Conspiracy versus reality testing

 
Conspiracy theories are rooted in paranoid thinking which is a primitive way of looking at the world. Peasants are typically paranoid and deeply superstitious, which is due in large part to their powerlessness and therefore fragile hold on survival. Central to it is a fear of ‘invasive malevolence’ and ‘imminent annihilation’ from an outer world felt as not just unsafe but destructive. That paralyzing, all-pervasive fear nowadays attaches to authority figures (illu