I wish people would get over this idea that people who fall into cults or conspiracies are “dumb” or “ignorant” somehow. It’s literally a dangerous thought, a way to other them so you can feel superior. Intelligent people fall into these things. You could easily fall into them.

Aum Shinrikyo had chemists and physicists making sarin gas because a fat dork on LSD told them murder was good karma. They did it because they had been caught at the right time and led down a slow path to a point where that made a lot of sense.

Heaven’s Gate was full of teachers, former ad executives, people with successful lives. They were looking for some spiritual enlightenment and ended up through a series of increasingly strict routines and social conditioning brought to a place where they happily killed themselves

We’re social creatures, but the way we interact socially can be hijacked and perverted. We’re pattern seekers trying to make sense of chaos who can absolutely become convinced of higher meanings in random noise. No amount of intelligence frees us from this.

Saying cultists or conspiracy theorists are dumb is like saying all people who commit suicide are cowards or all poor people are lazy. You’re just describing your own insecurities at that point, not any kind of reality.