The underlying premise behind conspiracy theories is that "They" are hiding the truth for shady, nefarious purposes. But you—because you are so perspicacious, smart, special, or have access to privileged information—can see things as they really are. “They” can be the government, Russia, China, aliens, Democrats, Republicans, the CIA, the FBI, Big ...
It is not hard to see the allure. It’s especially appealing when people are already feeling alienated, like everything is spinning out of their control—as people tend to do in times of intense economic inequality and rapid technological innovation. They go looking for a scapegoat to blame for their troubles, and/or a small, close-knit community of ...
In the 1850s, England was industrializing at breakneck speed, and laborers feared the new machines would put them out of work. Newspapers were arising to disseminate interesting new ideas, like that fellow Rowbotham over in Cambridgeshire who was claiming the Earth was flat. Even when the newspapers were covering it mockingly—which they usually wer...
For a group of alleged skeptics, they are astonishingly gullible and hand-wavy when it comes to particulars. But the key aspect of any conspiracy theory is the conspiracy, not the theory.
Facebook’s and YouTube’s algorithms very, very rapidly funneled viewers toward extreme, incendiary, radicalizing content. It’s done just so viewers will stay online longer and so Facebook and YouTube would rake in the resultant ad revenue. “Flat Earth was algorithm gold,