Some just want to promote conflict, cause chaos, or even just get attention.
There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content.
They are opportunists. These people share conspiracy theories to promote conflict, cause chaos, recruit and radicalize potential followers, make money, harass, or even just to get attention.
There are several types of this sort of conspiracy-spreader trying to influence you.
We used to call it “shooting the shit” in the pre-authoritarian days, and it was just an ordinary part of socializing with like minded individuals. I’m convinced that the only reason the Internet was allowed to be good at first, was to lure everyone into holding personal conversations on social media and messaging apps, so that they could police everyone’s everyday speech.
