Victim mentality is what Fox News thrives on. It's what keeps viewers coming back to hear more outrage and blame. The network frequently reports inaccurate information, let's it spread, and then occasionally apologizes for the falsehoods. But too late, it's all over social media. They got what they wanted---ratings.
If Alex Jones convinces you that twenty children were not brutally murdered at Sandy Hook by an assault rifle then you do not have to feel guilty about not wanting them banned. You don't have to imagine that you put the right to own a weapon (that is good for nothing but murder) above the lives of innocent children.
If someone can convince you that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for Covid-19 and it is being withheld from us then you do not have to comply with CDC standards for safety. You can do what you want because you have no responsibility for the fact that millions of Americans are sick. (If you believe that to begin with.)
Believing in conspiracies also dismisses you from believing the media or scholars on the subject. You can just say something is a hoax without any concrete information to back that up. You are free to believe anything you want. You can also be comforted that you are not, in any way, to blame for anything. It's the government, it's the mainstream media, it's experts who have spent their lives studying the issue who somehow are out to get you.
So ask yourself why so-called experts are out to get you. Why have so many organizations and individuals spent years plotting just to deceive you. What is the pay-off for them? Do you actually think so many people have devoted their lives to something just to trick you?
A couple years ago a friend told me that Obama was going to take her guns away. This was after Obama was no longer president. I mentioned that he never said that and it never happened. She said, "but he was going to." She was still outraged about something that was misinformation to begin with, and something that never could happen. What a waste of emotional energy.
I often watch network news. I have never detected an effort by them to convince me of something. I understand that they choose what to air, but the facts are presented with little commentary. They are accused of being strictly liberal but they interview many conservatives and do not argue their points or rant or call them names as I've heard on Fox News. In no way are they forcing you to believe something or make an effort to scare you.
Believing in conspiracies is living in fear and this is what I told my friend when she insisted that "they" were coming to get us. I don't believe in living in fear. This friend lives in a safe area and her life has never been threatened in any way so where is she getting this fear from?
(I do realize that many Americans living in poor areas have reason to be fearful but it is not because the government is coming to "get them" or take what they have, it is because of gun violence and crime and I do not minimize that type of fear.)
Absorbing scare tactics that you hear but have no actual experience with is just living in fear. It's paranoia, it's a way out of blaming yourself for anything. It's being a victim.
