Have you guys heard of area 51 . Theres the thing that you know about thats on a government map, literally listed as area 51, because the name is top secret, because we have a national Security State that takes large parts of the united States Territory and says, this is area 51, we cant tell you what were doing here, we cant tell you what were spending here, but its to keep you safe, trust us. And i understand you need to test aircrafts, i dont have a problem with that, but as it plays into this Conspiracy Theory, it is the raw stuff to allow this stuff to go on, right . The other one is that the ufos are a coverup because what theyre really doing is they are taking people and probing them and torturing them and doing medical experiments on them or their cattle. Cattle mutilation comes in here now. But the coverup is, rather than it being black helicopters of the united States Government, kidnapping people, drugging them and torturing them to do medical experiments on them, instead it is ufos. So whoever is out in the Cattle Ranch gets mad at ufos and not at the united States Government. So yes, its a conspiracy, but its a conspiracy of a conspiracy hiding a bigger conspiracy. These are the mazes, these are the wheels, these are the mazes we go down, right . So again, these might seem silly, but they show how conspiracy theories expand and darken as they move forward. From a government covering up technology or covering up something theyve seen in the sky to the wholesale torture of americans, right . Oftentimes these things will move in a religious way, that this plot of the ufos, that the ufos are not aliens from an andromeda, that theyre luciferian beings. So journalist Michael Kelley argued in 1995 for what he called fusion paranoia. It was a union of the radical left and right which are often seen as very distinct groups. But a union of them in the shared fear of one thing above all, the boundless evil of the government and its allies. As you go to the left and the right you find that the villains become the same and its quite often the u. S. Government. So when what we think of, there had been leftist movements like the weathermen, there were leftists, the red Army Faction in europe. There are also right wing movements, patriot movements, Posse Comitatus. Both these groups could get together and agree on nothing about the political outcomes they want but they both agree the Target Theyve chosen is the united States Government that is oppressing both the rights of africanamericans, whether you want to look at, you know, philadelphia and the battle in downtown philadelphia, or you want to look at right wing movements in idaho. They are all identifying the exact same enemy, that is, the national Security State and all of the conspiracies of the federal government. In 1991, george h. W. Bush, bones man, yale man, former head of the cia, comes forward and gives a speech about the new World Order. Many people who heard that said, that makes sense, the soviet union has just fallen, we have had a 50plusyear cold war in which we split the world between communist and capitalist. Now one of those is gone. It is time to remake the world and the phrase a new World Order seems utterly unremarkable. I can guarantee you, for other people listening with different ears, the bones man, h. W. Bush, former head of the cia, declaring a new World Order shows his membership in the secret brotherhood. Ruby ridge, the fbi and other agencies were attempting to use him as a witness or as a source against the aryan nations, he didnt want to, they were going to arrest him on gun charges and it turned into an armed standoff in which his wife and other members of the family are killed. Waco in 1993, the standoff in waco, texas, for 51 days, on the branch davidian compound, again, combining the federal government, religious believers, the branch davidians who had an end of the World Message about the coming apocalypse, common to many religions, including the one i was brought up in, southern baptists, that ends into an Invasion And Incursion by the Fbi And Atf who says this has gone on long enough, that turns into a fireball that kills lots of people. All these things in the context of the national Security State, of ufos, of the american government is hiding it, of both left and right seeing the american government as the fault, as the problem. The revelation of the 1970s and 1980s, and now the declaration of a new World Order, a standoff in ruby ridge, are they coming for our guns, a standoff against religious people in the branch davidians who are a compound, again, that you have accusations of sex and religious radicalism and being surrounded by the united States Government that ends in a fireball, that this is a first step to suppress and exterminate the american people. There might be a lot of different versions of exactly what the conspiracies are, which of this melange of lego pieces of conspiracy ive laid out for you, how theyre putting it together. But they all come to similar conclusions of the fault of the united States Government. Trust no one, they lie to us. And it ends in oklahoma city. It doesnt end. Timothy mcveigh is at waco. There is footage of him selling stickers, antigovernmental stickers on the back of his car, watching waco. He blows this up, ed knows this as well as anybody, he makes a statement that he is a that the united States Government has declared war in 1991 in ruby ridge, 1993 in waco, and this is the next act. He sees this as pushing back against a federal government out of control that is part of a longdetailed, oftentimes antisemitic aryan nations Conspiracy Theory about what has happened to the united States Government. Pick your pieces from the Lego Box of masons, jewish bankers, and put them together. But this event is coming out of that conspiracy theories and coming out of the actions of the united States Government that have allowed these conspiracy theories and not to fault them, maintaining a national Security State, intelligence organizations, is allowing a lot of these claims to be made. And also the actions of the things that were done at mk ultra, in north woods and these other things that are coming out, makes it harder and harder to make the case we would love to make which is we would never do that, right . So this is Gore Vidal, on the left. He is a longtime leftist critic of american empires, he said. He wrote about the shredding of the bill of rights. He declared Vickie And Sam weaver, shot at ruby ridge, as victims of, quote, coldblooded federal murder and the Waco Fire as, quote, Fbi Slaughter of the innocents. He wrote that most of todays actual terrorists can be found within our own governments, federal, state, and municipal. Im not sure if he would say that post9 11, seems like a strange thing to say. But it does tell you where Gore Vidal is as far politically as timothy mcveigh could be. He is friend of the kennedys, deep within the democratic structure. But hes also a critic of the United States. And theyve become pen pals when timothy mcveigh is in prison and in their letters they correspond on how much they have in common in their beliefs. And this is tying into 9 11 being an inside job. It is unsurprising, given what i have laid out, all the pieces in the Lego Box that are there for our students or fellow americans, when they go to youtube, see a show, or watch a talk. This is four years after the revolution, the day it actually discussed a false Flag Operation in Project North woods, they never did. But the claim that bush new echoes claims that fdr was behind the Pearl Harbor attack, that he so wanted to get involved in war in europe that he allowed either allowed Pearl Harbor to happen or took a stronger hand to it, in an even harder to prove conspiracy, right . So, so many of these claims about 9 11, and noah will get into them in much more detail, that there were planted explosive, that there was no plane that hit the pentagon, moving to levels of luciferianism, that these were not missiles, they were planes with holographic planes around them, depending on how you stretch the bounds. The debate about 9 11, part of it is evidence. Depending on who youre talking to, they may just be having an evidential debate. What would it take, how does a building collapse, will still melt, these kind of things. But there are some people for whom that debate about the evidentiary basis of 9 11 or any one of these is a cover for a deeper anxiety, the anxiety of, they lied to us, trust no one. And that the conversation about 9 11 is only the tip of an iceberg of all of this other stuff thats behind it, of how we think about democracy, how we think about how the american government works and our relationship to it. This is all for the first part. Well move to the second part after the break. But we can have some questions if you like. Do you want to do i think they need you to have a mic. Dont panic. Okay. So this is weird. Okay. Do you see a difference between the conspiracy theories, that from what i can tell, seem to be very much white men distrusting other white men, and the wellfounded distrust that many communities of color have for a government that has, you know, consistently oppressed and killed them over and over again . I think youre absolutely right. And i would advise you to stay tuned for the next hour. Yeah, no, were going to talk about it, right . Were going to talk about how conspiracies break down racially and the types of conspiracies. But absolutely, given the long history of what american government and americans in power and white society i mean, slavery. A white american male phenomenon. I think thats a great question. What i would like to say is, i would like to address that question in the next hour. Okay. But let me say that had i not thought of that question, it would be a truly devastating great question. Yes. To what extent is this solely an american phenomenon . Can you speak it