I pray the Qanon people are listening.

How they live and breathe that nonsense is beyond me.

And it effects us all.

What makes more sense?

"From roughly ages 16-21, I believed that our impending climate doom was a leftist conspiracy to raise taxes, consolidate power, or whatever else was a right wing parroting phrase at the time. I eventually realized that I just believed that because it was easier than acknowledging the deep shit we're in."

"A big part of the epiphany was the simple question from a friend:"

"'What makes more sense? A global power grab through thousands of faked studies by scientists in a hundred countries with nothing to gain, or a couple fossil fuel executives sowing doubt to protect their fortunes?'"

"So now, I rationally acknowledge our doom." ~ brainsewage

Old Roots

"Can't say that I was ever a hardcore theorist but I was definitely one of those 'early 20s guy reading weird early internet message boards' types. It's been since the mid-2000s that I stopped following any of that."

"I can't pin down any specific one that steered me away but digging in and finding out just how many political ones find long, old roots in some form of anti-Semitism, racism, or some flavor of authoritarianism was enough to throw that baby out with the bath water as new ones kept creeping into the mainstream." ~ xETankx

The Truther

"I used to be a 9/11 truther. Like hardcore. After spending 6 years in the military and going to work for a federal agency, I realized there was no way the US government could pull something like that off without a few thousand people knowing about it, and a few hundred of them spilling their secrets all over the place I mean for God's sake, it takes a half ream of paperwork to take a freaking vacation." ~ oheffme

I want to believe...

"I don't think there was a single moment where I realized anything. It's not really a case where I believed it because of a lack of information, I believed it because it had emotional pull attached to it. Fox Mulder in the X files has a poster that says 'I want to believe' in his office for a reason: it's that the main reason people believe in these things is because they want to, in spite of evidence to the contrary."

"It had emotional pull to believe that because it made life seem more interesting. My life at the time i believed it was super dull and lonely, when I had very little going on for me. What got me out of it was A) embarking on a new career that I found fulfilling and made me feel good about myself B) got a lot more friends and started engaging in a lot more activities and social outings from hiking to basketball to snorkelling and skydiving. I just kind of stopped believing in that stuff because I no longer had a need to hold onto it, not because I realized it was BS." ~ DoctorWatchamacallit

The Antichrist

"Not necessarily a conspiracy, but as a teenager, I found this website that made a very seemingly convincing argument that George W. Bush was the Antichrist. I believed it could possibly be true, for like a day, then I took a step back and realized how ridiculous it was." ~ TheBoomExpress

Where do we even begin with some of this craziness?

I feel like I'm reading fiction.

Oh wait, I'm reading about people who believed fiction.

I'm Lost

"When the entire conspiracy community jumped on the Trump Train and Q became a thing. I was down for Atlantis, ancient aliens, William Cooper, and Coast to Coast with Art Bell. Now I barely cared about all recent disclosures and acknowledgements. Still watched the Bob Lazar documentary though." ~ RexyMundo

They're out there...

"I used to be a firm believer in the whole 'Aliens are secretly kept in Area 51' and other related conspiracies until it was pointed out to me that governments are incapable of keeping secrets of that magnitude and if it was really true, it would have been leaked to the public ages ago." ~ Mrgreen37

"great awakening"

"My friend went down the rabbit hole a little too hard once and thought that the earth was hollow with entrances at the poles and then he believed some guy wrote an app that let you talk to ghosts. It was a $20 app lmao. He said to just keep waiting for the 'great awakening' for it to work. He could never explain to me what that was or why it kept getting pushed off lol. Eventually me pestering him enough for answers for him off it." ~ Osirus1156

Tupac

"When I was 12, like 16 years ago, I was on a website talking about Tupac really being alive. It had that famous pic of him throwing up Westside. Only thing is that it was actually a gif (which I realized years later), that would wink every minute or so. I saw him wink at me and I closed the site and wouldn't go back to the computer until the next day. I couldn't even muster the courage to go cut some yews on runescape. Absolutely terrified me for months." ~ MuayThaiWhy

The Hole

"I bet that moment is pretty rare. A feature of conspiracy theories is that evidence against them is also evidence for them: 'Well obviously this rock solid alibi shows just how deep the rabbit's hole goes.'" ~ Permanganic_acid

Don't be desperate.

Research is a wonderful thing.

Conspiracies are dangerous, so be sure about what you believe.

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