Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

We're back from grading, more grading; and then the murder storm that felled my city (Buffalo). We left off beginning Robison's conclusion. Way back in the beginning of this project I mentioned how refreshing it was to read Robison. This is because I had just come off of Gary Allen's book, and to remind old readers--reading conspiracy theories is my profession. Robison's work, I found at the time, to be surprisingly coherent. His work was focused, he began a chapter to discuss the Illuminati and that's what the chapter was about. His problem is that he relies on the reader to draw connections between the disparate groups that he mentions. The events, the people, the letters...so many letters; all dance around a subject because he doesn't have the information which connects these things. However, the writing quality itself isn't bad. For the most part, he's competent but then in other parts he's very good. It's a level of quality that we don't...

 Again, no update this week. Grading week is upon me. We'll be back next week to hopefully wrap this book up. 

The final chapter begins, and it's going to be full of some navel gazing nonsense. The ultimate problem with this final chapter is that it is going to be conclusion and the conclusion should do a few things. In this book what it should do summarize the story that Robison thinks he's been telling. Before I dive into his conclusion let me summarize the story that he thinks he's communicated thus far:  Robison is claiming that in Europe there has been a group which has infiltrated all of Masonry. Their existence is so subtle that when you ask any Mason, they have no idea what you are talking about, but this group is twisting Masonry to its own end. That end is the destruction of Christian Europe. To accomplish this: they had to infiltrate Masonry in order to find a lodge that was amenable to this kind of plot. Once that was established this particular lodge gave birth to the Illuminati. Which was the same kind of thing only now it wasn't as secret. Once the Illuminati were...

Robison is getting desperate, and I think the reason is that the events he's talking about are closer in proximity to him. It's a bit different for him to claim events, persons, and documents from Germany; but France is different. France is "right-over-there" and the revolution just happened. There are people that his readers could ask, "hey who in charge of the revolution was an Illuminati." This is a difficult problem for any conspiracy theorist and Robison, in the very beginning of the Illuminati conspiracy theory has to deal with this. So far, we've seen him hide the Illuminati in Masonry and in the German Union. In each case there is shield between the people that the average person would know and the Illuminati.  This shield is important. It makes it harder to disprove Robison's claim even though Robison hasn't proven his claim yet. Sure, all of the Freemasons reading this work were probably a little confused because none of the Masons that...

Too much grading last week, but let's press on this week as it seems we are approaching the end of this book.  We are still in the throes of the French Revolution and Robison's attempt to prove that the Illuminati and their puppet Masons were behind it. I feel like a broken record to have to keep repeating this but the problem that Robison has with the German Union, the Illuminati, and those peculiar Masonic lodges was that they were spreading ideas about the enlightenment. I've talked about the French Revolution in the previous two posts, so I'll skip that.  What is more interesting to me are the increasingly odd portrayals of secret society rituals that Robison engages in. In every case the lodges that he speaks of are not the ones you would be familiar with; they are the other ones . Like the kid who brags about his lingerie model girlfriend in high school--she's from Canada you wouldn't know her. These aren't the regular lodges these are lodges of the Gr...

 In all of the conspiracy books that I've read...that were not compilations of different articles...I've noticed a pattern. The book begins with an introduction that is the author's own personal experience which is normal. The first chapter is decently written. When I say decently written do not get me wrong, it is not that the first chapter is correct but that it remains focused. The books inevitably get worse and worse. Each chapter loses a little bit more coherence than the one previous to it.  In this book we had the first chapter focused on European Masonry and since it based around a trend that Robison found in his experiences with Masonry it stayed pretty tight. One his story headed to the German states, he lost a bit of his thread. However, the rope stayed bound. The next chapter was concerning the Illuminati and he begins to lose more of the rope here, instead of proving that the Illuminati were seeking to subvert the religions and governments of Europe he merely p...

We are at the French Revolution and as I mentioned last week, this is the most important event for Illuminati conspiracy theorists. For them it is evidence of the first strike, the Illuminati created a bloody revolution. It's not plausible given the actual timeline but conspiracy theorists need to mention it. Robison is going to dedicate an entire chapter to the French Revolution, and it is here that we must remind ourselves that he's writing in the immediate wake of the actual revolution. He would have been reading newspapers printed about events in the revolution taking place the day after.  It's news, it's actual news to him, and it's taking place right now. It's hugely important, but a few years after the Revolution he's going to draw the wrong conclusion about how it started. It's kind of depressing because the kernel of the truth is there and he just doesn't grow it into anything.  We will begin with Robison's first broken clock of the book...