to if this exists internationally at all . I can try to. I think it is there are i dont think it is an american phenomenon. I think if you look at other governments, particularly the soviet union and communists, were rife with conspiracies. Any place you have a government that is not responsive or secret parts of the government in which how the function of political governments and political Economy Isnt clear, i think you have conspiracies. I think even in a little league in a fantasy football league, you have conspiracies, I Cant believe they want to switch to ppr, theres a conspiracy, right . I think its partially naturally in us. I think that one of the things that make it and again, im talking without evidence so im just kind of so recognize that all of this could be revised by better scholarship. I think one of the things that makes us particularly rife post1947 is the massive power of the United States. We talked about a great conspiracy has important people and a lot of money. America has a lot of money and huge power and the ability to power project in ways that if you were, say, sweden or lithuania, belize, if belize has a lot of horrible ideas, im not sure that theyre having a whole lot of effect. But america has a worldwide empire. Again, not to call it an empire. But we are in, what, a hundred countries. We have military bases around the world. We have nearly unlimited capital, we have the most powerful, biggest, most experienced military in the world. We have satellites. We went to the moon. If there is a country, with the possible exception of the soviet union, that has the power to do bad things if it is inclined to do bad things, its the United States. So the fact that america has confessed to doing some bad things and it has the means and the opportunity, right, again, if belize says we have a plot for worldwide domination, im not sure where that goes other than, wow, some of the people in belize are really messed up. But if belize had a worldwide power projection possibility, then those conspiracies can get a lot more i mean, there are, at Weather Mountain or the greenbrier or cheyenne, there are giant underground complexes that are dug, that are bombproof. We have an entire infrastructure that was designed to accept the fact that we were probably going to be in a nuclear war. We have laws drawn up that allow certain parts of the government to be completely nondemocratic, which in the eyes of some people are like, see, we already have the plan, all we have to do is announce a national emergency and we can dissolve this or do this or do this, plans that were made up in the middle of the cold war. So america is in a position, because of its power and its extent and its reach, that those conspiracies can be truly scary in the way that conspiracies about other places might not be. I do think that i think having been a teenager, any time you get three people together, two of them are plotting against the third one. That might be unfair. So conspiracies are not that rare. Yes. In recent years it feels like theres more and more of a conversation about how people are only reading news that supports and people look for information thats already supporting what their mindset is. I am not a believer in conspiracy theories, like, at all. But im looking at this, sure, if youre trying to prove there is a conspiracy, you can always find that detail, this Part Hasnt been solved. Other people would be like, yeah, because its nothing. People will always gravitate towards that. To what extent is it people not taking responsibility for like actions that are happening, like, oh, were not going to say this is whats really happening, and we dont want to admit to what might be the problem and were just going to go with the conspiracy because thats easier than thinking what actually might be a problem and addressing it. I think thats exactly right, and well talk about this in the second half, what is the attractive part of conspiracy theories, like what is the i mean, a Conspiracy Theory isnt just simply its very seldom the best answer for the given evidence, right . So theres other things going on. What is emotionally attractive about conspiracies, what is politically attractive about conspiracies. And youre right, part of it is, the world is super complicated. And we want to have answers for it. And there are times in which, because of that complex nature, conspiracy theories seem easier and more attractive because they explain more things. But were going to talk a whole lot more about that. I do also think that the division of news in which you consume only that news which seems to most agree with what you believe leads to a lack of contrary opinions and examples. So i think thats absolutely true. Please. Yes, youve been talking about conspiracy theories that people have about government. But in this administration, its like, they are the ones promoting some conspiracy theories. Yes. Like the birther movement, trump also mentioned ted cruz, his dad being involved in the jfk assassination. Michael flynn and the pizza with Hillary Clinton and many others. That is extremely scary, that some of the followers, because trump has a lot of supporters, might actually believe those conspiracy theories, because theyre coming from them, from him. No, think youre right. If you look at Comet Pingpong, a guy shows up with a rifle, we can talk about in some detail if you want to about imagery and the Way Symbolism is used there. Theres no way around i mean, one of the things that achieves political takeoff for Donald Trump was his opposition to obama and pushing birtherism, right . He is attached to that early on as a kind of and i dont think its the only reason he won but it certainly was a reason. I would actually say that part of this is, we i think that many sometimes, and we talk about this in various ways, we see conspiracies as weird, separate, apart from the way people think about stuff. And i think trump, to his credit, said theres a lot of people who think like me, or theres a lot of people who think like this, and i can motivate them and mobilize them to become activate political participants in a way that other politicians would think, i wont ever talk about that because its horrible or untrue or no ones going to respond to that and people will think im a nut. And trump didnt have that opinion. I have a very quick question then a longer one. Quick one is, building off of Ricks Question from earlier, are you going to talk about the role of women in conspiracy movements . A little bit. There is surprisingly, if you look at the most of the scholarship of it, women theres some scholarship on Conspiracy Belief among women but much less on Conspiracy Perpetuation among women. Most of the perhaps not surprisingly, its very masculinist, and in fact antifeminist. In fact, depending on which conspiracy youre looking at, things like the feminist movement of the 1960s is seen as one of the things that they are acting against, particularly in aryan nations, Posse Comitatus and right wing movements are very much about traditional female values. So there isnt really a space for them to be the kind of engineers of but theres not a lot of work theres a lot of work on women in radical movements or women in extreme movements, but much less on women as leaders of those movements. Why . [ inaudible question ] i agree, i almost never think of women, i always think of men. I will say thats not entirely true. Depending on what community youre looking at, in some groups, to the degree that religion is an important factory, for Example Randy Weavers Wife had visions of an apocalypse, had visions of going to a mountain and that she was really the religious she was in some ways the leader of the family all around. They moved to idaho because they thought the apocalypse was coming. So where religion comes into this, there very often is a powerful Woman Figure on that, though theres also very much a maculiist there are women, Eagle Forum and these kind of places, that are pushing some of these things. But youre right, there certainly is i can say that in the literature they play perhaps a very much undeserved, small role, i think they deserve more attention. Did you have a second one . Yes, so i was thinking about so when you were talking about how like the power of the United States, like engenders conspiracy theories, i was thinking about North Korea and how the entire population is like brainwashed to believe that theyre the most absolutely powerful nation in the world and theyre perfect and everyone else is like this horrible person in this screwed up place. But you dont really have conspiracy theories there. I mean, its hard to know, right . Its a great question. There is also i think what you have there is a cult of personality. But you also have the idea that kim shot played a round of golf and had 18 holes in one. Or when he was born there was a double eclipse and five rainbows. There is that kind of myth building. But i dont know that like, i dont know that its quite a conspiracy. It is interesting to think about, in those closed communities, dominated by a cultivate personality, the kind of things you have. So its brainwashed [ inaudible ]. Do you have a question . You showed that theyve been around forever but i was just wondering, have they kind of changed and morphed and grown since the advent of the internet and people able to communicate instantaneously around the world . Its a really interesting question, that there are the kind of techno prophets who say that once well all be able to talk to each other, were going to move to this new level of intelligent discourse. And then theres the internet. Which is not that. Yeah, so i think the internet has been key to this. If we looked at, say, Comet Pingpong which starts on a Reddit Board in november 4, and within a week its beacon tv, on fox news, talking about this event, this thing, in which theres this allegation