Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
I just came across this thread of recommendations for "books by academics & journalists which explain, historicise & contextualise where conspiracy theories come from, who believes them & why." There's some really excellent suggestions on there.
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Barkun, Michael. A culture of conspiracy. University of California Press, 2013.
Harambam, Jaron. Contemporary conspiracy culture: Truth and knowledge in an era of epistemic instability. Routledge, 2020.
Robertson, David G. UFOs, conspiracy theories and the new age: Millennial conspiracism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
Cassam, Quassim. Conspiracy theories. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
(edited to clarify - these are a mixture of my personal favourites that are already on that rather good list (Barkun), plus two I liked that are probably too new or too British/European for that list. Plus Cassam, who was I thought my least favourite here, but seems to have sold pretty well.)
Harambam, Jaron. Contemporary conspiracy culture: Truth and knowledge in an era of epistemic instability. Routledge, 2020.
Robertson, David G. UFOs, conspiracy theories and the new age: Millennial conspiracism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
Cassam, Quassim. Conspiracy theories. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
(edited to clarify - these are a mixture of my personal favourites that are already on that rather good list (Barkun), plus two I liked that are probably too new or too British/European for that list. Plus Cassam, who was I thought my least favourite here, but seems to have sold pretty well.)
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
On a related note the YouTube algorithm has decided that my recommended video list should currently mostly consist of Flat Earth videos and Debunking Flat Earth videos.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
On the meta level though neither side ever feels the need to explain what the supposed cui bono of the other side is, unlike say AGW-denial with competing narratives of watermelon crypto-communists taking on rightwing dogmatists and fossil fuel shills. I can only assume this is because they already feel this has been done to death already.
Reading between the lines I can only assume the Flat Earthers are coming from a very odd fringe of Biblical literalists with a highly specific and eccentric reading of their translation of the Bible working on the premise that all of the Globers are cooperating in a satanic plot to undermine the Biblical worldview. The irony of course being the Round Earth theory had been proven centuries before Christ ever whittled a tent-peg and no major Christian denomination has proposed a Flat Earth in a millennium or more.
It would be interesting to see if there are any other motivations for Flat Earthers, beyond sheer bl..dy contrarianism or mind-numbing stupidity.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
On the meta level though neither side ever feels the need to explain what the supposed cui bono of the other side is, unlike say AGW-denial with competing narratives of watermelon crypto-communists taking on rightwing dogmatists and fossil fuel shills. I can only assume this is because they already feel this has been done to death already.
Reading between the lines I can only assume the Flat Earthers are coming from a very odd fringe of Biblical literalists with a highly specific and eccentric reading of their translation of the Bible working on the premise that all of the Globers are cooperating in a satanic plot to undermine the Biblical worldview. The irony of course being the Round Earth theory had been proven centuries before Christ ever whittled a tent-peg and no major Christian denomination has proposed a Flat Earth in a millennium or more.
It would be interesting to see if there are any other motivations for Flat Earthers, beyond sheer bl..dy contrarianism or mind-numbing stupidity.
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
I know there's always been flat earthers, but a few years ago I thought that the flat earth theory was coming back as an internet joke rather than a serious "theory"*, but now people seem to genuinely believe it.
Are there any examples of conspiracy theories starting out as jokes/hoaxes but then taking on a life of their own?
*ETA, by which I mean something that people take seriously, despite being as wrong as wrong can be.
Are there any examples of conspiracy theories starting out as jokes/hoaxes but then taking on a life of their own?
*ETA, by which I mean something that people take seriously, despite being as wrong as wrong can be.
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Slender Man went a bit too real very quickly.
Then there was this.
IIRC “carrots are good for night vision” is still on the go despite starting off as British disinformation in WW2 to help keep radar secret *awaits QI klaxon*
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Apparently the young earth creationists, who say that the bible is clear that the earth is 6000 years old, are condemned by flat earthers for their wishy washy interpretation of the scriptures. The bible they say takes about the heavens above and the earth belowLittle waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:05 pmOn a related note the YouTube algorithm has decided that my recommended video list should currently mostly consist of Flat Earth videos and Debunking Flat Earth videos.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
On the meta level though neither side ever feels the need to explain what the supposed cui bono of the other side is, unlike say AGW-denial with competing narratives of watermelon crypto-communists taking on rightwing dogmatists and fossil fuel shills. I can only assume this is because they already feel this has been done to death already.
Reading between the lines I can only assume the Flat Earthers are coming from a very odd fringe of Biblical literalists with a highly specific and eccentric reading of their translation of the Bible working on the premise that all of the Globers are cooperating in a satanic plot to undermine the Biblical worldview. The irony of course being the Round Earth theory had been proven centuries before Christ ever whittled a tent-peg and no major Christian denomination has proposed a Flat Earth in a millennium or more.
