The power of these words is such a crazy phenomenon, and shows so clearly the weakness of most minds, that it's surprising the topic isn't discussed a lot more. I've read "conspiracy theorist" was a CIA creation after they tested various methods of persuasion and found that phrase was incredibly effective. Most readers here have probably heard the same.
I've written a bit about this:
https://patrick.net/post/1342067/2021-10-22-psychology-of-vaxxers
The power of these words is such a crazy phenomenon, and shows so clearly the weakness of most minds, that it's surprising the topic isn't discussed a lot more. I've read "conspiracy theorist" was a CIA creation after they tested various methods of persuasion and found that phrase was incredibly effective. Most readers here have probably heard the same.