The problem is governments do lie. A lot. That is where conspiracy theory comes handy. I cannot 100% blame them. Humans are naturally paranoid and suspicious creatures, drawn into drama. Some of those inspire greater discoveries and understanding of the world like aliens and the pyramids. I can understand those. I humor the ideas myself. I can even get questioning history. It's just the ones that a rational person would find ridiculous like flat earth and GSM towers being used for infecting viruses.
World views are important for mental health. They are the heuristic through which we make sense of life. As long as you have one, and it works well enough, you're pretty much good. If your world view is challenged by objective reality that can be scary, because on the other side is existential dread. It is easier, safer, and more comforting to deny reality and patch that hole in your worldview than to face the unknown. To plunge the depths of fear, and come out the other side, having created a new world view. Most don’t even believe it possible, so they never try.
Because the false belief in knowing more than others offers a greater sense of security and esteem than knowing the truth. Conspiracy theories must be evaluated on an individual basis. Around that time the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened. Some people were convinced that a plane really didn't hit the Pentagon but rather it was a missile. That can be a learning experience for everyone, as you made an ass out of yourself telling people that was true. What can happen to some people is they believe everything that happens is a conspiracy. Once that happens they can fall prey to conspiracy cult leaders who attract weak minded people who are searching for some sort of meaning in their empty lives, I guess.
There's been cases where kids who were safe living in this country went onto Islamic extremist websites and believed what they read. Those kids went over to the Middle East to fight with the terrorists and they got themselves blown off, or being raped into ISIS sex slave. Those kids get into the mind set that nothing they hear on the news is true.
If you believe governments and corporations over your fellow man / citizens / the people, you've got problems. If you attack your fellow man, while defending governments or corporations, you are just responding to reactive triggers placed in your mind to cause division and distract others from the truth. Most of us have internet access 24/7, just about everywhere we go. It's easy to forget that this is a fairly new thing. It was not at all long ago that people's worldviews came from libraries, newspapers, and whatever the evening news wanted to tell us. Now, we have been given the ability to peak behind the curtain, a bit, and I think many people were shocked to find out that—wait for it—the government doesn't tell us everything. Now, we've got a world full of people that feel deceived, leaving them in prime form to believe all of these conspiracy theories. Most of these outrageous, unsubstantiated ideas do have bits of truth, throughout. Just like anything, when a kernel of truth gets thrown around in the crowd, it gets twisted and warped along the way, and it snowballs into a final product; conspiracy. I really think that this wave of people that are willing to believe unbelievable ideas is a phase. Once we progress to where the majority of people were raised in the age of information being easily available, I think the conspiracy theories will die down.
A normal human perception of reality is based on narratives in general. No normal human being analyses every action that they do. So all of us have myths of some sort that we tell ourselves. The reason for this is that logically thinking takes a lot of energy. You don't question everyday whether your mum loves you or not. You know she does. That's the end of it. It's kinda impossible to apply logic everywhere since you'll get a headache if you try. So these narratives make life easier by reminding us of facts that we know. Things you believe may stem from logic but once in your head it becomes a narrative.
Now some of these narratives are very important to our identity as a rational person. Belief in God, belief in our partners love for us, belief in our self-worth and part in our society are fundamental beliefs for a human. To change these one needs to go through a lot of effort and pain. Kinda like a break up. Therefore people avoid it.
Of course if you educate yourself you will shed a lot of the irrational beliefs taught to you by society. Things that lay people believe to make life easy. But some of it always stays. It stays because it's easy and because we are human.
