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He says: “Almost any conspiracy theory starts with a legitimate question that I would agree: yeah, let’s look into that, let’s see what we can find. It’s the refusal to accept evidence when the evidence doesn’t pan out in the way that you want it to that leads to problems because then what you have to do is construct an increasingly elaborate conspiratorial framework to explain why you’re not finding the evidence you were hoping for. That’s where you get completely lost in the weeds.” The problem with this book is at the very end, he suddenly turns it into an opinion piece on his belief that the Trump presidency is a disaster and proves more and more a disaster every day that passes... A friend of mine compares the free speech debate to the gun control debate: when they wrote the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers could never have imagined that a high-powered Assault Press like Gawker could end up in the hands of a civilian.Conspiracy is a not particularly concise showcase of Ryan Holiday's maturation as a writer. His writing style here is eerily similar to Antonio Garcia Martinez in Chaos Monkeys, or, generally speaking, my own, whenever I want to flaunt that I am well-read. Vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson takes the presidential oath of office in Dallas, Texas, two hours after Kennedy was shot. Photograph: Reuters The chapter that dealt heavily with COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories was both frustrating and satisfying for me. Frustrating because of my own experience working in an ICU during the first year and a half of the pandemic, satisfying because it validated what I experienced first-hand; frustrating, because this type of conspiracy theory is so cyclical and recognizably present whenever major infectious diseases appear; satisfying for the exact same reason. I'm still at large how to approach people subscribing to mainstream or fringe conspiracy theories, but this book has both increased my understanding and compassion for them, as strengthened my resolve to try and lend a helping hand.
A highly readable overview of conspiracy theories: how we create them, why we fall for them, how to spot them, why the internet has empowered them hideously. But while it can be fun to indulge in a bit of Deep State banter on the group chat, recent times have shown us that some of these theories have taken on a life of their own – and in our dogged quest for the truth, it appears we might actually be doing it some damage.
Top Conspiracy Theories
Anything that is happening today can be, if you so choose, understood to be part of the incredibly byzantine and hidden plan of the Illuminati that may seem confusing to us on the surface but you can trust as an article of faith that is part of their grand plan. They are both omniscient and omnipotent (unlike God they’re not benevolent) but they are working behind the scenes and that explains the world.
Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge have done a great job with this book. It was well explained yet not heavy and overwhelming, and it had some genuinely funny sections; I personally really enjoyed the footnotes. I have a feeling that I will be returning to this book again in the near future as I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I finished reading it. An early example was Freemasonry, the leading fraternal organisation of the 18th century with members including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Otis and Paul Revere. What began as a teacher of moral, intellectual and spiritual values came to be regarded with hostility and suspicion. It is a real blend and synthesis of a bunch of different things that all appeal to slightly different personalities. It’s spread a little wider because it’s able to bring in people who might be otherwise disparate and unconnected and yokes them all under this banner by being vague and nebulous and not attached to too many specific beliefs or practices.”From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it’s always been human nature to believe we’re being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we absolutely are).
This is an excellent book. It reminds me in some ways of one of my favorite nonfiction works, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, and not just because there is some overlap in topic. Like Cultish, Conspiracy is written with good humor and a lot of compassion towards the people who fall down the rabbit hole. It's funny and generous, freely pointing out the places where conspiracy theories have proven completely true (#freebritney, anyone?), and where people in authority have really not HELPED the anti-conspiracy-theory cause (spoiler alert: the CIA features in several of these examples). The history of conspiracy theories, it turns out, is a fascinating one, rife with prejudice (especially antisemitism, with class prejudice coming in a close second), miscommunication, and cognitive distortions. It's written with a light hand, with liberal applications of snark.Enter GamerGate and the culture wars and then the 2016 election, and the judgment against Gawker became fraught with implications that went well beyond the politics of outing and whether or not it's okay to publish someone's sex video without their consent. You see that with 9/11 conspiracy theories and you see it with the JFK assassination. The idea that the head of state was assassinated and yet, for a large part of the population, the only explanation was that the government itself in some form or another was responsible for this is representative of that sea change.” That's the short version, but the long version turns out to be detailed, fascinating, and a far-reaching epic story that touches on political biases, the culture wars, and meditations on the nature of conspiracy and revenge.
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