that there is a Pedophilia Ring underneath this Pizza Place in d. C. Frequented by powerful politicians, particularly democrats. Linked to John Podestas emails being leaked in which they talk about pizza, because, my sense is, if you have a bunch of political volunteers, you buy them a lot of pizza. But people on the internet going through, hes saying pizza so much, you know that pizza is code for pedophilic sex with children. What it allows is, one person or a group of people have an idea and it might be a joke. Like, it might be just for the lols. It might be just like theyre playing a joke on somebody but it started on the internet, which can now spread so rapidly that everyone who has an inclination about that or an interest in that can now be part of that community. It spreads to the at some point that, again, less than a month later, on november 3, my guess is, outside of a Sixblock Area at comet around the Pizza Place, no one has ever heard of this place, right . But it turns into the idea that all these businesses are linked and theres this pedophilic symbolism showing that, and theres children in cages being kept so powerful politician and want elite can have sex with children. And it gets to a guy in North Carolina who i guarantee you a month earlier has never heard of Comet Pingpong. He gets an Ar15 Type Rifle and he drives to do what he called selfinvestigation and walks into the restaurant and shoots into the floor and gets arrested. That kind of speed in which something can go from literally not existing, not just popularizing a Conspiracy Theory, but literally not existing and being created on the internet by the activity of people, some of them, theres a picture of obama at Comet Pingpong in which hes first of all, maybe hes actually holding a Pingpong Paddle but its in the North Part of the white house, like the red carpet with a Pingpong Table in the middle but it says obama at Comet Pingpong. I dont know who believes that. It might be someone makes it as a joke who passed it to a friend who puts it on this Reddit Page and then its in the kind of, you know its a new kind of Conspiracy Disease Vector in the kind of mind of the body politic. Were talk about it some more, but i think youre right. The internet certainly has allowed communities that otherwise communicated much more slowly to communicate much more rapidly and evolve much faster in a way Thats Kind of surprising and shocking. I unfortunately spend more time engaging with people on the internet that i definitely dont want to meet in real life. But and its shocking how fast these things can metastasize. So, you know, going to what you just said and also something that struck me as you were talking about the history of the like, the illuminati and their breakup and how there becomes this evidence, how they gather evidence and create argument toward the argument that they want to make, which mainly made me think of the idea that in a conspiracy situation, that there is no trusted source then, because, like you said, your source is contaminated by people who want you to see or, you know, what they want you to see. Which really led me to kind of this the modern era of you have your truth, you have your facts, i have my truth, i have my facts, it made me wonder if a lot of this comes down to just the idea that beliefs dont need proof, because you have what you believe and i have what i believe. Right. Were in imagine if we go back to stephan diggs, who was an unusual person to put in, lets have an evidentiary argument about how we think of knowledge and lets turn to stephan diggs. The idea is, go ahead and prove it to me right now but dont give me a picture you got from somewhere because they lie to us, right . What were in is this weird evidentiary space in which technology has made it even prephotoshop, the idea that the evidence youre giving me is fake because i have decided that nasa is a front to fake the Moon Landing. So the pictures youre giving me as Evidence Cant Work as evidence because i have already decided that because they are part of the conspiracy, none of that evidence can be trusted. So there is no evidence. And i think were at a point now, and i was an english major as well, undergrad, we talked about Post Modernism and moving past truth, the idea was this was going to be really great because we were overthrowing master narratives of kind of, you know, inherent ideas of Gender Or Power or capitalism or these kind of things and we would be free out of these master narratives and we would be in a post where the powerful wouldnt be able to control the narratives. Were here. This is what it looks like, right . In an area where you say how do we engage and talk about these issues when we wont share a World View of what counts as evidence, and when were in an area and again, this is where it moves towards religion, right . You would never say to someone, and i grew up and i say i believe the lord jesus died for my sins, give me that evidence, right . There are some claims that are safe in our culture away from evidentiary claims. Were not going to have that argument, right . Or maybe we will but its going to be uncomfortable. But that sense of belief has moved in many cases beyond what we would think of as traditionally religious questions. But i would also argue from some of this, many arguments about conspiracies are religious questions. They function like religious questions, not like political questions. And that can put us in a really gray area as we try to debate them. Does that make sense . Well talk about it more. Thank you. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Were funded by these television companies and more, including mediacom. The world changed in an instant. Mediacom was ready. We never slowed down. Schools and businesses went virtual and we powered a new reality because at mediacom, were built to keep you ahead. Mediacom supports cspan as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front Row Asset to democracy. Next on lectures in history, Indiana University Bloomington professor Stephen Andrews teaches a class about Conspiracy Culture in modern american society. He looks at the demographics of what types of people believe in conspiracies and talks about how the internet has influenced these groups. He discusses strategies teachers might use when talking with students or peers about theories related to a fake Moon Landing, flat earth, or 9 11 as a government action. This runs about 90 minutes. All right. So one of the things, the conspiracy believers, we talked about the what of conspiracies, what do they believe. Now we want to talk about why and how they believe. Who are the people were talking about, what do they look like, what are the communities like. Well talk a bit about that. So many if not all of our students are going to come in with Conspiracy Beliefs. If you have had a conversation with any of your students. Now, one of the things is that people recognize that these beliefs should not be spoken of quite often. And so you would give, for example, a lesson on 9 11 in which you would have a class of 30 students, perhaps, go through a class, go out and as soon as they get out, theyre going to turn to each other and go, you know it was an inside job. But not necessarily bring it up in class, depending on your Class Environment and your class atmosphere. I can tell you when i go and sit down on a plane and tell somebody im an historian, they tend to want to talk about the civil war and i teach the civil war, thats great. If i tell them that i work on conspiracies, the floodgates are open to all kinds of Circus Show that can come out, all kind of things, from the very banal to the highly and disturbingly specific, right . So its important to think about how these things work, how widespread they are, where they are, what causes people to hold onto them. Because if we see this overly as not us, something we dont address, something we dont talk about, then it changes how we see these. I also think that in a conversation, and cliff, who was here, said he had a conversation with high school teenagers, and they these high school students brought up conspiracy theories and he had a really engaged conversation with them, that they really had ideas about Evidence And Causality and politics, he got to where they actually are. I know that in many of the cases i teach a class, several classes that touch on this, one called occult america. In my class of h105 when i talk about american history and jacksons bank war, my students dont care. Theyll learn it because im going to ask them about it. But emotionally, the thought of Wildcat Banking in kentucky in the 1820s doesnt mean anything to them. Bimedalism, will we be crucified on a cross of gold, theyre not really that concerned, right . When we talk about these issues we get underneath to what people actually believe about how the world works and its hard and its difficult and it can be move in a lot of sideways direction. But to not do it, i will try to make the case, means were avoiding something they actually are engaged in. Michael schermer is a wellknown skeptic, debunker of theories. He wants people to not believe weird things. There is a problem with this. How do we decide what are weird things . If youre an Ad Exec who had to market to this demo, who is your demo . Speak just from your heart, your gut. What does a Conspiracy Theorist Look like, who are they . Give me some demo, demography. I dont want to i really want you to. [ inaudible ]. Also like the level [ inaudible ] a group thats been targeted as one of the conspiracists. In other words, so you are far more nice and politically kind and savvy than i want you to be. You would say, lower Education Level . For conspiracy my question would be [ inaudible ] if youre one of the groups thats been targeted throughout history as being one of the conspirators so more likely to be a minority group. More likely to believe youre a Conspiracy Theory, im not involved in the conspiracy, like why would that even be. Okay. All right. So weve got a couple of [ inaudible ] Race Or Religion or people who feel wronged, people who feel like something and have evidence. Right. That theyve been mistreated or right. Or wronged in some ways. So what does that person look like . When i go, i ran into this guy on a plane, or and they were a Conspiracy Theorist. That could be poor, white, maybe people who see like people dying from the opiate epidemic. Poor, white. Okay. Youre very right. She wont be nice. White, male, cisgendered, straight. Midwestern, between the ages of 25 and 35, single. Where do they live . In a rural area. In a rural area. Where is their bed . Their moms basement, right . I have to tell you, look, on behalf of every Conspiracy Theorist that i have talked to, they are all very grateful that you are very nice about the stereotype. But we know the stereotype, right . Go ahead. [ inaudible ] everyone came out and they were like, so many people said this isnt who we were expecting to be fighting against people were like shocked at the groups of people that were emerging because it wasnt what they were expected. Because they were khakiwearing, white buttoned down oxfordwearing this image of what we think the Conspiracy Theorists look like is not what they look like. You guys are doing my job. I appreciate again, shes not a shill but she might as well be. When we talk about conspiracy theories, and youre right, we should open it up, we should recognize its not everybody. But its this. Right . [ laughter ] its a male, possibly politically, where do you think they are . So this is the image. A right Wing Male who is single, without a family, lives in his parents the real stereotype, lives in his parents basement, is on the internet. Donald trump said, we dont know whether it was russia or some 300pound Guy in his basement. He is tapping into what is a cultural stereotype of what a Conspiracy Theorist Looks like, right . We should think about, and you guys are already well down this path, of thinking this might be leading us into some places we might not want to go because it may not be accurate. We need to think about it much more, right . So its important to place any of the 9 11 truth into a broader system of beliefs about how the world works. Its often misleading to examine a conspiracy separate from a network of ideas. If you say, theres bob, he believes the Moon Landing was a hoax, and you want to argue with bob about the Moon Landing, it may be that thats the only Conspiracy Theory bob has. But my guess is, if bob thinks that the government has rigged a fake Moon Landing, he didnt think and then they were done and lets go back to participatory democracy, right . Like, weve done our Moon Landing thing, now lets go back and be subject to the rule of the voters, right . So these are networks of ideas, right . Theyre part of a separate system of american beliefs of what is possible in and of itself. What are the boundaries of reality . What are the boundaries of the possible, okay . So, i mean, in a sense you can say, depending on where you set those boundaries, you have a very different idea of what is possible. So i have given you and this is a real difficulty, right . We dont know how to know what we all believe, in a sense, to the degree that we can know what everyone else around us believes. Its hard, its difficult. So we have questionnaires. These are questionnaires that are not always reliable. But they should give us some answer of what are the kinds of beliefs that are out there in american society. First one i want to ask about, a 2007 Pew Poll of 35,000 people, very wellrespected and a mjor survey. This was a big survey by pew. Another one will come out, 35,000 people, very good numbers. Nationwide, accounted for race and ethnicity, a very good survey. So what percentage of americans believe in god or a universal spirit . Just give me a number. 80. 70. 80, 75. 60. 85. 90. So weve gone 60 to 90. Most people tend to be in the 70s . Okay. 70s. Believe that god is a person with whom you can have a relationship. So in other words, what were doing is moving away from those people who say god is in Nature Or Gravity or some other force, to someone that i can pray to and have a relationship with. 60. 40. What else . 80. Okay. So that number is lower than your number that believes in god or universal spirit. Okay, all right. Believe in life after death. 80, 80, 75. How about believe in heaven . 70. 50. 51 . 31. Anyone below 31 . Anyone above 80 . 90. How about believe in hell . Is Everyones Belief in hell below belief in heaven . Because were all no . You have it flipped . What are your two numbers . 50 60, okay. Believe that scripture is the word of god. 40, 60. How about believe that miracles still occur today as in ancient times, which is both they occurred in ancient times and they occur today, right . So theres two parts. 20. 40. 85. Okay. 75. 75, 80. How about, believe that angels and demons are active in the world. 85. It was on oprah. [ laughter ] so here are some actual numbers. 92 of americans believe in god or a universal spirit. Even 21 of agnostics or atheists believe. 60 believe that god is a person with whom you can have a relationship. 74 believe in life after death. 74 believe in heaven. 59 believe in hell. We are americans, right . So i think the americans tend to be a more charitable and the idea that they all want to go to heaven and scared of hell. They were not raised in my church, by the way. 63 believe that scripture is the word of god. Is this more religious than many of you imagined . I noticed the poll [ inaudible ]. Yeah, no, they do it every ten years, i havent seen the new numbers yet. A real trend in the United States away from so the question is real difference between believing in religion and attending church. Oh, no, yes, this is not certainly yeah, no, there absolutely is a growth in the unchurched, number of people who this is not about church membership, thats a whole different set of numbers. Yes, there are people who describe themselves as spiritual but not as denominational, right . So here is the other numbers. 79 agree that miracles still occur today as in ancient times. 68 believe that angels and demons are active in the world. So first of all, i was raised in a church in which this is 100 the belief, right . So i was raised in the idea that as a kid who sat during pastor beemers sermons and red the book of revelation over and over again, a demonfilled world is not that strange. But 70 of americans believe in angels and demons. That might match with some of you but its way higher than others. So if we live in a world with our fellow american citizens and 70 of them believe that demons are active in the world then where do we say, what are the weird things . Right . If we live in a world where you can say, well, such and such number of percentage of americans said this thing, and you go, I Cant believe it, then the newscaster said, but remember, 70 of us believe in demons, you suddenly go, well, okay. Like, so in other words, oftentimes this is not the world that american Historian Teach to. We dont teach to a world in which we think of a world of enlightenment scholars who are only looking at rational evidence. But 70 of us, if you take this number at all legitimate, maybe its less, but what number of people believing in demons is high enough, that you have to say, when were talking about evidentiary discussions, we might not be talking about the world we think of, right . Belief that houses can be haunted. 55. 60. The funny thing is, ill give you the numbers in the interests of time, right . So 37 of americans believe houses can be haunted. I will tell you that when i ask my students, they spike the graph on haunted houses. For some reason, the group of 18 to 21 are 100 down for haunted houses, right . 25 in astrology. This is a 2005 gallup survey. I would like to see, its not as big as the other one so the numbers might have some fungibility. 21 that people can hear from or communicate mentally with someone who has died. 21 believe in witches. My sense is this is not wiccans, the idea that people who are practicing witches, but actually witches in the salem cavorting with the dark arts sense. But remember, popular culture is absolutely full of this to the brim. Innocence that we say its fiction but clearly its having an effect or maybe thats not what it is, its long Standing Folk beliefs or whatever, but were talking about a world in which 40 believe in haunted houses, 70 believe in angels and demons, right . It is hard at some point that ive said in a previous talk in a different context, its hard not to think that were living in a medieval world with high speed internet, right . That we want to think that like these things dont exist because we are in a modern world and we have rockets. Yes, we have rockets, and weve invented the internet, which is a magical device that puts all of human knowledge at our fingertips and we can share it worldwide with a single touch of a single button and what i want to say about it is my experience with a democrat on, right . The experiences we have, the world that we actually live in, our fellow americans, maybe not people in this room, maybe people in this room, is a much more mysticalfilled world than we want to often think of when were talking about engaging with other people. Nearly half believe it was very likely or somewhat likely, u. S. Air force is withholding the proof of life on other planets. Were going to talk about this a little more when we talk about the racial differences in conspiracy theories. Yes. [ inaudible ] what percent that was a different survey that wasnt up here. The number who believe christ will return before 2050, the reason its before 2050 was it was asked in 2010 by pew and the question said, in the next 40 years. And the reason it is structured that way is to separate those people, if you are in southern baptist church of the nazarene, faiths that have a strong component of the second coming of christ like i was raised in and other ones, there are a large number, will that eventually happen, of course, but this was to say, in my lifetime. Is this an event that i do my Life Thinking of my life forward with the expectation that christ would appear in the next 40 years. So in other words, am i doing my my Estate Planning might be a little different. The number is 41 . It was a Pew Research of only 1,500 adults so those numbers are a little more fuzzy, right . 