Ghost Stories and Conspiracy Theories

Martin · 2 years (5:03 PM · Jul 18, 2021)

When I was a kid, I loved reading books about ghosts, aliens, and other paranormal stuff. Did I ever believe them? It's hard to say from this far out. They certainly scared me sometimes, though.

Stories of haunted ships scared me in particular, though I don't really know why. I never spent time on boats as a kid. Tales of ghost ships, still stalked by apparitions of their former crew, and doomed to repeat their final, ill-fated voyages over and over... that freaked me out. It still kind of does! Back then, the closest I ever got to that was playing around on a relative's boat that got parked on our property for a while.

As an adult, I've grown away from those things. A world where ghosts exist is one that doesn't seem rational to me. I often find myself bemused whenever anyone makes a serious attempt to claim that ghosts are the explanation for something. I am similarly skeptical of aliens, and alien-abduction stories, but the possibility that alien life exists (or existed in the past, or will exist in the future) seems infinitely more likely to me. At least there is a naturalistic explanation for that.

In my opinion, a mind that is taught to believe extraordinary stories, without also requiring the necessary evidence to justify the belief, is one that is primed to accept a number of things that might appear intuitive, but can't stand up to the faintest skepticism. It's a breeding ground for magical thinking and paranoid thoughts - the kind that are absolutely pervasive in American society today.

Nothing is off limits. Literally everything is justified by conspiracy theories, many of which are so dim-witted they make the old ghost stories seem absolutely believable by comparison. I'm just sick of it.

If you have beliefs about how things should be, that's fine - even if I don't agree with them, or even if most other people don't agree with them. If you want things to be a certain way, and that's how you choose to vote, go for it. But don't hide behind conspiracy theories to justify it. Just own it. Things would be a lot better that way.

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