Why conspiracy theories are rational to believe 

I'm usually against the death penalty, but in the case of this audio guy, i'm willing to make an exception.

This is exactly the kind of video the lizard people would upload.

Whoever did the audio for this video should be indicted on charges

fucking clean up your audio. I don't want to listen to clothes rustling

Was this broadcasted via AM radio?

I can't with those jeans.

Who on earth directed this? The framing was awkward, the camera movement jarring and the blocking of the two subjects was bizarre, to say the least. Was this some sort of a poor attempt to put the audience off balance with the topic?

How to avoid conspiracy theories: 1) Thoroughly learn how the system in question works or is said to work. 2) Weigh all arguments and counterarguments objectively and without favoritism toward one or the other. 3) Actively look for contradictions and counterarguments in all things, especially the things you believe in. 4) Once a contradiction is spotted, humbly and objectively look for an explanation without making assumptions. If a consistent explanation is not found, then at least one thing is inaccurate. 5) Beware of buzz words such as "exposed" and "cover up." Frankly, if the claim is either too good to be true or too horrible to be believed, it likely isn't and needs to be fact checked.

Believing in all conspiracy theories is as stupid as not believing in any. Usually reallity resides in the middle of extremes.

The audio is god awful.

Only 11% believe the 9/11 conspiracy? I'm surprised.

Damn Vox you're microphone sucks.

who the hell this kid think he is wearing blue jeans like this

Why is climate change considered so unbelievable?

it is so frustrating to argue with a conspiracy theorist, since everything you say, every proof you show is just part of the conspiracy... once you become a conspiracy theorist it's hard to come out

This was pretty dismissive of conspiracies. There seems to be a trend to label all conspiracy theories as crazy. Should we all assume no one ever conspires to commit crimes? Should we all accept what the media says at face value? I prefer the truth over a comfortable world view.

Why is everyone complaining about the quality?

lmfao this audio is way overcompressed pls sort yerself out its so distracting... hell interesting content tho tbo 👌👌

the audio was kinda muffy anyone else experienced this?

This video has 911 likes right now

"Humans just lead short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control." -pearl

The sneeze at 0:42 killed me 😂😂

A show like this should really be just a podcast.

The composition of these shots makes me suicidal. Have them actually face each other and switch to over the shoulder shots. this way we won't be looking at 50% of their faces and they won't have a crick in their necks. The whole point of making their bodies face the camera is to give the illusion of inclusion to the viewers, but I ironically feel unincluded because all I see is the side of thier faces.

Interesting to watch this in August 2020, and see that Sunstein was hopefull that the situation back then, in 2014, was temporary and would get better, and realize that it's 10 times worse now.

Cass Sunstein is with the lizard people.

Conspiracy theories, at least ones questioning existing things (such as 9/11, not aliens) don't seem too far out in left field for me. A global history of the victors of conflicts writing the history of those conflicts, state preservation, and many other factors provide incentive to entertain possibilities. The level of coincidences that made 9/11 possible should be a college course in and of its self. And the fact that the TSA has not caught a single terrorist yet still gains massive funding and is given the ability to destroy the 4th amendment rights of the people should also be something warranting investigation. If you want people to stop questioning science, stop politicizing it for your own goals of getting elected. I would think that would be obvious to any sane individual, but apparently most career politicians aren't sane. If the debate on global warming was framed in the context of, your children's children will have a harder life if we don't take steps to reduce our impact on our atmosphere, you'd see different reactions. Instead they come up with carbon taxes, carbon credit trading, exemptions, subsidies, and on and on and on. They have now taken a very real and serious problem and hijacked it to serve their political goals, which is beyond disgusting. But for the love of god please stop saying that you want to "save the planet." The planet would still be here if we turned the atmosphere into pure arsine gas, had the surface catch on fire, and burn every rock into a molten wad of death.

Simple. Confirmation bias.

Jeans and a tuxedo jacket...

Who let the intern handle the audio?

This is rather depressing to watch in 2018 knowing it was filmed about 4 years before what we are dealing with now. Yikes Batman.

Vox is like the non-crazy version of Vice

Whoever popped a soda can at 6:56 is going to hell.

is it me or did they get off the topic?

Looks like two guys with the same views coming to an even deeper consensus. This interview is almost like a parody of itself from that standpoint. Definitely two very well educated and well spoken individuals. Glad Vox is out there starting conversations like this.

Anyone else hear something up with the sound?

next time a conspiracy theorist tries to tell you "what really happened," present a more outlandish theory and accuse them of covering up the truth.

WHO ALWAYS seems to BENEFIT and WHO aren't you allowed to criticize. A clue, they wear small hats!!

Adrenochrome. There's a topic to research.

I don’t understand how “needing somewhere to put the blame” would be a reason to start a theory. I mean 99% of the time there is a perfectly “logical” explanation. It just happens that some people see loop holes, or however you’d like to put it

I uploaded a video recently on Moon landing denial. Evidence and ridicule is all you need! 😂

Y'all were talking about an interesting topic: Conspiracy theories. Then the conversation switches to political decision making wtf.

Coming back to this for the 5G conspiracy theories

Because we know awful horrible people do awful horrible things.

great video, but I don't like the title.

Recent paper on climate change denial comes to a similar conclusion. "Climate science denial is therefore perhaps best understood as a rational activity that replaces a coherent body of science with an incoherent and conspiracist body of pseudo-science for political reasons and with considerable political coherence and effectiveness."

