I want to spend a great deal more time discussing Conspiracy theories when I get the chance with this thread dedicated to it/them and going forward at other times. 

The world has had a long history of mostly harmless conspiracy theories.

However, in the age of powerful social media that reaches almost all eyes/brains the ability to magnify convincing sounding conspiracy theories is several orders of magnitide greater than just 20 years ago. 

If they were all harmless ( like the made up chemtrails-which are just water vapor exhaust plumes from jets-contrails) then everything would still be cool.

But social media and other places that push conspiracy theories are now using them for very effectively accomplishing  extremely dangerous political objectives. Downright, unquestionable brainwashing tools on a scale of many tens of millions of people that are totally convinced of things that have been solidly debunked/disproven and totally busted with authentic facts/data/evidence hundreds of times..........but manage to be oblivious to every authentic challenge known to mankind.

Once the human mind believes something............it processes all new information to confirm what it thinks that it knows.........cognitive bias. Been around forever. People will gravitate towards sources that tell them what they want to hear because their cognitive bias/brains tells them it's the reality.

Things that contradict this reality.........are immediately rejected.

It makes being open minded and objective and learning NEW things tougher. 

Sadly, the more we learn, in some realms, the tougher it becomes to learn new things...........in politics for instance.

A clean slate will accept everything you can put on it. When it gets filled up, you have to erase some things to make room for new things. Fortunately,  our brain slates have an unlimited capacity to store new things. However, if there is part of the brain slate reserved for the understanding of principle A and facts supporting it, there will NOT be a part of the slate with the same amount of brain storage for contrasting principle B.  And what is on the slate defines how we process all new information. 

So if we have only 1 slate in this realm for both A and B and what's on their programs how we process new information to add to the slate.........our brains will be programmed to keep adding more of whatever is already there.

Because whatever is there, is what defines our brains TRUTH. 

Just like a computer is programmed in many ways.........except that we have ways to disrupt the process with critical, analytical objective thinking and using the authentic scientific method.(trying to prove ourselves wrong before moving forward) ........which doesn't come naturally but instead, must be learned and practiced over time.........or else, the natural cognitive bias and programming just tell the mind to believe what it thinks that it knows every time.

And to strengthen what it thinks it knows by going to places that provide reinforcement and avoiding/rejecting what contradicts it because, again by that brains programmed definition, things that contradict are just flat out wrong and unless you can override the programming.....which can only be done with a very  strong CONSCIOUS desire from the owner of the brain to OPEN THEIR MIND, no amount of anything will convince that brain to think any differently than its programmed to think.

This is why conspiracy theories work so well.

 If you can just get  the seeds of one planted in a person's brain, just a few sprouts are all thats needed for the brain to tell itself to start acquiring all new information to confirm what it now thinks that it knows. 

IN short order,(a matter of hours in todays' world) you have a monstrosity of a belief that will never let anything contradicting in and craves more information to feed the belief system because the cognitive conditioning of the  brain is telling them that's what it needs. 

More later with all the links, including some science but I'm sincerely interested in hearing others views.