Addiction to Self-Righteousness via Conspiracy Theories and Propaganda

In many years[1], I'm completely convinced that the current time period be recognized for the onset of a new psychological disorder (circa DSM X[2]), which I'm tentatively calling "Addiction to Self-Righteousness via Conspiracy Theories and Propaganda" (ASR-CTP), in which the following characteristics/behavior are observed:

1. Copious consumption of news from influencers and entertainers, i.e.: sources that never admit they're wrong, and never print a retraction, nor are beholden to any sort of ethical/moral guidelines to present information that resembles reality in any way, nor are held accountable at any point even when they're wildly incorrect.
2. Your self-assuredness [in a false claim] actually increases when presented with evidence to the contrary.
3. Cognitive sleight of hand when presented with evidence that's contrary to a belief, as a way to avoid facing/acknowledging the reality of a verifiable fact (e.g.: "But what about ____?").
4. The delusion that "Only a select few people understand this [truth], and I'm one of them"[3].
5. The delusion that your media sources are not lying to you (but everyone else's media sources are lying to them).
6. The delusion that you're simply unable to be mislead (and that everyone else is).
7. The delusion that you can know enough about a subject that you're quickly confident that you know "The Truth" about it, e.g.: (a) "Climate change is not caused by humans" (read: you're a climate scientist). (b) "Covid is fake" (read: you're an epidemiologist). (c) "Tariffs are paid by the exporting countries" (read: you're an economist). (d) "Vaccines don't work" (read: you're a doctor and an epidemiologist). (e) "Medicaid isn't being cut" (read: like you even read the fucking bill you phoney).
8. The dismissal of your own claims that fail to materialize ("", "", "", etc ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
9. The audacity to dismiss scientists (et al other specialists) via unsubstantiated claims similar to "", "", "", "", (etc).
10. The dismissal of previous evidence that your news sources were wrong, and therefore you should be wary of trusting them now. (i.e.: remember when "Everyone who gets the COVID vaccine will be dead in 18 months"? If you believe them at the time, that's fine, but now you're obligated to dismiss them as a source that's wildly misleading when they make claims in the present).
11. The inability to admit you're wrong, ever, about anything.
12. The lording over those around you that they are all wrong, and that you're the only one who is correct[4].
13. The addiction to the self-righteousness that accompanies statements like "" / "".
14. The tendency to rewrite history to suit your current requirements ("")
15. Taking whatever you're unwilling to admit you're doing and accusing others of doing it,. e.g.: "" (when you yourself are lying), "" (when you yourself are ignoring evidence), "" (while you yourself could do with a healthy dose of reality).
16. The making of un-wise, harmful, and sometimes ruinous/fatal personal medical decisions based on advice / guidance from non-medical professionals. E.g.: skipping the measles vaccine because RFK Jr. told you "". E.g.: Every child's death from measles after their parents refused to vaccinate their child wit the MMR vaccine. Same with 10s of thousands of lives that could have been saved during Covid if people had simply taken the vaccine.

It will be classified as an addiction, because once you begin, you just get deeper and deeper, building ever more delicate, complex, and fragile systems of rationalization in an attempt to convince yourself of your own version of the truth, even while the behavior is harming both yourself and your primary relationships.

Here are some of the symptoms of addiction, tailored for disinformation paranoia:

• Having intense urges to consume conspiracy theory-based information.
• Gradually needing more, and more complex, conspiracy theories to maintain your sense of self-righteousness superiority.
• Inability to maintain family and work relationships due to confrontations about conspiracy theories.
• Avoiding social occasions or skipping recreational activities (to avoid confrontations about conspiracy theories).
• Continuing to consume propaganda even though it's causing you problems in your life and relationships, as well as medical problems, some of them profound, some of them resulting in [early death.

If you've ever begun a non-sequitur with one of the following phrases:

• "But what about Hunter Biden's laptop?"
• "It's all part of the globalists plan for a singular world order."
• "Those protestors were all paid actors."

Among the co-morbidities for this psychological disorder will be:

1. Past trauma, unacknowledged and unprocessed (PTSD, CPTSD, loss of a child, etc).
2. Neurodiversity: Asperger's, ASD, etc.
3. A lack of adequate social support and/or familial support, leading to a general sense of "loss of [larger] purpose".
4. Addiction to anger/rage.
5. Any active substance use disorder.

In other words, certain people are actually predisposed to believing in conspiracy theories. My observation is that the angriest people I know are the most susceptible. My list of co-morbidities will turn out to be woefully incomplete; I'm only listing the obvious ones.

The foundational purpose of this disorder is an attempt to find meaning in a larger narrative... likely one that transcends you own life. You'll "hitch your wagon" to a larger cause, one that makes you think your life suddenly has meaning, and purpose. That's why one of the co-morbidities is a lack of adequate social support. It's also why it's so profoundly difficult for someone to realize the terrible consequences of this disorder: if you admit you're wrong you'll lose the [perceived] meaning you've brought to your life and it will once again become meaningless[5]

I think what's most troubling to me personally, is that (a) this really is a psychological disorder and (b) it's playing out among our friends, relatives, and in the political realm. I used to feel much more free to say, in jest, things like "Well, there are people who truly believe 9-11 was an inside job" until I found out just how many people believe this to be true. It's no longer a joke, and if you say something similar, be prepared to be surprised by both (a) that someone you know is "a truther" and (b) that they believe their truth vehemently, passionately, and will simply not be dissuaded otherwise.

The rest of us are losing friends, and no longer speaking with family members, due to the incredibly fraught ideas of reality. What's real these days?

• Are there really Jewish Space lasers?
• Does 5G control your mind?
• Are Democrats controlling the weather?
• Was 9-11 an inside job?
• Do vaccines cause autism?

And in the meantime, friends are being lost, and families torn apart, over our [collective] inability to believe in the same shared understanding of what's real.

And on a global stage, US legislators are proposing legislature based on conspiracy theories[6][7], and the head of HHS has a long history of promoting conspiracy theories[8]. It's difficult to get your head around the idea that public policy, and possibly global policy, might be based on a lie or a set of lies. Socially, conspiracy theories dominate huge swarths of social media[10] and there are countless examples of people outing themselves as proud flat-Earthers[11], or fascists / Nazi sympathizers[12].

And underlying it all is an as-yet-undiagnosed psychological disorder, which we're currently so steeped in we can't even see that it's there, so it'll take at least a generation to diagnose it.

It's worth viewing the documentary Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality, if you're interested in this sort of thing. Additionally, the book Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy is worth reading in it's entirety. Lastly, also worth a read in it's entirety is the essay: A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths.