Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

 Readers new to my format: we are using the PDF page numbers found at the internet archive . Chapter I: Illuminism—The Philosophers—Rousseau—Secret Societies—Freemasonry—Adam Weishaupt—The Illuminati—Congress of Wilhelmsbad—Illuminati Suppressed Right off the bat this book is going to be much different. Unlike any other of our subjects, this book is the product of an educated person who is familiar, at the very least, with how a history book should be written. She’s writing this book in the very early 20th century, so it’s still got this interesting chapter heading format where the chapter titles are going to be succeeded by the list of subjects it’s going to cover. I primarily read philosophy (and fiction) we don’t do this. The few history books that I do have, don’t have this in such detail. It’s very helpful though—like a pre-index. It is a commonly accepted opinion that the great revolutionary movement which began at the end of the eighteenth century originated with the philoso...

 The winner isn’t us, but the book we are going to read through next is Nesta Webster’s The Plot Against Civilization. The exact version that we are going to be reading is here at the Internet Archive. Nesta Webster is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that she is the person who is most solely responsible for reviving the Illuminati conspiracy theories. I ask my course every semester: why does anyone in the contemporary age know anything about an 18th century club for skeptical nerds? The reason is Nesta Webster. If not for her, the very memory of the Illuminati would have faded with John Robison and Augustin Baurrell’s books. She brought it back, linked it to her anti-Semitic beliefs, and then it just never died. Secondly, Nesta Webster is a woman (Feminism!). In all seriousness I think it’s important that we understand how rare this is. In recent times women have been sucked more into proper conspiracism, it was women that drove the anti-vaccination wave of 2008, but a...

 I didn’t lie, lie. I thought I would have everything wrapped up by today, but I thought the final papers were due Thursday, when they were due yesterday, so…I am drowning in business ethics assignments right now. What does this mean for you? Well, nothing really. What it means is that I have had no time to get a post ready for our next conspiracy book—and since I have yet to receive any votes on the new book; we have some more time. This blog is posted across three different sites. My readership is low, I think, in total, I may top 200 subscribers so as far as voting is concerned—we’re looking at US mid-term election percentages…meaning whoever does vote gets to pick or else we are going to leave it up to me. To be honest, Cooper kind of fucked me. My plan was always to cover the Protocols, but I wanted to do it after Cooper, then after a silly one—which turned out to be the Kaysing book. As I said then, and I’ll repeat now, I knew the Protocols was in the “Behold a Pale Horse” bu...

I’m in that glorious time between Popes…er, between the period of time when classes are over, but finals have yet to be turned in. As we have finished up Kaysing’s Moon landing denial book, I have no idea where to turn to next. Do I work on a present-day book, something from the recent past, or something from the distant past? Since this project can take over a year, I get a little gun shy about what kind of book I want to live with. I will present three different titles that you can comment on as a vote. I have been cross posting this blog across three different platforms so I’ll take that winner, although very few people actually comment, so your vote could be the winner. The first candidate is “The Secret Destiny of America” by Manly P. Hall. This is the shortest book on our list. Hall was an esoteric conspiracy theorist obsessed with the idea of a glorious fate for the United States. This volume was written in 1944. The second is the “The Turner Diaries,” by Andrew McDonald whose r...