AluminumTheory
Senior Member.
I know Mick has expressed some desire to come up with a better terminology for CTs as alot of them find the term derogatory. I suspect this is more due to the negative connotation that many have associated with the term. And to be frank, I don't think that is wholly unfair. I personally never found the term offensive when I was a CT, I'm not the type of person who cares about what other think to a great extent and I'm always willing to defend my arguments regardless of what names I might be called. In some ways I personally found it rather silly to be offended by the term. If you apply the label based on the strictest interpenetration of the term than we're all conspiracy theorist if we believe in any conspiracy regardless of whether or not it is based on evidence.
TBH, I don't think that "Alternative Thinker" is perfect by any means. I think of myself as an "alternative thinker" in the sense that I like to think outside the box and I often don't see things the way the rest of the world does. An alternative thinker could define lots and lots of people that have nothing to do with conspiracy theories. Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Nikola Tesla, Adolf Hitler, Charlie Sheen, Ayn Rand, and many many others could be defined as such.
I don't know it's any real use other than to pacify the Glenn Beck types who think they can tip toe the line of purporting conspiracy theories but claim that they are not conspiracy theorists.
TBH, I don't think that "Alternative Thinker" is perfect by any means. I think of myself as an "alternative thinker" in the sense that I like to think outside the box and I often don't see things the way the rest of the world does. An alternative thinker could define lots and lots of people that have nothing to do with conspiracy theories. Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Nikola Tesla, Adolf Hitler, Charlie Sheen, Ayn Rand, and many many others could be defined as such.
I don't know it's any real use other than to pacify the Glenn Beck types who think they can tip toe the line of purporting conspiracy theories but claim that they are not conspiracy theorists.