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Conspiracy Theories, Owen Benjamin, and Being 'One of the Few'

from Integrity Belongs In East Timor · #130

Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.

2 min

Tim and his guest riff on conspiracy culture, Avicii/9-11 truthers, Owen Benjamin's flat earth drift, and how conspiracies function like religion by making believers feel special and 'in the know.'

In this bit7 moments
  • 0:53Tim on the idea that 9/11 conspiracies claim the government brought someone back and told him to go live his life.
  • 1:11Tim mocks the argument that 9/11 never happened because the World Trade Center was hard to argue with.
  • 1:32Tim watches Owen Benjamin's conspiracy content because he sees a preview of his own eventual decline.
  • 1:47Owen Benjamin has progressed from moon landing denial to flirting with flat earth theories.
  • 2:07The appeal of conspiracies is the ability to position yourself as one of the few who knows the truth.
  • 2:23To stay among the few in conspiracy communities, adherents keep getting further and further into extreme theories.
  • 2:34Tim used to watch only YouTube videos with under a thousand views to stay ahead of co-opted content.
Mentioned here

Owen BenjaminJohn F. Kennedy

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