QAnon’s online presence highlights the need to increase education of critical thinking skills. In this vulnerable time, society needs the benefit of both mental health care and public discourse. From “Plandemic” to staged school shootings, conspiracy theories express a basic human need to reinforce security.
Conspiracy theories often show a need for control in a confusing world. Last year, Brielle A. Marino, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, discussed in Psychology Today the symptoms of mental diagnoses that tend to foster such beliefs. The most common symptoms, delusion and paranoia, serve a basic need to foster mental security. But, we must note that not everyone who endorses a conspiracy theory displays symptoms of a mental diagnosis.