36 this is a 2012 nat geo survey. 36 believe ufos exist but 79 believe the government is keeping information about ufos from the public. Right . I dont know exactly how these numbers work. Remember, the phrasing of questions can always bring up different things. You try to phrase a question, people read it a different way. But it is not beyond what weve talked about today to think in the first place, i dont think ufos exist but i definitely believe the federal government is covering up information about it, because if you ask me the question, is the government covering up yes. Right . Even if i think it doesnt exist, its covering up the nonexistence, right . 79 believe men in black threaten witnesses of ufo even though 33 believe ufos exist. Yes . [ inaudible ]. My grandparents always pick up the phone and will listen through the entire survey. But my parents are too busy and hang up. And so i wonder, out of these surveys youre right. I dont know exactly in 2007 how they did it. I know they tried to adjust for age across the spectrum of the people. That survey, i would feel pretty good about the numbers. The other ones, probably less so. So the numbers can be a little fungible. But im in that group, if i dont recognize the number thats calling me, my phone might as well not even have a ringer on it. So i understand. Yeah, i dont know. I think we always take these with a little bit of salt, if you want to really lean on one of these figures, you would want to get deeper into the i would want them to set parameters of what we think. But youre right, its a great question. Particularly as you move more and more modern, the degree to which there are not even landlines. So it changes [ inaudible ]. Do you have a question . I know a lot of times we put in the dichotomy of we are becoming a more secular people. Is it not possible to say its just both and that its just were diverging as a culture . Yeah. I think that there is evidence that we are becoming a less churched people or less traditionally churched people in the sense of denominational attachment. But i dont see theres any lack of i mean, the idea that were becoming secular in the sense that were becoming rational enlightenment figures that voltaire wouldve imagined, i dont see that at all. Is that related to the church people, does that, like, relate to im not going to go to my pastor Whos Somebody i have a relationship with, im going to go to the internet where i have a relationship. Yeah, i dont know. I think it would not take me much to start me speculating but i think it would just be that. My priest was a good guy, and he surely believed in angels, i did not, but i trusted him on other things. Do you know what i mean . Yeah. Again, i dont know how all of those things would affect all of these beliefs. But my argument, and, again, i dont think any of these questions are bad, or i think these are great questions. But there is a sense of what i want to establish is when we want to make conclusions that a conspiracy seems ridiculous, we need to put in the context of what americans actually believe. And the boundaries of what they actually believe are much wider and much more, you know, for someone who wants to think that were all about rational discourse, a lot scarier in a sense that what people believe that the boundaries of belief are far wider than we want to accept. So this is some information. They have done a book called american conspiracy theories where they did questionnaires published in 2014, an extensive survey about Conspiracy Belief. They also examined 100,000 letters to the editors published between 1890 and 2010 to get a sense of a place where people were publicly talking about different conspiracies. And what they have argued is that theres a conspiratorial dimension in american society, a group of people who believe in conspiracies and think conspiratorially but are not relegated to one political, racial, or social group. What theyve done is theyve tried to get peoples responses to this set of questions to begin to classify them. A Base Line Set of open to conspiratorial thinking by asking a series of questions. Much of the news we get from mainstream news sources is deliberately slanted to mislead us. Much of our lives are being controlled by plots hatched in secret places. The occult, they lied to us, even though we live in a democracy a few people always run things anyway, which had 63 agree or strongly agree. The people who really run the country are not known to the voters, 50 agree or strongly agree. So they use these answer to these questions and others to break out these people who are higher on the conspiracy dimension and lower on the others. In other words, so they give these based on all of these answers being indexed you come out as either low, medium, or high. And then the question was to look at the demographics of those people to see whether the high group, and, for example, falls along the lines that we would imagine. Midwestern whos aged 28 and his name is phil and he lives in his parents basement. How specific can you be on who these people are . And heres what they found. This is the whole group of measured conspiratorial dispositions. To control in secret places is 10 agree, somewhat strongly agree to a few people run things, people who run the country, agree is the strongest for all of those questions that i presented to you. And then it drops down. So this is just to tell you that of all of them, controlled in secret places are the ones that have neither strong or disagree but just that how these things are distributed according to these questions. This isnt getting us yet to the demography. Gender, male versus female. Low, about even, medium. Female is slightly higher in medium, and then men are slightly higher in high. So in high there are slightly a few more men than women. In medium there are slightly a few more women than men. But, by and large the thing that stands out here is that the Gender Distribution is almost 50 50. So immediately our thought that this is only a male phenomenon then needs to be revised. As does, and i think your question is even better, than where are the female leaders is a really great question. Where are the women . Because when you look at studies of these communities, they are really focusing on men. And i think thats a missing piece in this puzzle if we accept that the numbers are closer to 50 50, right . Education. So, among people with no high school, it is the highest. But its 40 among high school graduates, its almost 40 . College degrees, its 30 , and postgraduate is 25. Now, depending on whether you think the difference between 40 and 25 is really large or surprisingly small, this number is not overwhelming in the sense that once you get a College Degree it disappears. Youre 30 30 of people in their survey with College Degrees or some college are still high on the index of believing these conspiracies. So that certainly education has an effect that the less education theres a chance of being higher, but not nearly as big as you would imagine, right . And that postgraduate has the most number of people who are low for a variety of reasons, theyre socialized into kind of Enlightenment Thinking or Problemsolving And Use of evidence or whatever. But, again, the numbers across the board show that education matters, it is a big effect, but its not the overwhelming effect in which youd say as you go up this number drops to 5 or 10 . More other findings. Very surprising political ideology strongly democrat or very liberal or very conservative and party affiliation, strong democrat or strong republican does not have a very high effect. People with high levels on the conspiracy dimension raised between 24 and 40 on the democratic side and 27 and 33 on the republican side. In fact, the highest rates perhaps, unsurprisingly, are among independents because people who have rejected both parties as being tools of whatever are not effective for a variety of reasons are independent, they have the highest levels. But it is not a sense that it is rightwingers who are involved in Conspiracy Thinking according to the way theyre studying it. It does change very much who is involved in the conspiracies, that people on the right wing are looking at conservatives or are looking at communists, theyre looking at socialists. People on the left wing are looking at corporations, haliburton. So the people they are picking for conspiracies are very different. But the degree to which they believe in conspiracies, that, in other words, right wing, left wing, democrat, republican, they all have a secret room where they are meeting to do things we dont like. But the Membership List and the name cards on the seats in the secret room are completely different. George soros versus dick cheney. You have very different people depending on which side. Those on the index are less likely to vote or give money, which is probably not surprising more likely to be genxers than millennials, those born in the late 60s and 70s are more likely to believe in conspiracies than millennials who were born later that. Might change as they get older. Who knows. Slightly more inclined to violence. This is a big question as to whether people who believe in conspiracies are more inclined to violence. Slightly, they answered the Question Violence is sometimes an acceptable way to show disapproval of the government. 