Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

  Conspiracy Theories   Problems with existing Definitions:             Too broad in which they let supported explanations in with unsupported information             Contain truth value as part of the definition (e.g. False)             Ignore the central theme of any “conspiracy theory”—which is the coverup of the truth.   My Proposed Definition:             An alternative explanation for an event/phenomenon, for which the central claim is a purposeful direct concealment of the truth by a group of actors; for which the evidence is inadequate to support the claim .   Kinds: Not all conspiracy theories are equal and it is a mistake to treat them as such.             Scope : size of the conspiracy theory. Event, Systemic, Super, or Omni           Focus: based on the target. Academic or Ideological conspiracy theories.             Presentation : is it offered as a conspiracy theory. Implied or Direct theories   Kennedy assassination theories: Direct, ideolo

 Fortunately, as I write this, the election is over and it ended the way that it "should" have. Yet, there's a list of things that we are missing out on having dumped Trump from his office. I try not to be overtly political on this blog for a few reasons: the first being that it is tied to my course and there are certain lines that we are not supposed to cross when it comes to speech in class. We cannot tell our students who they ought to vote for, and I extend that to not telling them who I am voting for as well.  The second is that political sides do not really matter when it comes to conspiracy theories. So if you are in the labour party in the UK, you might think that all of the conspiracy theories come from the Brexit party (I refuse to call it anything else) and British Trump (I refuse to call him anything else). You would be wrong though. Just as in my country one would be very tempted to think that every conspiracy theory comes from the Republican party and soon t