Best-selling author Michael Shermer presents an overarching theory
of conspiracy theories-who believes them and why, which ones are
real, and what we should do about them. Nothing happens by
accident, everything is connected, and there are no coincidences:
that is the essence of conspiratorial thinking. Long a fringe part
of the American political landscape, conspiracy theories are now
mainstream: 147 members of Congress voted in favor of objections to
the 2020 presidential election based on an unproven theory about a
rigged electoral process promoted by the mysterious group QAnon.
But this is only the latest example in a long history of ideas that
include the satanic panics of the 1980s, the New World Order and
Vatican conspiracy theories, fears about fluoridated water,
speculations about President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and
the notions that the Sandy Hook massacre was a false-flag operation
and 9/11 was an inside job. In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents
an overarching review of conspiracy theories-who believes them and
why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust
in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race,
income, education level, occupational status-and even political
affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies,
Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be
constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's
1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed
patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you
(Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Afghanistan); and, tragically, some
adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals
that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of
control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do
certain personality traits. This engaging book will be an important
read for anyone concerned about the future direction of American
politics, as well as anyone who's watched friends or family fall
into patterns of conspiratorial thinking.
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