Conspiracy Theories
Everyone knows all about conspiracy theories, but what exactly are they? Their gossip about unexplained events made by the populace. The Oxford English Dictionary defines conspiracy theory as ‘the theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between parties. It is literally an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful actors, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable, which I think everyone has during the election last month.
Conspiracy theories resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and an absence of evidence for it are re-interpreted as evidence of its truth…whereby the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than something that can be proved or disproved. Conspiracy theories once limited to fringe audiences have become commonplace in mass media, emerging as a cultural phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, like the Apollo moon landings were filmed on a sound stage in Arizona; Area 51 is home to the advanced technology of advanced origin (U.F.O); and elections are rigged, politics a sham. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, between half and three-quarters of people in various Middle Eastern countries doubt that Arab hijackers pulled off the 9/11 attacks and that then-President Bush orchestrated them.
According to Rob Brotherton’s Suspicious Minds, ‘‘we are each at the mercy of a hundred billion tiny conspirators, a cabal of conspiring neurons...Our brain’s secret shenanigans can shape the way we think about conspiracy theories--and a whole lot else besides. Whether conspiracy theories reflect what’s really going on in the world or not, they tell us a lot about our secret selves. Conspiracy theories resonate with some of our brain’s built-in biases and shortcuts, and tap into some of our deepest desires, fears, and assumptions about the world and the people in it, as we have innately suspicious minds. We are natural-born conspiracy theorists.’’
