Gary Weiss Quotes

People love conspiracy theories.

You might not believe me, but I really don't like conspiracy theories.

Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories.

Counter-knowledge covers the propagation of false legends and conspiracy theories often used for political purposes or fundamentalist religious propaganda.

For all of its well-deserved reputation for pragmatism, American popular culture frequently nurtures or at least tolerates preposterous views and theories. Witness the 9/11 'truthers' who, lacking any evidence whatsoever, claim that 9/11 was a Bush administration plot.

We tend to believe our own propaganda a little too completely.

I do not believe in conspiracy theories.

There can be a conspiracy, but the presence of a conspiracy is actually not an excuse for conspiracy thinking.

We have Internet now and people are not stupid. But it seems that some people are trying to push the same agenda of the Cold War of conspiracy theories and amazing achievements that are very easily traced and validated.

Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labor-saving device in the face of complexity.

We have a tendency to think everyone's idiotic and everyone's only doing something idiotic, and the world is controlled by a not-so-secret group of morons. There's great truth in that, I suppose, but then it's also not true.

I guess the issue that I have with all the news organizations that have a political MO, if you will, attached to them is that they sometimes jump to conclusions about what this will mean. Get ahead of themselves.

There's so many lies being told throughout the media and people just run with the lies. They're numb to it. Too many followers, not enough leaders.

Fact-checking can wreak havoc on Chinese political mythology.

I love conspiracy theories. I used to just live on it. You know it's all hype and garbage, but you're still really paranoid afterwards. It's fun entertainment.

Have you ever seen Glenn Beck in operation? It is the most terrifying thing. It's so bad that you think he's going to announce in a minute that it's all a great con. He makes Sarah Palin look reasonable and steady.

I have no doubt that what we started has become a plague. Because - and that's a million years ago but we got caught up in the drama more than we caught up in going after the facts.

On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of our lives. We relax so totally that people believe the most ludicrous propositions, and are willing to organize their lives around them.

If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

When you're in the middle of a rumor storm, your two choices are not very good .... And there are some Americans who will believe that where there's smoke there's fire.

Even intelligent people succumb to their own propaganda.

Conspiracy theories are beliefs unencumbered by facts.

Useless, a superficial mindless recitation of what we know from the daily press.

Iran as the birthplace of conspiracy theories. [However] We are not the only place where there are conspiracy theories; the United States has Conspiracy Theories as well.