Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

There is almost too much to cover here because Cooper has found his zone. He's jumping between regions, people, and theories; but to his credit, he seems to be confining himself to one time period. I'll do a quick debunking rundown and then into the deep dive.  We left off last week with a discussion of 1776. The Declaration, the Illuminati, and the Wealth of Nations were all created. It's a coincidence, so let's move on with our lives.  He then claims the usual symbolism of the Great Seal of the United States. Symbol hunts are for conspiracy theorists what egg hunts are for children, only that the latter don't lose their ability to reason once they've found their egg. Lots of conspiracy theorists talk about the eye of providence on the dollar bill as being proof of the Illuminati; it's not, the eye is a Masonic symbol. The Illuminati's symbol was the owl of Athena.  Cooper dips a second toe into the Jesus Bloodline conspiracy theory, but this time names

I find it impressive that I have yet to make a real deep dive into the Knights of the Temple. Robison mentioned them in passing as one of the swindles that occurred when Baron Knigge began "mystifying" the Masons, but that was about it. The reason he mentions this is that once esotericism was introduced into the Masons, a lot of gullibility came with it. People tried to sell these particular Masons magical relics held by the Templars. Allen's book would have no need of mentioning them. If someone reading the "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" came across a line that claimed David Rockefeller was the last guardian of the Templar secrets they would have thrown the book away. While the John Birch Society saw COMMUNISTS in every shadow, opposed the civil rights movement, and believes today that Trump is their president: they seem to draw the line at this kind of magical thinking.  Which, to repeat from last week, is what makes Cooper's book kind of refreshing. Yes,

 In the past, conspiracy theories and the surrounding culture were much more honest. If you thought the system was corrupted by powerful interests--it didn't matter if there was a Democrat or Republican in charge. They were all bad. Now, it's such bullshit. If "they" control the elections then it is impossible that any president would not either be a dupe or in on it. Cooper brings that kind of energy to this work. He doesn't care that Clinton is president, or that Bush was president before (and after him); they're all bad. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but just reading how he brings Bush Sr. into his conspiracy is kind of refreshing in an age where anti-government conspiracy theorists support Donald Trump. " According to the January 3, 1989 edition of the Arizona Daily Star, 'President-elect Bush is spending the New Year's holiday at Camp David, Maryland, but in 10 years he may be in Egypt. Organizers of the Millennium Society say he's

 No update this week. The grading season is upon me and I have to deal with all of that. Next week, I'll be back on the Pale Horse.

Secret societies need members and special knowledge. Otherwise, believers would realize that the Illuminati was just an 18th-century group of nerds who read too much philosophy and wanted to educate the population. It's boring unless you can trace it back to something special or new. The secret society of the Dragon needs members and Cooper is happy to oblige.   Cooper wants to put all the famous thinkers in history into this group. His first candidate is Plato. As a Ph.D. in philosophy, I really want to spend 2k words on why this is bullshit and how, if Plato had access to the secret knowledge, why does his theory of the forms fail the third man objection? Cooper writes, " Plato's initiation encompassed three days of entombment in the Great Pyramid, during which he died (symbolically), was reborn, and was given secrets that he was to preserve. Plato's writings are full of information on the Mysteries." I've read a considerable amount of Plato. One could argue