Conspiracy Theories Conspiracy theories, are they a bunch of made up old wives tales or are they reality as we know it? Well, first of all, let’s take a look at the definition of a “theory”. A “theory” or “theories” are analytical tools for understanding and explaining a given subject manner however, they aren’t always true, but they are generally expected to follow principles of rational thought or logic. Most conspiracy theories cause paranoia in certain people; it gives you the reality of this actually being true because they are published in books, written in large serious segments in websites etc. Real time events, such as the “UFO” crash site in the 1940’s caused a lot of commotion, events like this fuel people to write conspiracy theories. When the internet was established, a large number of conspiracy theorists broke out onto the internet, writing about practically every world event/tragedy. This essay will shed light on the connection between the internet and conspiracy theories, paranoia induced by conspiracy theories and finally; real time events that fuel conspiracy theorists to create conspiracies. Most conspiracy theories cause paranoia in certain people. This statement can easily be proven, take this quote from a certified psychologist for instance; “"Conspiracy theory" is usually used as a pejorative label, meaning paranoid, nutty, marginal, and certainly untrue” –Floyd Rudmin. And there are many more of these quotes from specialists such as ‘Floyd Rudmin’, but it is redundant due to the large amounts of quotes there are. Now, an actual conspiracy theory about AIDS being a man-made disease - There are claims that AIDS is a man-made disease (i.e. created by scientists in a laboratory). Some of these theories... ... middle of paper ... ... So, there you have it; conspiracy theories, as stated, they aren’t always true, believe them at your own extent. Paranoia will eventually hit you once you’ve read enough conspiracy theories; this was proven by the quotes from certified and trustworthy psychologists like ‘Floyd Rudmin’. Real time events fuel conspiracy theorists to create conspiracy theories; this effect can also be amplified if there is a lack of evidence in the real time event/tragedy. Since the internet was such a new and weird, let’s call it an ‘add-on’ to life, when it was newly established; people recognized it as a source of hard and spot-on information. With these factors put in place, people believed everything that was on the internet, including conspiracy theories, thus creating a large number of conspiracy theories from decade to decade, century to century and generation to generation.
Conspiracy theories are entertaining for many to speculate and demand a great deal of thought to constitute. A conspiracy theory is defined as the idea that many important political, economic, and social trends are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public (“The Definition of Conspiracy Theory”). Many conspiracy theories are thought up around children’s shows, which offers a feeling of nostalgia and pleasure. A few children’s show conspiracies that need a deeper light shone on them are from Max & Ruby (2002-2013), Winnie the Pooh (1977), Rugrats (1990-2004), and All Grown Up (2003-2008).
Conspiracy theories accuse others of a cover up by secret planning. They may be based on a hunch or even backed by evidence. To the curious mind, they bring about unanswered questions that have attracted the attention of many people throughout history. Among some of the more popular theories are the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; the death of Princess Diana; alien encounters in Roswell, New Mexico; and the idea that Elvis may still be alive. Perhaps the most intriguing theory, because of our neighboring location, is the underground bunker and seemingly strange characteristics at the Denver airport.
The day that President Kennedy was assassinated, people started to view the world differently. His death was the first time that a conspiracy theory transformed into a conceivable form of knowledge among the general public. "It was because of Kennedy's death in Dallas that the conspiracy theory was born" (Wensley). It started with an article written ...
Conspiracy is a business that many people thrive on daily for their career. The number of theories associated with the John F. Kennedy assassination should show people that conspirators do not know the truth themselves. If there was one conspiracy that was proven a fact, there would be no need to continue making up others. The conspiracy theories of the assassination of John F. Kennedy do not show enough evidence to be considered fact.
Everyone in the world believes in certain things. Some may believe one thing is real, others may believe it’s fake. Now this brings me to something that I think is a very intriguing topic. And that’s conspiracy theories. A person that believes in conspiracy theories is called a conspiracy theorist. Now, most theories are just crazy and stupid, but a few are reasonable and some are almost certainly true.
The following is a complete verbatim transcription from a recent broadcast of "Network 23", a program shown on a local Los Angeles Public Access Cable Channel.Good evening, I'm Michel Kassett. This is Network 23. A couple of weeks ago we had a program on the subject of AIDS, addressing the question of whether AIDS-the AIDS virus-was created by the government; and I'm sure that some people were quite shocked by what they heard. We spent that entire program relating to you the evidence of a very substantial amount of factual evidence which supports the proposition that AIDS is a synthetic biological agent that was deliberately engineered by the US government as an instrument of depopulation.