It would be interesting to see if there are any other motivations for Flat Earthers, beyond sheer bl..dy contrarianism or mind-numbing stupidity.
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Trinucleus wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 6:48 pmApparently the young earth creationists, who say that the bible is clear that the earth is 6000 years old, are condemned by flat earthers for their wishy washy interpretation of the scriptures. The bible they say talks about the heavens above and the earth belowLittle waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:05 pmOn a related note the YouTube algorithm has decided that my recommended video list should currently mostly consist of Flat Earth videos and Debunking Flat Earth videos.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
On the meta level though neither side ever feels the need to explain what the supposed cui bono of the other side is, unlike say AGW-denial with competing narratives of watermelon crypto-communists taking on rightwing dogmatists and fossil fuel shills. I can only assume this is because they already feel this has been done to death already.
Reading between the lines I can only assume the Flat Earthers are coming from a very odd fringe of Biblical literalists with a highly specific and eccentric reading of their translation of the Bible working on the premise that all of the Globers are cooperating in a satanic plot to undermine the Biblical worldview. The irony of course being the Round Earth theory had been proven centuries before Christ ever whittled a tent-peg and no major Christian denomination has proposed a Flat Earth in a millennium or more.
It would be interesting to see if there are any other motivations for Flat Earthers, beyond sheer bl..dy contrarianism or mind-numbing stupidity.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
On the slender man: I heard about that after the murders, but that's a ghost story gone wrong rather than a conspiracy theory. I suppose there are parallels with CT and folklore stuff though. The badgers doesn't seem to have the making it up for a laugh/satire/prove a point thing that I was thinking about, but it could well do, who knows? Carrots one: That's not really a conspiracy theory, just a common belief.Little waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:54 pmSlender Man went a bit too real very quickly.
Then there was this.
IIRC “carrots are good for night vision” is still on the go despite starting off as British disinformation in WW2 to help keep radar secret *awaits QI klaxon*
That's what I was wondering about. I've even seen That Sort of Thing in the wild, never heard of the book though.Woodchopper wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:55 pmThe Report From Iron Mountain
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/01/busi ... -item.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Repor ... n_Mountain
Thinking about it more, I bet there's quite a few books that have led to people believing bonkers stuff - Dan Brown probably influenced a good few, and I bet the Illumuatus Trilogy led to more than the KLF (I've never read either, so not my fault).
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... y-thornleyKerry Thornley and Greg Hill create Operation Mindfuck to parody conspiracy theories. They tell the world that the Illuminati are behind the chaos spreading through America in the 1960s.
The godfather of modern conspiracy theories, Jim Garrison, comes to believe that Thornley isn’t who he says he is; that really he helped kill President Kennedy, and was using Operation Mindfuck to hide that truth. In the end, Thornley even begins to doubt himself...
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Even better is the version where Australia does not exist. The British invented it so they could send ships full of criminals off the edge of the world to get rid of them. If you have ever been to Australia, you really haven't. You have instead been taken to a secret location in South America full of actors wearing thongs, hats with corks and speaking in strange accents.Little waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:05 pmOn a related note the YouTube algorithm has decided that my recommended video list should currently mostly consist of Flat Earth videos and Debunking Flat Earth videos.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
Apparently, there are people living in Australia, sorry South America, who believe this is true.
Here grows much rhubarb.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
That's quite a deep rabbit hole he found.jdc wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:01 pmhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... y-thornleyKerry Thornley and Greg Hill create Operation Mindfuck to parody conspiracy theories. They tell the world that the Illuminati are behind the chaos spreading through America in the 1960s.
The godfather of modern conspiracy theories, Jim Garrison, comes to believe that Thornley isn’t who he says he is; that really he helped kill President Kennedy, and was using Operation Mindfuck to hide that truth. In the end, Thornley even begins to doubt himself...
I'm afraid to say I watched that and didn't remember that bit. I mostly remember being a bit confused about what the point was for a lot of it and the story about Mao's Wife. I listened to the soundtrack for a bit after too.
