Conspiracy Theories
Why do Americans in particular appear to be more susceptible?
Over the years where surveys have been carried out Americans tend to come to the forefront in strange or conspiracy theories. Two polls carried out by respected polling companies found that 20% of Americans in one poll and 35% in the other believed that aliens had visited earth. Much higher percentages than in other countries. Similarly, that they believed that there had been higher technological civilisations on earth in earlier times.
Whilst conspiracy theories take root in all societies, why more so in America?
Why would anyone believe QAnon saying that there is a cabal of American politicians and influential people who are Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic, pedophiles1. That Donald Trump is the God-sent Christian messiah who is fighting them to bring about “The Storm” when he will have thousands of them arrested. And that the cabal is ensuring he fails to get reelected by using voter fraud to protect themselves?
Phycologists have studied conspiracy theories and have determined that various factors make a person susceptible to them, including: -
· Levels of education
· Narcissistic tendency/collective narcissism (a groups inflated belief in its own importance)
· Feelings of underachievement/failure
· Brainwashing by repeated exposure to misinformation by a respected person, group or establishment
However, only a little research has been done relating to the influence of religious belief as related to conspiracy theory, and as far as I know not directly related to Americans.
If you look at the research “Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations” you will find that for example whereas the UK population has an average IQ of 100 with 41.5% of people not believing in God, America has an average IQ of 98 but only 10.5% not believing in God.
Looking at predominantly Catholic countries Italy shows an average IQ of 102 & 6% not believing in God and here in the Philippines an IQ of 86 and 0.5% not believing in God.
Other predominantly religious countries with higher IQ’s also show a low percentage of atheism – UAE 84 and 0.5% and Pakistan also 84 and 0.5%.
In predominantly non-religious countries – Japan shows 105 and 65%, Czech Republic 98 and 61%, with Belgium at 99 and 43%.
Also, the research “Compulsory Schooling Laws and Formation of Beliefs: Education, Religion and Superstition” shows that each additional year of education reduces religiosity by 10%.
So, what am I getting at here?
The research generally shows that where there is a greater level of education, measured by a higher IQ2, belief in God is reduced, unless there is a religious tradition within a community perpetuated by the indoctrination of youth by either government diktat, religious enforcement, cultural norms or all.
So why would America be in a 98 IQ to only 10.5% situation? Well, despite America’s idealized rhetoric of the pioneers who sailed westwards to open up America. These pioneers were to a great extent religious exiles from Europe, fleeing religious persecution, to promote and establish “Militant Protestantism” in the New World.
As such, America became, and still is, a predominantly religious society with a fundamental belief in God.
How does this relate to Conspiracy Theory?
A philosophical belief in God without “religion” is not what we are considering here.
Here we are talking about organized religion, which in America is predominantly Christian based. Christian organized religions base their faith on the word of God as revealed in the Bible. Therefore, belief is through “faith alone” in the truth of what is written in the Bible.3
As Paul wrote, “…we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus said, “…blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 19:29).
Therefore, blind faith is deemed necessary to the Christian believer, irrespective of educational levels.
Now mix this predilection to accept with blind faith (no proof), misinformation that is constantly being repeated to you by respected people and organisations (Presidents, Fox News and others), perhaps combined with lower educational levels, feelings of underachievement - alleviated by one’s belief in the power to “Tweet” to thousands of the like-minded whilst receiving praise (likes), or inflated narcissistic traits, and you have the typically violently vocal American QAnon follower, prepared to fight for their “blind faith” in a conspiracy theory blended with Christian anti-Satanism.
Are the “Proud Boys” also lunatic fringe conspiracy theorists?
No, they are a group of White Supremacists, who upon seeing the huge internet coverage QAnon was achieving, joined in to take insidious advantage of that coverage, however, to promote a different agenda of anti-multi-racial and anti-multi-cultural beliefs. These beliefs aligned via a White Supremacist Christian message4, thereby aligning both QAnon and Proud Boys through shared perverse religious identities.
Finally, why would Trump and the Republicans want to be associated with these obnoxious people? Put simply - to gain votes. Republicans, when in control of swing states, have for many decades been attempting to disenfranchise black and poorer voters likely to favour the Democrats by closing polling stations in black and poorer areas, de-listing voters, restricting postal voting etc.
With the arrival of Covid postal voting was allowed, despite Republicans trying to get it banned/restricted through the courts. Now that everyone who wanted to vote could do so from their own home by mail, Republicans needed all the votes they could get from whatever source. Trump, therefore, encouraged QAnon/Proud Boys simply to garner their votes for himself first and for the Republican party secondly. When this failed, his attempts to challenge his loss put him alongside the lunatic fringe himself, proving what many had been saying for years – that he was, and is, an intellectually inferior, mentally unstable person.
1 Similar claims, especially cannibalism, are made by Islamic Jihad against Jews.
2 Measuring education by IQ is problematic and not a particularly useful indicator of intelligence, although it is generally used to measure disparate communities.
3 The truth of what is written in the Bible by iron age people has been mostly systematically disproved by experts in archaeology, anthropology, folklore, philology, linguistics and more.
4 American White Supremacy is not fringe. American Christian White Churches right up until the 20th century presented various theological arguments (Black people were the descendants of Cain who committed fratricide, lied to God, and are therefore ever marked as having an inferior moral character etc.) to bolster the belief that God preferred white people to rule over black.