Where are they?
While most of the traditional 'conspiracy theories' have turned out to be perfectly true and even worse than the schizies imagined, the Martian style is still unproven. I'm waiting.

Convective thought.

Martian believers have been around for a long time, but until ~30 years ago they were remarkably functional. Now they go around shooting people.

Thinking back to the 40s and 50s, among my distant relatives and among the parents of friends, I can count four women who were solidly outside of reality. One was a classic Martianist, all were schizy. These four women were NOT in institutions. They functioned as mothers and wives, with some help from husbands and kids. In fact their kids ended up stronger and saner than most because they had to take real responsibility early in life.

What's the difference? Why so many functional Martianists 50 years ago and so many terrorist Martianists now? Where are the moderate Martianists?

Gone to Haldol every one. Modern psychotropic drugs. Once you get on them, you can't get off; and if you miss a dose, everything runs wild. The bounceback effect.

In objective terms the Martian belief system is no different from the Christian or Dawkins belief systems. Each system attributes a single cause to phenomena that aren't immediately obvious, and each system builds a ladder of logic to connect the single cause to everything else. It's Martians all the way down, or it's Jesus all the way down, or it's Random Evolution all the way down.

Martians and Jesus and Random are equally** nonexistent, but we give wildly divergent status to their believers. Martianists end up in institutions, Christians end up unemployed and suicidal, and Dawkinsians end up in charge of everyone else.

= = = = =

**Well, it's unfair to say 'equally'. Martians haven't been observed yet, but as we learn more about Mars through the rovers we grow more certain that Mars contains some form of life. Jesus was an actual man but the current ghostly version of him is unobserved and unlikely. Random is TOTALLY DISPROVED NONSENSE, therefore its believers have the highest power and status.
  ¶ 5:55 PM