16 of people on the high end said yes. 11 of medium, 6 of low. So if you believe in conspiracies, there is a higher chance of committing violence or maybe not committing, higher level of chance of believing violence is a legitimate way to show disfavor to the government but not in a way thats, for me, overwhelmingly different 16 to 11 . So, obama not born in the United States is the red. 9 11 conspiracy and the federal government in the blue. This is 2006, maybe its changed since then. The interesting thing is both conspiracies are believed by wide numbers of americans, different americans, that the democrats 40 plus percent believe that 9 11 was a conspiracy in the federal government, much lower among republicans, and then obama not born in the United States is surprisingly very low among democrats and very high among republicans. So in the sense, what political party does is tell you staff the villains differently and choose which conspiracies youre scared of but not necessarily whether you believe in conspiracies at all. Yeah . [ inaudible ] what, if any, role does Religion Play in whether someone believes in conspiracies . In looking at the questions that we looked at in terms of what americans said, so many of them are religionbased. Im wondering whether im not sure that ive seen any of the people who were asking conspiracy theories. I dont have or know the numbers that ive seen that are telling me if im catholic im much more likely to believe in conspiracies. Because these people are not asking religious questions, and the people that are asking the Pew Study but they havent been indexed in a way that they really need to be because thats really a great question. So, this is a comment related to the gender thing. I did some googling, and i found an article on gq that was like the ten sexiest women that you didnt know were Conspiracy Theorists. So i went through it and its all, like, the themes that i saw were aliens, mermaids, astrology, and antivaxxers, not political. So, that was like so after you showed like statistics of, like, oh, well theres more likely to be, its 50 50, i think maybe considering, like, what conspiracy theories women are more likely to be involved in than thats a great idea, in the sense that i also think vaccination might be one of the center rings of that. Thats a really great point. Yeah, so its not just again, it might be that gender, theyre looking at political breakdown and how that affects Conspiracy Belief. I think if you looked at gender, what you might find is not less or more but the particular conspiracies that they are interested in might be different according to their gender. You want to not be so gender centralist but you want to check them out and look at them. Thank you for googling. Which groups are conspiring . For democrats its corporations, and conservatives for republicans its liberals and communists to the degree that those are different things in the minds of some conservatives. Yeah . Ive gotten slightly confused now about conspiracy. Does it have to be conducted secretly . And im thinking about some, like, people, like myself, who believe that the wealthy and powerful work in ways that are obvious but dishonest. Is that a conspiracy . I would want to put you on the couch and have you talk me through it. [ laughter ] so, i mean, again, this is what we started with before that conspiracies exist. We know that at bohemian grove or we know at bilderburg, this seems unfair that they have this system economically structured and rewards certain people and not other people. I think that there is a way in which politics is the dividing up of the goods and services in a particular political group, and they go to some people and dont go to others. I think there is a point where that moves into conspiracy, but i dont think on its face it is, yeah. Good question. So, a political they argue the Conspiracy Theorists follow political logic. Following in the Pecking Order to explain losses, close ranks. This is trump saying its going to get stolen from me, and hes preparing people on the right side to defeat at the hands of clinton in setting up that it was a conspiracy that has taken it from him to kind of preprepare for how hell handle a loss. So they argue that the big factors are asymmetries and political power generally linked to who has the white house. That would be your explanation for 9 11. 9 11 happens with a republican president and the perception is this is a republican conspiracy to have a war in the middle east. Had obama or had gore been sitting in that office, my guess is the read, according to them, wouldve been completely different, that whoever was sitting in the chair, the other team is going to accuse could you see them of something. If theres not a foreign threat, the most overwhelming thing is political changes in who has power domestically, democrats who has the white house, generally, or republicans. So when obama goes into office, all of a sudden leftwing complaints about corporations and the rightwing drop when trump goes into office, concern about George Soros and the power of socialist is going to drop, that they engage as political power shifts. Now, i think this is somewhat too simple. I dont think it explains everything. I dont think it handles all of the conspiracies that move beyond political. But it is worth thinking about, particularly because were at the 9 11 museum, which is not only but certainly in a large part a political conspiracy. Had we did not talking about different conspiracies, this information might be less if were talking about ufos, for example. Still might be interesting to think the widespread belief in who the Conspiracy Theorists are, but this is much more a kind of them political scientists not surprisingly looking at political questions. The fact that Glenn Beck. When i was teaching a conspiracy class, Glenn Beck was mustsee tv, you just take clips and bring them into class. In 2008 he gets a show, theres a lot of Conspiracy Theory, a lot of George Soros and gould and different things. For their argument, of course, obama wins the field is ripe for a kind of conspiracy theories, particularly aiming at socialist and communists. And then when republicans take the house in 2010, becks popularity goes down, theres less of a need of this, the panic over Obamas Victory is lower. So they would argue that the political domestic shifts explain that change. There might be other issues as well. So this is also the reason why jfk stays so popular. Jfk is the perfect conspiracy for politics because depending on where you sit politically, you can always find your bad guys in the room. If you want a foreign threat, its soviet or its cuban. If you are concerned about the right wing, then they are Cia Agents, military corporations, bell helicopter, and oliver stones movie. Or if youre rightwing and youre concerned about someone on the left having killed kennedy, then theyre communists, theyre procastro, theyre literally soviets. As well as mobsters in case you want a wild card. So because of the number of attacks, the number of different theories about kennedy, it spans across the spectrum. This is from the internet. I tried to issue interestfree money into the system so the american people wouldnt be enslaved by the Banking Cartel and the federal reserve had me killed. So even if you dont want to do left right Communist Capitalist Cia mobsters, if you like any of those, you can turn to the fed because kennedy was going to introduce silverbacked money. There are many conspiracies that stem between africanamericans and white societies. And again as we talked about this should not be surprising, given the history of white supremacy and racial oppression of nonwhite groups in this country, given the number of things that were done to them purely legally, whether it is jim Crow Segregation or slavery for 400 years, the idea that the american government is working against the interests of africanamericans, latinx and other people of color is not surprising. The numbers well look at in a second, but the changes are not necessarily the interesting conspiracies but what the conspiracies are. The belief that the Crack Epidemic of the 1990s was a Cia Plot coming out of gary webbs working in the san jose mercury news. The idea that aids was invented in the government to eliminate the black race. Again, you would like to say the american government would not do that. I would like to believe i do believe the american government would not do that. But you also have the tuskegee syphilis experiment. You have a long history of medical experiments being done to africanamerican populations in which it makes it very hard to say that is categorically untrue. I think its untrue, i dont think it makes sense, it seems like an awkward disease to release for various reasons, it isnt going to be effective. But i also think the fact that im talking about the logistics of doing it means ive already lost the moral argument that it couldve happened. During katrina, the intent to flood the ninth ward. Among africanamericans there are different conspiracies that come out directly of the africanamerican experience. Things in which i mean, arguably i imagine people in the gay community could look at aids as a kind of rightwing plan to get rid of homosexuals. Its possible to imagine using these pieces to come up with a different conspiracy. But that is not one that is necessarily plaguing middleclass america. This is raise and conspiratorial predispositions. Among whites, low is 36 , high is about 30 , and medium is about 35. Among africanamericans its about 20 for low. So fewer on the low end. Many more on the high end, almost 45 . And then the medium. And high is about 30 . So the high is not that much different among the races. Again, its not and then this is hispanic down here, nonwhite hispanic, in which medium