Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

 What we know about Bill Kaysing is that he used to work at Rocketdyne, originally a division of North American Aviation, that built a variety of rocket engines for both military and non-military use (i.e. ICBMs and Space Missions). As I pointed out a few posts ago, Kaysing is not specific about what it is that he did there. He’s closer to the Moon Program more than any of the other chuckle heads that claim it was faked, but this could very well be a case of false authority. Bob Lazar, the fake Area-51 whistle blower, claimed to have worked at Los Alamos—but he did so as a photography developer. The implication that Kaysing wants us to gain is that he worked on the rockets or that he is some kind of engineer. This is the “natural flavors” problem. If you look on a carton of orange juice you’ll find a description that says something like “includes natural flavors.” Most people assume that “natural flavors” means “oranges,” but it doesn’t. At least, it doesn’t necessarily. However, t...

 If you read the academic literature on conspiracy theories the most important sticking point is how to define them. Ever since Keeley defined the concept back in 1999, there have been numerous tweaks and changes to the definition. My 2021 Dissertation had its own definition, and they continue to be adjusted and improved. One nearly consistent feature of the various academic attempts at defining “conspiracy theory” is that the theorists always has malicious motives for their theory. When I cover this in my courses I explain that I have doubts about this feature (in fact, I don’t use it in my definition at all); because while we can easily see the nefarious motives in covering up the truth about the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, or the Flat Earth; this isn’t necessarily the case. I construct a conspiracy theory about a secret plan to give everyone a free puppy (or kitten), even the philosopher Dentith talks about a conspiracy to throw a surprise part—which can hardly be considered ne...

 For any new readers, the page numbers in the title refer to the PDF file found on the Internet Archive . The numbers do not line up with the page in the book, so far they are about five pages behind. Researching conspiracy theories has changed my brain in a few important ways. The first is that I cannot read the news without filtering it into a conspiratorial interpretation. It’s not that I believe it, but that I try and interpret the news as they would. For example, president-elect Trump’s pick for secretary of Treasury is just a normal big business executive; but I also know that he’s worked for both George Soros and the WEF (World Economic Fund) which makes it interesting for those people who rabidly support him. The second way that conspiracy theories have changed my brain is that I can longer just read a rhetorical question without getting angry at the writer. The “?” just hangs in a sentence in much the same way that a brick doesn’t. The rhetorical question is the path of th...

  Kaysing begins, as all conspiracy theory books do, with how he arrived at the knowledge of the conspiracy. Kaysing worked for seven years at Rocketdyne, “ the firm that built the main propulsion units for Apollo …” Let’s be clear that Kaysing is trying to pull a fast one on the reader already. He’s not claiming that he worked on the propulsion engines, he’s just saying that he worked at the company which made them. He’s curiously leaving out what his position was at Rocketdyne. If he worked on the boosters that would be front and center. This is very similar to the infamous Area 51 “whistleblower” but actual liar, Bob Lazar. Lazar claimed that he worked at Los Alamos but then leaves it at that. In reality, he worked for a company that developed film for the government at Los Alamos. We are meant to think he did something important at Alamos because that’s where “the Bomb” was made. I’m sure that film development is an important part of whatever was going on there, but that’s not ...

 We shall begin with the “who.” The author of this book is Bill Kaysing. He is not, as far as I know, a conspiracy theorist in the broad sense. He doesn’t appear to be an Illuminati believer, nor does he think the lizard people control everything. He has some other conspiracy beliefs about the CIA, privacy, and the federal reserve; and I get the impression that he is merely an anti-government theorist. A little biographical information: Kaysing was a Naval Officer in WWII, and afterwards became a dime store writer. His books include “How to Eat Well on Less than a Dollar a Day (1970),” “The Robin Hood Handbook (1974),” and “Great Hot Springs of the West (1984).” He has a few books in the “How to eat…” category and according to rationalwiki he was actually a decent food writer. He died in April of 2005. Kaysing claimed that he was originally approached to write this book as a satire. It was supposed to be a joke, here’s what the kooks believe, and let’s make it seem a little plausib...

 Today hurts, it really does, and I have no solid words for it. Though we must carry on. So, I was initially going to offer a choice of three books, but when I woke up this morning I simply could not stomach a conspiracy book like we’ve been doing. In an effort to keep it light the next book is going to be the relatively short “We Never Went to the Moon” by Bill Kaysing. If you follow along at home, here is the pdf from archive.org . Next week, we’ll intro the book and get started.