It feels like topics I used to only see on r/conspiracy—like Epstein and the deep state—are now all over mainstream subreddits. The US is doing what it always has done, only now the pretexts are weaker than ever. Did things really have to get this obvious before people finally realized that western governments only care about what’s best for the oligarchy?

So back when Snowden told everyone that the u.s government had mass surveillance on the people there wasn’t very much outrage. And I remember a discussion on reddit I posted. I asked if because this idea of “the government is spying on me” has long been associated with cooky crazy paranoid people, that when we learned it actually was all true, that we still were reluctant to engage with it because of its ties to being a paranoid crazy person. A few people commented but not much could be determined because there is no research on this. But I speculated that people are apprehensive about engaging in proven conspiracy theories because of the association of other personality traits that are less socially acceptable. They will only engage with the topic once it has become socially acceptable to do so. What are your thoughts on this ?