is very high. So more people in the black community are open to these. They rank in the medium or high. But on the high level its not exclusively higher for africanamericans or what they have as hispanic or latinx versus white. So here you have Spike Lee, and hes on bill mar in 2007. Its not far fetched. A choice had to be made to save one neighborhood, flood another neighborhood. Look, if were in l. A. And theres an Emergency Situation we call from beverly hills or we call from compton, which one are the cops coming to first. Do you think the 2000 election was fair . If they can rig an election, they can do anything. Have you ever heard of the tuskegee experiments . There are many examples where stuff like this happened to africanamerican people. I dont put anything past the american government when it comes to people of color. So in this one statement, Spike Lee is moving through a number of things weve discussed tonight as far saying as an africanamerican male whos familiar with the history of the american people and the africanamerican people with the american government, there are a number of things. One, structural racism, we dont get the kind of social services that we get. Two, you have to make a decision to flood one neighborhood, and of course the africanamericans come out on the bad end of that. And the tuskegee experiments just to put in there dont tell me the Government Wouldnt do this, right . And then in the middle, do you think the 2000 election was fair . If they can rig an election, they can do anything. Again, there is this. And if you change the names, date, people, places but kept all of this talking about they with a different set of evidence, it could work for people of different races. But these are distinct because of the experience of africanamericans inside of the United States. Does that make sense . Does this connect to sorry. I just made a quick connection to what we talked about earlier if 36 believe ufos exist but 79 believe the government is keeping information away about that. So its kind of, like, well, i dont know that i believe in ufos, but if there were, it wouldnt surprise me that its being kept a secret. Theres a long history among understandably, among the africanamerican population, of all the things being done. General distrust . Absolutely. Right. The Basketball Player and flat earth, they lied to us, on the back of a kids jersey, trust no one. So, i guess, i find it problematic to compare, you know, events where there is evidence like these, like the tuskegee experiment. Sure. The eugenics movement. There are lots of examples. Right. To belief in ufos. I dont see it as the same. I understand that what i guess i wanted to say is the argument here in which, and i think that if you want to look at what has been done, and im not necessarily saying this is the same as ufo belief. But i am saying that this is conspiratorial belief about politics, and the arguments that hes making is one in which we Cant Trust the government, the government acts against us. Among the general, you know, society that this and, again, because i am a person of color, i will tend to believe these kinds of statements because, like even the eugenics movement, it wasnt just people of color, it was poor people. If youre poor regardless of what color you are in this country, many things have happened absolutely. Where the government has made certain decisions or just absolutely discounted the rights and the humanity of the people being affected. Well, i guess the difference would be that in our kind of first conversation which is these things are revealed to have actually occurred. And it kind of goes into there are things that are done that we know are done that are wrong and evil that arent conspiracies. Some of these certainly fall into that. But this is also the basis of is age designed in a lab. The rationale for here is somewhat easier to buy because theyre talking about things that actually occurred. Some of those other beliefs, this is going to be the evidence, the Proof Text for that in similar ways if not as believable for other conspiracies that are going to draw on what the american government has done more generally. Yeah . Whats interesting to me is that the and this is from an english teacher, the rhetorical moves, the rhetoric is the same even though the experience is absolutely different, as you said, and absolutely accurately based on history. But because is it fair to say that because the rhetoric is the same, the rhetorical moves, the moves of argument, that these are both conspiracy theories . Well, i think its interesting. Say we go to this. Dark alliances 1996 gary webb, pulitzerprize winning journalist wrote a series of articles arguing that during the iran contra plot Cia Agents looked the other way. The press was attacked for saying the cia started the Crack Epidemic. He didnt say necessarily he wasnt even arguing that the was bringing in the crack and selling it to the streets, as much as they were alined with people who were selling drugs to finance their paramilitary activities and the cia looked the other way. Now, so, the question is, is this true or not . I mean, its hard to imagine saying, again, wed love to say the u. S. Government wouldnt do this. I actually think theres a really strong argument that the claims of africanamerican people in particular, latino people as well, that there are claims that are legitimate are dismissed as conspiracies because they sound like the other conspiracies. So i think that there is a sense in which you can attack Spike Lee or ignore Spike Lee and say flooding the ninth ward or medical experiments or tuskegee. Like, at some point tuskegee, if that had come out in the late 60s as an accusation, people wouldve said thats absolutely 100 not true, it cant be true, its a crazy Conspiracy Theory. I think one of the other angles is that when Spike Lee sounds like, in many cases, other like, if you change these words, then legitimate complaints of africanamericans and people of color are rejected as conspiracy theories when in fact they will be proved not to have been. So, how does conspiratorial Thinking Work . And this is slightly different getting into the idea of moves and rhetoric. Language of symbols. You will see if you read any conspiracy stuff, they will show symbols, talk about symbols, the importance of symbols, the obsession with numbers and dates. If you were going to make, and i make my students make a conspiracy and to see whether theyve mastered this kind of language. The idea that roswell and the cia are both founded in 47. Thats going to be one. The fact that the american revolution and the illuminati are both in 1776. Youre going to draw these connections. Often of groups in fans, big elements of racism and antisemitism. Antisemitism, jewish bankers are alive and well. That is a big rhetoric, big background move. Antisemitism rears its head. Often seen as connections to biblical or other ancient groups. Sometimes it is the masons if they count, they claim to be connected to king solomon, to bible to ancient astronauts to the templars come up a lot of these ancient groups that are tied into it. Or that this is part of a long, understood biblical luciferian plot. And keystone thoughts that are not obvious in the conspiracy itself. We have a question. There are no coincidences. This is probably the most powerful thing of thinking about conspiratorial thought. If something happens on a day that is related to another event, it must be connected. It is impossible that the ufos and the cia are not connected. There are no coincidences because many of the conspiratorial thinking is if there are two things, much conspiratorial thinking is simply, did you know that blank and blank, right . So did you know that 2 and 6 . Im not adding it up, im not telling you what it is, im just saying doesnt it seem a little weird that 7 and 4 and 4 . [ laughter ] so youll see this again and again, the rationale of saying im putting two things together and im not causally linking them, but doesnt it seem strange that this symbol is on both things . I also want to say, and this is where we get into some religion because i was raised in an end times church, but it is ripe in american culture. Remember that hotchstetter was talking about millennialism and apocalyptic views that often conspiracy fears are connected to christian eschatology, the study of the end of the world, the rapture, the second coming, the tribulation, that involves numerology and symbols. If you read the book of revelation, which is a key text for this, there are going to be seven horns and nine crowns and so many bulls and so many angels and so many witnesses and saints, and theres going to be a dragon and a leopard. Its all symbolism. Its all, again, remember, the occult idea, the hidden. This is a code to be figured out, to tell you what will happen in the future. You need to know who the dragon is and who is the whore of babylon and what is the antichrist, all of these questions. And if you believe in the kind of what has emerged as a how end times. The left behind series comes massive. The first four left behind books have the four slots on the new york times bestseller list. At the same time, seven have been number one, five films of differing quality and one pc game. But this is a popular culture. And the understanding, remember, that the underlying argument of this kind of how lindsey late great Planet Earth Revelation thought is there will be a World Government controlled by the antichrist, and it will persecute christians during the tribulation. So when they talk about the u. N. Or they talk about the atf or they talk about the new World Order and you want to argue particular bits of this, for some people they are not arguing that evidence because they know there will be a World Government. Okay, maybe its not the u. N. , maybe its the e. U. , maybe its something else. But youre trying to argue