Are there any credible conspiracy theories?

And you're back again. You claimed "Nazis" were part of 9/11. Which "Nazis" and what did they do?

I'd a very skeptical person. There are people out there that are what can only be described as mentally ill with a platform. Groups in the US calling the school shootings and church shootings a hoax, calling the families "crisis actors" Absolute madness.

I think most conspiracy theories are nonsense but calling something a conspiracy theory is also a great way to discredit something and shut it down.

These people think almost everyone they meet are part of a grand conspiracy against them and are stalking them.

If I was forced to pick one conspiracy theory that I thought might have some truth to it, I'd pick the moon landing. After watching a few videos on it with an open mind they definitely make some great arguments.

To save people sitting through an hour of this garbage, can you instead summarise the claims that have not already been debunked?

Anything that goes against what our benevolent overlords tell us is a conspiracy theory.

This topic could have its own thread, probably does already. This thread asks the questions are there any CT you think could be true. I didn't say I believe the moon landing didn't happen, I said after watching several videos on the topic they make several strong arguments.

Thank you, I'll take a look.

Ivermectin was one of those ridiculous things like the nigerian prince emails, those that believe it really don't know any better and were incapable of any critical thought about it (particularly when their favourite politicians pushed it).

It was off patent and cheap to make, yet no startup or established pharma went to produce it for the minor cost of a properly run trial (which would also grant them exclusivity on it for a period of time). That Dexamethasone was similarly off patent and cheap to produce and was approved (after a trial) is completely lost on those people.

So your claims are BS. Ivermectin is not effective, whereas the vaccines are. Thank you for confirming.

Because I've wasted too much precious time going down similar rabbit-holes in the past, and the "evidence" never even approaches being convincing. I'm convinced now that posting links to long videos is a conpiracy theorist tactic to deter people from actually examining the (lack of) evidence and that many posting them have never even viewed the videos fully themselves and are instead just taking the word of the people who provided the links.

I shouldn't have to do an hour's homework in order to make your case. If it's so compelling, provide a bulleted list of the most compelling points with stand and end timestamps so people can go straight to them.

Yep..I was right, pure ignorance. The videos, if you bothered your backside to watch even the first 2 minutes you'd know are documentaries highlighting how ridiculous the conspiracy theories in question are and how mentally disturbed a lot of these groups are. So no need to bullet point any compelling lists or timestamps.

As for you ignorantly calling me a conspiracy theorist using the usual tactics that is just pure an utter laziness and ignorance again. Read the posts back again slowly this time, this thread, incase you also glossed over that, is asking if there are any conspiracy theories we find believable.

My response, again read it back slowly, was that I thought most come from a mental illness (which the first two videos highlight) and that if I were to forced to pick one, after watching several videos with an open mind, I felt that the moon landing conspiracy theorists made several strong arguments. Never said I believed the moon landing was staged, only that if I were to choose one. Now pull your horns in fella and read the posts back nice and slow so you understand them ok.

Medical treatment reduced deaths from the virus (dramatically). End of.

There are individuals who falsely believed that vaccines would stop the pandemic in it's tracks, they have this bizarre notion that "we were told" this (we weren't) and due to that they rail against the vaccines.

Is there any credible conspiracy? None

The only relationship I see between those views and conspiracy theory forums is that anti-vax and anti-science views are popular among people who believe in fantastical conspiracy theories, or those who orbit the theories.

By golly, you're quite right. I didn't watch the first two. That'll teach me to start things things and then go back to them in fits and starts. But...did they debunk the moons landings conspiracy theory? If they didn't they're irrelevant because that's what I was focussing on. The first two videos amount to nearly another hour of viewing so no I'm not going to watch them to find out - I have a life outside this place.

I didn't accuse you of being a believer in all conspiracy theories and I should have given you more credit for that because one of the things I've noticed about conspiracy theorists is that the same names keep cropping up again and again promoting lots of different theories. That you're only giving (limited) credence to one is indeed a sign of critical thinking in action and I should have picked up on it. Your comment about the moon landing video making some good points prompted me to jump to the conclusion that you were one of those I'm-just-asking-questions types i.e. a true CT believer hiding behind a mask of faux-reasonableness. So, sorry about that - that was unfair and I apologise unreservedly.

You could well be right about the mental illness aspect. It's not something I've looked into.

I did watch the first 3.somethng minutes of the thrid video and then skipped ahead a couple of times due to the poor arguments being made by the interviewee, and the lack of probing questions by the interviewer.

What I picked up on was:

• Werner von Braun said a moon landing was impossible - really? Was he qualified to decide that? In what year did he claim it? His V-1 rockets never left earth's atmosphere, and his V-2's never carried people and were only designed to go up and come back down again very quickly, so he was hardly informed by past experience of life support systems for space travel or of landing on and taking off again from a celestial body. Also, no evidence is provided about whether he actually said it. All we hear is the claim.
• There were lots of reorganisations within NASA to make sure nobody got a full picture of the scam. Again, big claim, no evidence.
• The van Allen belt problem. This has been debunked already. And the guy giving the presentation about that and the associated shielding appeared to be having his words twisted.
• The shadows in the photographs. Also debunked already.
• Nowadays NASA can only get people into earth orbit but not beyond. Well that's hardly suprising, given that the space shuttle is only designed to get poeople into earth orbit and not beyond. That was a strategic decision made by NASA and if I remember correctly, a lot of people in NASA thought it was a mistake. NASA decided to leave the longer-range stuff to robots, and here we are today with robots on Mars doing pretty much what the Apollo astronauts did on the moon, except for playing golf.

At that point I decided there was no reason to waste any more time on the video, and I think that conclusion was justified based on the random sample I'd seen at that point.

People who orbit conspiracy theorists and disinfo merchants are as bad, if not worse than them. They are "smart" enough not to push the theory directly, because they know they can't support it, but they validate the conspiracy theorists both directly and also indirectly by never challenging them and attacking those who question them.