When I go to the wiki for Operation Mindfuck, it redirects to the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, what I mentioned earlier. I guess it did influence more than the KLF.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
I think QI claimed it was a sort of double bluff. The British government put out the idea that carrots were good for night vision, knowing that the Germans would hear about it and possibly believe that radar didn't exist. But Britain also knew that the Germans were working on radar and making rudimentary radar small enough to fit in planes (from equipment found in downed German planes). So while the radar thing was a bit of a story with some chance of distracting the Germans, the main aim was to get the British public eating carrots, which were easy and cheap to grow and helped feed an island population.monkey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:18 pmCarrots one: That's not really a conspiracy theory, just a common belief.Little waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:54 pm
IIRC “carrots are good for night vision” is still on the go despite starting off as British disinformation in WW2 to help keep radar secret *awaits QI klaxon*
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Article here states that it was intended to encourage British people to eat more carrots. https://www.livescience.com/carrots-see ... -dark.htmlMartin_B wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 12:18 amI think QI claimed it was a sort of double bluff. The British government put out the idea that carrots were good for night vision, knowing that the Germans would hear about it and possibly believe that radar didn't exist. But Britain also knew that the Germans were working on radar and making rudimentary radar small enough to fit in planes (from equipment found in downed German planes). So while the radar thing was a bit of a story with some chance of distracting the Germans, the main aim was to get the British public eating carrots, which were easy and cheap to grow and helped feed an island population.monkey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:18 pmCarrots one: That's not really a conspiracy theory, just a common belief.Little waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:54 pm
IIRC “carrots are good for night vision” is still on the go despite starting off as British disinformation in WW2 to help keep radar secret *awaits QI klaxon*
That makes sense as German science was pretty good and I doubt that they would have been taken in.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
If you want to see a conspiracy theorist facebook group before it goes private:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2250137 ... ?ref=share
Lots of Nazis in there including a seemingly real post about the nice people at Combat 18
And completely stupid prepper ideas.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2250137 ... ?ref=share
Lots of Nazis in there including a seemingly real post about the nice people at Combat 18
And completely stupid prepper ideas.
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
There is a lot of money being made through merch and subscriptions and a few people are making f.ck tons.Little waster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:05 pmOn a related note the YouTube algorithm has decided that my recommended video list should currently mostly consist of Flat Earth videos and Debunking Flat Earth videos.
That’s one hell of a rabbit hole to go down. The sheer scope of the conspiracy required to keep a lid on the truth on Flat Earth beggars belief, primarily because virtually every aspect of science and everyday living has to have been deliberately and continually subverted to allow a Flat Earth to exist and even something as straightforward as the Seasons even existing and being different in different parts of the not-Globe requires a PhD thesis and a 3 hour video while I can teach a bright 7 year old how sol-centric seasons work in 5 minutes with no more than a torch and a globe. Essentially for the conspiracy to work about 80% of the population would need to be in on it.
On the meta level though neither side ever feels the need to explain what the supposed cui bono of the other side is, unlike say AGW-denial with competing narratives of watermelon crypto-communists taking on rightwing dogmatists and fossil fuel shills. I can only assume this is because they already feel this has been done to death already.
Reading between the lines I can only assume the Flat Earthers are coming from a very odd fringe of Biblical literalists with a highly specific and eccentric reading of their translation of the Bible working on the premise that all of the Globers are cooperating in a satanic plot to undermine the Biblical worldview. The irony of course being the Round Earth theory had been proven centuries before Christ ever whittled a tent-peg and no major Christian denomination has proposed a Flat Earth in a millennium or more.
It would be interesting to see if there are any other motivations for Flat Earthers, beyond sheer bl..dy contrarianism or mind-numbing stupidity.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
And there'll be tens to hundreds times more who think they are making money, and will be making tons of money from merch any day now, but who are really working well below minimum wage.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Some time ago I watched thedocumentary Behind the Curve imdb Page
and a lot of those people are in it for the money and I don't think some of them even believe it themselves. The red headed lady in particular reall shone out as just bilking stupid people.
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Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
IIRC at one point she was condemned by other flat earth ears because her name is PatriCIA and therefore she is a plant working for the CIA and the Illuminati or some such. Why yes I have watched a lot of Conspiracy Catz and Scimandan videos why do you ask?
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
The grand parent of them all is surely the Protocols of The Elders of Zion. Deliberately fabricated anti Jewish conspiracy created by the Tsarist police. Many millions taken in over a century since it was was drafted. More propaganda than hoax though.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
The US seems a good place to find conspiracy theories, it looks like the anarchist pranksters were reviving an older USian conspiracy theory from way back when:
And conspiracy theorists becoming victims of conspiracy theories:
And something that has a shortlist of some of the US's favourite CTs over time:
https://time.com/5892376/early-american ... cy-theory/In the late 1790s, Jedidiah Morse, the congregational minister in Charlestown, Mass., and a well-known author of geography textbooks, drew national attention by suggesting that a secret organization called the Bavarian Illuminati was at work “to root out and abolish Christianity, and overturn all civil government.”
And conspiracy theorists becoming victims of conspiracy theories:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 180971940/In the run-up to the 1832 election, the national organization of Freemasonry drew conspiracy theorists’ attention. Spurred on by the murder of a New York Mason named William Morgan, who had threatened to disclose the fraternal order’s secrets, an Anti-Masonic political party had emerged during the 1828 election. [...] During the 1832 campaign, they accused Freemasons of a number of transgressions beyond Morgan’s murder, including subversion of free speech and democracy. [...] But in that same election of 1832, Anti-Masons themselves became the target of conspiracy theorists. New York Democrats saw a plot afoot in the coalition of the Anti-Masonic Party and the National Republicans in their state.
