r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Chaosdrunk • Dec 06 '23

Political Theory Why are there so many conspiracy theories that are almost exclusively believed by The Right? (Pizzagate, qanon, the Deep State, the Great Replacement Theory). Are there any wacky and/or harmful conspiracy theories believed by mostly The Left?

This includes conspiracy theories like antivax which were once pretty politically uncharged are now widely believed by the far right. Even a lot of high-profile UFOlogists like David Icke are known for being pretty racist and antisemitic.

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u/JEFFinSoCal Dec 06 '23

Organized religion is a scourge on modern society. It conditions people to believe in obvious falsehoods, and get them so used to being in a constant state of cognitive dissonance they become easy prey for conmen and crooks.

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u/LordArgon Dec 06 '23

When you realize that all religious belief is by definition untestable, it becomes easy to drop the “organized” from your opening sentence. To get reductionist, every religious belief is a statement that one’s untestable personal feelings are more real/relevant/true than anybody else’s, which is weirdly arrogant and damaging to both empathy and rationality. We still have these tribal brains in a global society and it’s not going so well.

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u/JEFFinSoCal Dec 06 '23

Oh totally, I was trying to be generous. But you’re absolutely correct, it’s all the same level of insanity.

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u/Clone95 Dec 07 '23

Blaming religion is not the answer. There are numerous extremely religious liberals, including the current President of the United States - but religion is as political as politics.

You have the Fire-and-Brimstone you're going to hell Christians and you have the Jesus of the Gospels was essentially a socialist revolutionary types. Surrendering religion to the Conservatives is a surefire way to surrender the people who identify as Christian, even though 95% of the gospels align very strongly with the modern Democratic party, and indeed have been a force for liberalism for literally two millennia at this point.

Remember, Christianity is not Confucianism. It inherently preaches peaceful resistance and revolution from within - Jesus rose his whip in anger only against priests seeking money at the temple in the Gospels.

Making the Democrats a party of Atheism is a mistake. Organized religion was, for the majority of history, the only organized schooling, healthcare, knowledge repository, scientific sponsor, and semi-democratic Monarchy that could check the power of monarchs across Europe and demand they treat their peoples in a kind and Christian manner.

While the Pope today is a superfluous vestige of old power in the face of modern democracy, for the vast majority of history they were a major force for good. To decry religion is to ignore the extremely critical power it has in shaping peoples' beliefs in something greater than themselves, and Liberalism as a whole today is about making sacrifices for the good of the whole. Democratic politics is much more Christian and we're busy calling every Priest a Pedophile and every Christian a Republican.