"A conspiracy theory is a belief that important information is being covered up by people in power." How is that not applicable to the standard operating procedure of, not only both political parties, but of most government functions in general? Not simply the continued coordinated efforts by most politicians and government agencies, whether state, local, or federal, but the entire prevailing culture of, if not secrecy, at least obstruction of information and accountability.

I tell people all of the time, "Diversity of thought at the table creates the best product." Too many times groups/organizations do not want diversity of thought, which scares me...

Next time, PLEASE get a more competent sound engineer! Still a very interesting interview.

The basic problem with a conspiracy theorists mindset is that it's not cynical enough. They are rarely cynical about their own cynicism and often don't analyse how the psychology of conspiracy theories actually work. In essence it's ironically quite naive to be into conspiracy theories.

Also the title is misleading as hell. It should be like "Conspiracies and their effect on politics." Or something more pertaining to the actual conversation.

this guy is very different, look at his hands not the tone of voice.

I love this idea of making balance a requirement, its why having friends with differing opinions is important

Conspiracy FACT not THEORY

Could probably consider religions to be conspiracy theories. . .

Cool video, but this conversation is about why people believe in conspiracy theories, not if belief is rational. Sunstein points out how it can be irrational - the evidence that some hold beliefs in multiple conspiracy theories that are contradictory.

Maybe a 4th reason for conspiracy theories is because such theories have been revealed as truths so many times in the past?

I'm a conspiracy researcher. Find your own truth. Be a critical thinker. Follow your heart. In God we trust, all others bring data.

It's as if conspiracy theorists want people to live in fear.

This guy reminds me of Kevin from The Office just thinner and smarter....

It's necessary to do an updated second part of this interview analysing current political situation in the US. Reality sometimes destroy optimism, naivety won't save us from what is going to happen soon, a dark time is coming, all information that can gives society a hint or clue of how to keep critic and reflexive even in complex and passionate situation is absolutely necessary now.Thanks for variety of content, you have interesting stuff here. By the way, the audio of this one is really awful.

Call me dumb, I'm lost in the conversation.

this sounds like religion to me...

man... at first i "kinda got what he meant" but than he started to loosing me. after I've seen the whole video, i downloaded the paper he is talkin about and read just a few pages (will finish it later though) i decided to google him so i clicked on wikipedia link. i agree that wikipedia is far from the most reliable source, but it is still help full to do really basic "pre" research to "get the main idea" and... well, just check the results - search the Harvard lawyer on wikipedia!

i wish i could ask this guy, what he makes of conspiracy theories that turn out to be true. to be sure there are not many of them, but there are some.

Great video, but it seems like the videographer just purchased a slide and really really wanted to play with the new toy. Hah I'm getting motion sickness just from the constant in and out shots!

I feel like 80% of this was about politics and had nothing to do with conspiracy theories.

Did Ezra Klein retreat to a bunker? Audio very obviously was transferred via short wave, the setting is in a small concrete structure. In the background there is the kind of outdated technology you see in bunkers.

Love it or hate it Wikileaks was never ever wrong once lol

The problem with the audio is that they tried to over edit it, there must have been an unwanted background noise and they tried to remove it and so it goes silent every time they aren't speaking.

That camera man was really so thirsty that he couldnt wait until between takes to open that soda can? lol

What's wrong with the sound in this video? There's hella background noise and the conversation is obviously chopped up and put back together.

suit top+tie+jeans? sort it out mate.

there is no conspiracies!!! never has been!!

Please clean up the audio & re-post.

13:31 listen to the arrogance in his voice as he says "...status quo bias". They argue that people just reinforce their own biases by presenting a video with two guys agreeing with each other. The title of the video is also misleading, they barely touch on the topic.

I can't stop looking at the dude on the right's stain on his collar.

I could have gotten better audio recording from a Nintendo DS Lite

I know it sucks but you should have just redone the interview or scrapped it when you noticed the audio came out this way. shouldn't put out inferior quality videos

the 9/11 theory is actually not that weird if you take your time and think about how 2 aeroplanes took down 3 buildings

Well I'm watching this in 2022 and I can pretty much say a decade later they predicted a lot of the conspiracy theories that were talked about on this program

Technocracy all the way. It wouldn't work as a system without politicians, but I definitely think more respect should be given to the Civil Service.

Jeans. All I see is jeans.

But jet fuel can't melt steel beams

Yeah if top government weren't so shady, people wouldn't freak out so much.

Was there a vietnamese attack on U.S. destroyers in the gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964?

Shane dawson left the chat

Fire the camera man. The cropping and shot movements are painful to watch.

How bout leaked top secret documents, whistle blowers and just common sense.

That little piece of fuzz on that guys collar bugs me.

A pitiful attempt at wizardry

I would love to see what this man has to say about the present day.

Watched 30 seconds and left do to bad recording.

All these people complaining about the audio...spoiled much?

If conspiracies are theories than YR physics theories not conspiracies ?

I thought I was going nuts. I'm glad I wasn't the only one to be so affected by the audio.

They got sooooo off topic

Did your interns film this?

*2014:* "I feel a little more optimistic." *Two years later:* That statement didn't age well.

Conspiracy Theories are pointless. Even if you are right, what are you going to do about it?