Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

This book is trying my patience. I was expecting conspiracy claims here and instead, I'm getting gossip stories about a nerd club that only existed for a brief period. It's frustrating because I was promised this book showed the Illuminati's secrets. I am beginning to think that none of those later conspiracy theorists have actually read it. Aside from the overall lofty goal of teaching the ideals of the Illuminati, the code names, there isn't a conspiracy here. There's nothing but a group that would be nothing more than a humanist activist group today.  Gary Allen's book, "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" was boring, but it was boring because he went into tedious "detail" about how one rich guy knew another. This book isn't even that. While Allen and the John Birch Society are conservative conspiracy theorists, they seem to be motivated by a fear of communism. Now, I need to be clear; they are not afraid of real communism, they are fearful ...

This is a weird coincidence that I could, in no way, have planned out. I do not do a lot of planning ahead for this blog. I preview each section a week ahead of time but there is no schedule. I do not have a calendar (July 20th, discuss abortion), because I do not know two weeks ahead of time what I will be covering. All of that being said, this would have been one hell of a coincidence if the topic came up three weeks ago. (International readers: the US effectively outlawed federal protection for abortion rights three weeks ago) One of my character traits is that I don't gossip. I'm not bragging, it's just that I don't see the point. I can see that some people may get a certain catharsis from gossiping, I can also see that some people may use other people's foibles to launch into larger discussions. In the case of the last viewpoint, I make up issues for my ethics courses that would be the stuff of gossip to discuss ethical issues concerning lying or cheating. I am...

No one writes letters anymore, because we don't have to. I want to discuss something with my friend "Amanda" I can call, text, or if need be, email; or in really dire straights I can video call as well. When old people lament about how no one writes letters anymore or writes in cursive, or whatever; they are correct. No one does that but I would guess that they adopted the phone pretty damn quickly as well. Letter writing is a skill because the writer has to communicate all of the information that they can with the understanding that it is going to be days or perhaps weeks before their response comes in. Imagine that you spend a few days writing a letter, send it off, and a week later your response is "*you're" by some grammar nazi.  What's more interesting is that people saved their letters. It was like a record of a relationship that I cannot fathom. My phone has all of the records across three platforms of my conversation with "Amanda." I di...

Whenever I read these conspiracy theories, the same thought runs through my head: what would Weishaupt think of them? Defending Weishaupt is like defending one of the new Star Wars titles. They're not great, they're fine, but you end up having to pick a side because disliking them puts you in the same camp as a bunch of extremist nutters who think that a black woman ruins the franchise. While I generally agree with the Illuminati's goals, I agree with Robison's initial complaint against Masonry that the ceremony and pageantry are just silly. Let's just meet up, talk, and plan; I don't need or want all the rest of the trappings. I don't know if the 18th century was just more boring, or that the wealthy classes had nothing to do; but even though Masonry had its trappings, Weishaupt's group was going to add to that. There might a cultural atmosphere that we are missing now. I've mentioned that mystical spirituality was in vogue at this point in history....