Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

 One feature of conspiracy theory writing is that they do not assume you’ve read the other books. This feature exists because conspiracy theorists always think that they are the smartest people in the room. You couldn’t know the things they know or else they would not need to tell you about it. So conspiracy theorists have an easy task of collecting a bunch of information and then twisting it to suit their needs knowing that their audience is very unlikely to check up on this information and that real authorities are not going to bother. When Gary Allen cites Carroll Quigley’s “Tragedy and Hope” to prove his point about the secret cabal running everything, the assumption is that Allen has read it. However, Allen is making the opposite assumption—that you haven’t. Indeed, as I pointed out in my coverage of “ None Dare Call it Conspiracy ,” Carroll Quigley chimed in to claim that Allen was full of shit. In turn, Webster is going to rely on the fact that most of her audience has not a...

 Webster is better than the others at chapter breaks. I have to give her that. The second chapter begins with just enough lead up to the French Revolution, and just enough recap, that the pacing of the book only seems strange because of the dreck that we’ve been reading before. “ In the following month the Revolution broke out.” It’s time to get into it. Conspiracy theorists have an odd focus on the French Revolution and it’s because of this book. American conspiracy theorists have an odd focus on the French Revolution and it’s because of this book. For all of Alex Jones’s pretend raving about 1776 he really wants 1789. I’ll mention this to my courses: the French Revolution is such a focus because for Europe, it seemed impossible. The American Revolution was happening “over there” and not in Europe; so it was a bit more abstract. When the French Revolution happens, it’s much more serious, because it is the Ancien Regime that is overthrown. Webster, to her credit, admits this, “ St...

 We start weird today, “ Two years before the suppression of Illuminism in Bavaria its adepts had begun their work in France. The “magician” Cagliostro, generally reputed to be a Jew from Sicily, had been enrolled as an Illuminatus in Germany.” Even if you’re not steeped in the history of occultism, mysticism, and conspiracy theories; the name Cagliostro rings a faint bell. He’s one of those names that makes you think, “why do I know that…?” The name has appeared throughout the history of film, television, and culture. In fiction he’s a wizard or a wiseman. In reality he’s a lot closer to someone like Elon Musk—basically a shitposter conman who earned a reputation doing things like alchemy and scrying. In the 18th century it was lot harder to double check claims about psychic healing. Cagliostro traveled around Europe making claims, putting on a show, and then leaving town. Toward the end of his life, his reputation was severely diminished and was regarded as nothing more than a ...

  “Here a curious point arises. Was Weishaupt the inventor of this system? We know that he was indoctrinated in occultism by Kolmer, but beyond that we can discover nothing…how is it that so vast a genius should have remained absolutely unknown to posterity?” Webster raises one of the most important questions in these types of global conspiracy theories. The question of origin is really important, who came up with this plot? For a skeptic this is a good question to figure out exactly how far down road the conspiracy theorist is going to kick the can. As of this writing, two days ago the Trump administration publicly claimed that not only did convicted sex trafficker and rapist Jeffrey Epstein kill himself but also that there was no list and no other documents related to his operation. I am not going to weigh in on those conspiracy theories (I’ll link to an article I’m going to write for a different site when it goes up); what I am going to talk about is one of the defenses that I’v...

 Webster has given us our plot. It is this: The Illuminati, led by Adam Weishaupt, infiltrated the Freemasons and began overthrowing the European world starting with France in 1786. Why? Well, I’ve never actually read a conspiracy book that explained that notion even though it’s more important than anything else. When we left off last week, there was a meeting in which all of the secret societies: the Illuminati, Masons, and Martinists had met to agree to the plan. In reality, this meeting did happen, but it was about codification of Masonic history, the Illuminati were not invited (although Baron Knigge who was a member of both did attend). Webster wants to walk a fine line between condemning Masonry for these plots but excusing every Mason with a name. She writes that even those that disagreed and were horrified, still kept quiet. Which doesn’t excuse anything. If you see someone drowning, can swim, and refuse to help—you’re responsible for their death. All of these good people t...