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Erfisflat

Evidence said:

MayCaesar said:

There is this common misconception about critical thinking. Some people assume that critical thinking is characterized by disagreeing with the majority. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Critical thinking is characterized by the need to verify the argument based on the existing evidence before accepting its conclusion. For example, if someone tells me that women must wear hijabs, because Allah said so, I can reasonably ask, "Wait a minute... Why does Allah saying something oblige anyone to do anything?" Instead of just accepting the conclusion ("Women must wear hijabs"), I want to see if the presented argument supports that conclusion first, and if it does not, then I do not accept the conclusion.

On the other hand, conspiracy theorists do not act this way. Conspiracy theorists ask, "What if all the evidence is falsified and the truth is hidden from us?", then build a wild theory based on nothing but their imagination, and use that theory to answer the question with "yes". A conspiracy theory is a self-serving logical fallacy. It is not a product of critical thinking; it is a product of fallacious thinking. Further on, the person believing in a conspiracy theory uses the conclusion to justify the argument and not the other way around. That is the person already knows the conclusion and agrees with it, regardless of any evidence. This is the exact opposite of critical thinking. 

I have noticed a pattern long ago: the smarter a person thinks they are, the less smart they actually are. This is because the smarter one gets, in general, the clearer they see their intellectual flaws. Conspiracy theorists tend to believe themselves much smarter than the "sheeple", and the actual level of intelligence they demonstrate in debates tends to reflect the mentioned pattern.

@MayCaesar You just explained why we need conspiracy theories; "Critical thinking". But some people assume that Conspiracy theories are characterized by disagreeing with the majority. Nothing could be further from the truth, because; conspiracy theories are characterized by critical thinking, the need to verify the argument based on the existing evidence before accepting its conclusion. For example, if someone tells us that "we landed on the moon", we can reasonably ask, "Wait a minute... Why should we believe some obviously fake film that looks like it was shot in a movie studio that claims we landed on the moon?"  Instead of just accepting the conclusion ("Yep, this film proves we landed on the moon"), We critical thinkers like @Erfisflat want to see if the presented argument supports that conclusion first, and if it does not, then we do not accept the conclusion, thus 'conspiracy theories are created'!

The sheeple can remain believing in the lies, but not us critical thinkers!

Thank you.
Flat Earthers United

My sentiments exactly. Critical thought is applying healthy skepticism and applying scrutiny on a subject. In our case we do not simply accept what we're told, we're not happy with Google results on the world around us.

crit·i·cal think·ing

noun

1. the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.