the facts of a particular case. But underneath it is this belief of that we know that there will be a World Government. You want to argue whether its going to be agenda 21 is part of it or not. But the real argument is do we believe that the book of revelation is telling a future story in which there will be a World Government led by the antichrist. If this is the narrative of the future then were only waiting for the world to get in line with what we know will occur. And so an argument about agenda 21 is only a tiny bit of an argument of a giant World View that is often hidden from view in the conversation that youre having. This is an illuminated reading of the dollar. How did we get an eagle . And so this is the obsession of the 13, it could be the 13 colonies, maybe, who knows. This is the 72 layers of brick are tied to the name of god and the cabala. And the Allseeing Eye and lucifer. But it is strange that on our money. Like, if you look at other countries money, there are birds on it. There is, like, Madam Curie or like a poet. And ours has a masonic symbol of the Allseeing Eye, right . And, again, it happened, roosevelt who was a mason, talked to Henry Wallace who was his Vice President about redesigning a money, also a mason. This is the great seal of the United States. So these two things are either side of the great seal of the United States, which never got much play, but was made in the 1770s by a bunch of masons and its now put on the money. But theres an argument that they will argue that this money is a kind of magic spell, that the money looks like this for a reason. If someone is plotting and saying theres a luciferian masonic Plot Part of the United States, and they feature this, then this is the argument of, these are the important symbolism. This I Cant actually believe. So you have people who are afraid of the government. You have people who are afraid of the government, afraid of plots, afraid of masonic plots, luciferian plots. John poindexter was indicted and convicted in the irancontraaffair. Do you know what darpa is . Darpa is the defense advanced machine projects administration, i think. It is the spookiest of the spooky. It is where the government makes its most advanced pieces of technology. Its a big thing in conspiracies for Weather Manipulation or chem trails. If you need a piece of tech that is on the edge of scientific possibility, darpa is your office. So its already suspicious. This was he was head of the Information Awareness Office. Does anybody know where the Information Awareness Office was supposed to be . This was the debate in 2002 over whether the nsa would be legally able to collect all of your communications on the internet and all of your phone calls. And the Information Awareness Office was the office that was going to collect all of the electronics communications. There was a huge pushback against it, and this was shelved, though, parts of it were put into other things. So this is a guy convicted in irancontra, comes back, working with darpa on the Information Awareness Office. They have come up with a symbol for this organization where theyre saying we are going to absorb all of your information. Were going to keep it but trust us, well be okay with it, and im john poindexter, you can believe me, i was in irancontra. [ laughter ] does anybody know the symbol they picked for this information . The Allseeing Eye . It is a floating Allseeing Eye with a beam coming onto the planet absorbing all human knowledge. [ laughter ] and then you wonder, like, you got to think, like, you got to be trolling people, right . You put science is power underneath a picture of a floating masonic eye with its beam shooting down on i think europe . I mean, right so these were the olympic mascots in 2012. So you put that on top and you go, like, they say its a Cab Light. Do you think anyone concerned about watching the giant Space Pyramid would think thats a Cab Light . Like youre going to have the olympics there and youre going to give them oneeyed figures with pyramids on their heads . [ laughter ] and i dont think this is an illuminati plot, but, i mean, youve got to think, like, come on, right . So, what are the appeals of these beliefs . One is there really is a deep pleasure in figuring out whats happening and whats in the know. Theres a lot of work done on the importance of Pt Barnum in the 19th century. And part of the appeal of barn yum, the mystery come and see the Fiji Mermaid was to go there and figure it out. This is the why we want to watch a magician, why we want to watch chris angle. Part of it is we want the idea of im going to figure out the trick. This is on a bigger scale. That sense that you have in talking to so many Conspiracy Theorists on a Delta Flight where they look at you and they say youre fooled, im not fooled, i know whats going on, i understand, im not one of the sheep, i figured it out, im above the system, i understand whats really going on, in a world of confusing complexity, i have the key, ive unlocked it, i know what Cause And Effect is and how it works. Because, in reading a lot of these conspiracy theories, there is a real sense of fear that no one is in control. The idea that even if theres a conspiracy thats controlling everything thats malicious, thats evil, thats cruel, at least someones in control. I can see it in the reading of kind of writings of puritans in the 17th century and the Calvinist God is a mean at times god. But its still in the sense of being in the hands of someone whos in control. Even if theres an evil conspiracy, at least things arent just happening random, we arent just prisoner of one thing bouncing into another or that 9 11 just happened because it happened that way. There has to be somebody behind it. And if somebodys behind it even if its not somebody that you want to be in charge, the idea that the world is a thing that can be controlled, and its not random, and someones behind it and theres a plot, theres a purpose, theres a reason for this all. Even if the reasons awful, is sometimes better for many of these people than the idea that its just random. Because also if there is someone in control, if the world, the modern world in all of its complexity is something that can be controlled, then we can replace the person thats in control or put someone good in charge. Someone can be in charge. So theres something to fight against. If all of these things just simply happen out of happenstance, then how do we improve . If there is a world that we can control, then we can fight against it. And if we fight against it, we can win, and this thing is a thing that can be controlled. Many Conspiracy Theorists overstate their ability to explain things. This is now when youre in conversation with them, such as gravity or light. People want to have universal sets of explanations. Its easier, its more comprehensive if you say that all of these things are due to a particular single factor, it makes it easier to understand. Often times, and you will see this if you are going to engage your students in this. They will give you and quote information that has no basis and fact, but it will be quoted to you in a very strong voice. And part of this is american democracy has always had a really uncomfortable experience with experts. There is a strong part of our culture that says im not going to listen to you just because you are some expert or you have a degree. There is this kind of and, again, politicians play into this all the time. The elites, the experts want to tell you that you dont know such and such. But we should run our economy, our Nations Economy the same way you run a household economy. Well, that makes no sense. But, to tell you a politician who says you dont need to listen to the experts you know. Right, how many people are, like, well, yeah, your cardiologist said that, but my naturalologist said i should do this. And you think why should i believe one rather than the other . Why should we believe someone simply because theyre an expert . And this rejection of expertise is the sense that you Cant Trust it because they lie to you. Well, sure your cardiologist said that but thats because the ama has tried to get rid of natural medicine for a hundred years. So hes just a pawn in this conspiracy. Cultural Theorist Peter Knight noted that conspiracy had become the Default Assumption in an age which has learned to distrust everything and everyone. I think tomorrow is here and said as a millennial all of this stuff is literally the language that she speaks. She doesnt even need to talk about it or have language because the images that you see, the memes simply communicate all of the information because shes so kind of, like, involved in this culture this way. And the actions of government have, as weve talked about throughout the day, have led to more of these. Even the attempts to be transparent have led to the assumption of more conspiracies. So one of these things that you see in these conspiracies as you engage with them is that they escalate, they find themselves escalating the plot in. 9 11, for example, for a person who says, well, who has to be in on it . Well, there werent actually planes, those were missiles. Well, what happened to the actual planes with actual passengers . Well, they were taken so now everyone at this airfield is also involved, and they were just murdered there . So you get these theories as you move out. You have to have more and more people involved in them. To have the moon hoax, you have to have all of these, people not only at the time in nasa but then since and then all the people in government and all the people whove covered it up after that and all of the astronauts and people who worked in nasa after that, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. All the logistics of hiding planes, of hiding 9 11, faking the Moon Landing, the flat earth is huge on this. I mean, to hide the fact that the earth is flat