The Apotheosis of Apophenia: Conspiratorial Minds

[Emrys]

What links the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy to Coronavirus denial? Otto English has found a pattern…
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Apophenia

Conspiracy theories, like the history book on the shelf, have a remarkable habit of repeating themselves and those similarities can in turn spawn other theories.

Soon after Kennedy’s assassination, people began to pinpoint stark parallels between his and Lincoln’s death. Highlights included the observation that both men were elected 100 years apart, that both fought for the rights of black Americans, and both were succeeded by Vice-President Johnsons. Kennedy was assassinated while travelling in a Ford Lincoln, Lincoln was killed while seated in a theatre called Ford’s.

Many of these freak coincidences appear remarkable – until the brain is engaged. For example, much is made of the fact that both men had surnames that consist of seven letters – but then so do I, Timmy Mallett and Boris Johnson. It is a completely common occurrence, not a conspiracy.

The compendium and the theory are a classic example of apophenia – a term first coined by German neurologist and psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in 1958. Apophenia is a state in acute schizophrenia where otherwise unrelated details or random events are perceived, by the patient, to be connected. Latterly, apophenia has come to be applied to any situation in which individuals seek to find patterns where there are none. This is why people sometimes think that they see shapes in the clouds or in inanimate objects: Jesus on a piece of toast, or a smile on John Redwood’s face.

https://bylinetimes.com/2021/04/26/the-apotheosis-of-apophenia-conspiratorial-minds/

[For American readers who may, luckily for them, not know who John Redwood is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Redwood ]

[Martin68]

1. Yeah, but sometimes a coincidence is just too uncanny to ignore. Like the fact that John Adams

and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day, which just happened to be July 4th. James Monroe died July 4th a few years later. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.