And something that has a shortlist of some of the US's favourite CTs over time:
https://oxford.universitypressscholarsh ... chapter-19Although many Americans believe that conspiratorial thinking is reaching new heights in the twenty-first century, conspiracy theories have been commonplace throughout U.S. history. In the colonial and early republic eras, Americans feared that Catholics, Jews, Masons, Indians, and African Americans were plotting against them. In the nineteenth century they added international bankers, rich businessmen, and Mormons to the list of potential conspirators. In the twentieth century, conspiracy theories continued to evolve, and many Americans began to suspect the U.S. government itself of plotting against them. These theories gained more credibility after the revelation of real government conspiracies, notably CIA assassination plots, the Watergate scandal, and the Iran–-Contra affair.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
In terms of age or influence? May be a decent shout if you mean the latter. In terms of age, it's nowt but a pup though.
There's the mediaeval Blood Libel and the 17th century Popish Plot on the religious bigotry theme and these two classics on the theme of mysterious deaths (although even here, there's a mention of an antisemitic CT):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... ppearancesIn ancient times, widespread conspiracy theories were circulated pertaining to the death of the Roman emperor Nero, who committed suicide in 68 AD. Some of these theories claimed that Nero had actually faked his death and was secretly still alive, but in hiding, plotting to return and reestablish his reign. In most of these stories, he was said to have fled to the East, where he was still loved and admired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_ ... e_of_deathAn early rumor was that Mozart had been poisoned by his colleague Antonio Salieri. However, this has been proven to be untrue because the symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness are not indicative of poisoning. Despite denying the allegation, Salieri was greatly affected by the accusations and widespread public belief that he had contributed to Mozart's death, which contributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life. Beyond the Salieri theory, other theories involving murder by poison have been put forth, blaming the Masons, Jews, or both.
I haven't refreshed my memory of this thread so apologies if these have all come up already. Still, even if they have maybe your memory's as bad as mine and you'll not notice any repeats.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
You can probably also count some of the "witches in league with the devil" and "people who fly with elves and kill cattle with elfshot" as conspiracy theory adjacent, even if the head of the conspiracy isn't human, or real.jdc wrote: ↑Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:11 pmIn terms of age or influence? May be a decent shout if you mean the latter. In terms of age, it's nowt but a pup though.
There's the mediaeval Blood Libel and the 17th century Popish Plot on the religious bigotry theme and these two classics on the theme of mysterious deaths (although even here, there's a mention of an antisemitic CT):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... ppearancesIn ancient times, widespread conspiracy theories were circulated pertaining to the death of the Roman emperor Nero, who committed suicide in 68 AD. Some of these theories claimed that Nero had actually faked his death and was secretly still alive, but in hiding, plotting to return and reestablish his reign. In most of these stories, he was said to have fled to the East, where he was still loved and admired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_ ... e_of_deathAn early rumor was that Mozart had been poisoned by his colleague Antonio Salieri. However, this has been proven to be untrue because the symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness are not indicative of poisoning. Despite denying the allegation, Salieri was greatly affected by the accusations and widespread public belief that he had contributed to Mozart's death, which contributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life. Beyond the Salieri theory, other theories involving murder by poison have been put forth, blaming the Masons, Jews, or both.
I haven't refreshed my memory of this thread so apologies if these have all come up already. Still, even if they have maybe your memory's as bad as mine and you'll not notice any repeats.
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Does the theory that Shakespeare didn't exist/didn't write the plays, etc, count as a conspiracy theory? There are theories that all of Shakespeare's plays were written by Marlowe (apparently to keep his cover as a spy, but wouldn't being a writer be a better cover?) or a nobleman (possibly Edward De Vere, because writing plays for the common man wasn't seen as something a nobleman would do) or a mixture of different people who all had their works attributed to Shakespeare (some form of early Alan Smithee).jdc wrote: ↑Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:11 pmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_ ... e_of_deathAn early rumor was that Mozart had been poisoned by his colleague Antonio Salieri. However, this has been proven to be untrue because the symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness are not indicative of poisoning. Despite denying the allegation, Salieri was greatly affected by the accusations and widespread public belief that he had contributed to Mozart's death, which contributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life. Beyond the Salieri theory, other theories involving murder by poison have been put forth, blaming the Masons, Jews, or both.
I haven't refreshed my memory of this thread so apologies if these have all come up already. Still, even if they have maybe your memory's as bad as mine and you'll not notice any repeats.
"My interest is in the future, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there"
Re: Conspiracy Theories - A reading list
Un-Shakespeare isnt a conspiracy theory because it has no consequences - it explains nothing else.