easy explanation category.

I think at a certain point, people who are into conspiracy theory stuff get so used to accepting ridiculous stuff that ridiculousness becomes a virtue for them, and you get this spiral into more and more extreme/absurd ideas being accepted.

After someone identifies the government and media working in coordination to mislead the public on whatever issue, they go looking for alternative sources of truth. Some of those alternatives are completely bananas.

Most of our popular entertainment since the late 20th century has been chock full of these far-fetched ideas as plot devices. Everyone is primed to employ the techno-thriller "what if?" tool when building narratives and sensemaking.

And the huge and opaque organization required to make the modern world work provides a fertile ground for imaginations to run wild.

I think at this point it's so deeply ingrained that we're all somewhat susceptible to it.

Maybe, like millions of other Americans, he followed Alex Jones?

Jones spread equally ridiculous theories about school shootings.

4chan echo chamber shit. I’d guess more than half of it starts as trolling, but some people run with it. Same way QAnon became a thing.

if you don't mind me asking how many human traffickers do you think exist in your city?