So, the following abstract is from a government official? Well i think there lays the problem right away.
Abstract:
....Many millions of people hold conspiracy theories; they believe that powerful people have worked together in order to withhold the truth about some important practice or some terrible event....
The more important ones such as 9/11 are just pushed into the broad spectrum of conspiracies, which naturally removes focus and therefore the conspiracy communities are all labelled crazies.
...A recent example is the belief, widespread in some parts of the world, that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by Israel or the United States....
On the contrary, false flag operations have been carried out for a long time by many countries intelligence agencies. Operation Northwoods was the US plan to blame Cuba for certain terrorist acts on US soil or property with the intent of going to war against Cuba. The CIA, using their own storage facilities, the document confirmed, have the capability to make American jet planes to resemble Cuban Mig Jets. US citizens in Miami, Washington, Florida and other US states, US warships were the targets albeit the acts would be carried out by the US government agencies including the CIA disguised as Cuban soldiers etc. They were even planning to use students through a ruse – free flight to Jamaica ..then blow it out of the sky. Northwoods also stated 'other countries' intelligence agencies will have their own pretexts, also this source stated 'remember the Maine' as though pretexts/ false flag operations are not just possible but actionable at whim. The media is easy to control which has the effect of supporting pretexts through appeal to the public's emotions, states Northwoods.
...Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law.....
Yes this is very true as it's easier to label or damage a conspiracy theorist as nuts, dangerous, or psychologically mentally damaged than it is to address the conspiracy community as whole which recognise and bring to a halt the modis operandi of corrupt societies including governments and business interests. It transpires that Stanley Milgram's research was apparently CIA funded with the intent to control the public to submit to an authority even if the thing being perpetrated was heinous. Stanley Milgram was a psychologist who performed an experiment test on the public to see how far and to what extent they would adhere to an authorative figure, even if the thing asked of them was just too deplorable for words. The test comprises administering (fake) extremely strong electric shocks to others who, as part of the test, were asked questions but got them wrong. The results, even though many participants executing the fake, but to them still very real, electric shocks, were heightened states of disturbing emotion, crying, shaking, nevertheless were that they still did as they were told. A person in a white jacket (authority figure) regularly came in during the experiment telling them ‘it’s alright, you have my permission to continue.’ The official reason was that the Milgram experiment was about understanding how German soldiers adhered to Nazi instructions even if it meant killing Jews, the disabled and children. You make of that what you will.
Reverse psychology
Turn it around and blame the conspiracy theorist, as follows.
...The first challenge is to understand the mechanisms by which conspiracy theories prosper; the second challenge is to understand how such theories might be undermined. Such theories typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences.
A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy. Because those who hold conspiracy theories typically suffer from a crippled epistemology, in accordance with which it is rational to hold such theories, the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups. Various policy dilemmas, such as the question whether it is better for government to rebut conspiracy theories or to ignore them, are explored in this light.
