Wow. Great post! Dolphin armed with dart guns?! I had no flippin clue that was happening. Wild!

You write with such precision. I like David Coady's rebuttal. Rule breaking definitely has a cognitive cost, like with the Yale study on strategies to get the covid vaccine (before it was even available) where they found that evoking embarrassment or shame, or how non-vaccination might negatively affect one's social image, was the most effective strategy.

Also, when conspiracy theories interfere with a person's life, there's usually a sense of isolation and loneliness in that person. This is why we need more media that inspires and emphasizes the best of humanity and the greater good. And that efforts are made within these alternative communities to help revive appropriate forms of the Commons. And create a culture (within these movements) that fosters belonging and relationships, including with the general public. Without fostering the higher aspects of human nature as well as looking at the darkest aspects, we are left to make sense of the world in narrow, fearful ways. This skews our perception of things.