One of the most debated and controversial topics in American History is the assassination of John F. Kennedy. JFK was one of the most loved presidents of our time. One article of his death wrote, "The day the country weeped"(John). The JFK assassination is filled with many conspiracy theories that cannot be proven to be exact facts. Such theories include a Government cover-up”CIA”, Mafia influence, The Illuminati, and Gay Thrill Kill Theory. The idea that lone mind, Lee Harvey Oswald, plotting to kill President Kennedy is too simple to believe. There’s No way that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, in the eyes of scholars today. Even with the growing number of bogus and garbage theories, there are a number of logical theories that do make a lot of sense when you think about them closely. In this paper, I will discuss a couple of the conspiracy theories that are out there and are published for the public to read.
Several rhetorical concepts are used to approach the readers of this article, these being proofs known as reasoning (logos), credibility (ethos), and emotion (pathos). Conspiracy theorists, such as Mock, often use logic or reason to attract readers. They understand that conspiracies are seen as lies and paranoia, so to build their audience they appeal to their logical side. In today’s society logic is everything, and being able to prove something is what is important. Making a reference to a factual document or book is always a source of proof. The reference towards a dictionary is used because it is something we use every day, something that is impo...
2) Moore, J. (2004). The puzzling origins of AIDS: Although no one explanation has been universally accepted, four rival theories provide some important lesson. American Scientist, 92(6), 540-547. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/27858482
“Mankind’s imagination has always been excited by the possibilities of unknown regions” (Nickell, 109). In the article “Mysterious Entities of the Pacific Northwest Part 1”, Joe Nickell explains the possibilities of pseudoscience, a presented scientific belief that is not yet scientifically valid, as well as the possibility of hoaxes. While there have been many claimed sightings of paranormal activity such as Bigfoot, Ghosts and the Loch Ness Monster, there has not been evidence to prove these claims as real. Almost everybody has heard their share of ghosts stories and the myths behind Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. These stories are universally shared, and recently, people have provided evidence claiming to have seen such mysterious phenomena. Humans are enthralled by certain claimed sightings because the unknown is interesting. Since the claims of pseudoscience, there have been many people creating videos, claiming to have seen Bigfoot, dressing up in costumes and coming up with ways for the public to believe that their footage is real. Such footage brings forth many opportunities, such as large amounts of money or publicity from those who believe the footage is valid. The time and thought put in by those who create hoax videos shows their urge to believe what has not been proven yet. There have been many claims that have been proven false and others remain mysteries, but humans continue to believe that there is paranormal activity that exists in our world. Some people believe in phenomena such as ghosts and UFO’s because such mysteries are interesting and provide information about our world that could be very important in the future. Mysterious phenomena inspire harmless fascination and could provide important information t...
In the article “Reason and Reality in an Era of Conspiracy” written by Stephen Asma he states that there is too little information sometimes on certain subjects, what then happens is people add to a story in an effort to make it more interesting. However, the worst of the offenders seem to be the “millennial generation” because they hate to be deemed as wrong. They just don’t ever think they have to be. The ideal way to assess this problem would be to require some sort of logic test or class for all students when they enter colleges. These courses need to be given by people that are trained in logical thought (Asma “Reason and Reality”). Conspiracy theories mainly start with the information the public hears or sees through sources like newspapers, television and the internet, however, is not solely there responsibility to stop
Such as, did inside traders know about attacks before the event even occurred, Why did the world's most powerful air force fail to intercept any of the four hijacked planes, Why did the Twin Towers collapse so quickly and a good question is why was the crash site at Shanksville, Pennsylvania so small and why was the aircraft debris not visible. Many of these conspiracies got most of the world thinking about the tragic event that occurred on september 11, 2001 and if it was an event that was made up by the government to set up the terrorist and their
Since the beginning of settled civilizations, people have had more mutual sharings than ever before. By the same token, there have been some conspiracy theories that are usually against the culturally accepted beliefs of religions, science and society. A conspiracy theory can be described so differently. However, as in his text, Marshall Brain explicates, a conspiracy is generally defined as a theory seeking to explain a disputed case or matter as a plot by a secret group or alliance rather than an individual or isolated act (Brain). Especially, after the new media has become quite popular, more and more conspiracies are theorized every single day, which aim to catch society’s attention via such media tools as the internet, journals and newspapers. Thus, people who theorize those conspiracies tend to use such objects as spiritual and mysterious ones in order to interest people. To illustrate, many examples can be given. For instance, many people have claimed that they were abducted by aliens, although they could show no evidences. Here, a citation from Blackmore could facilitate to understand the circumstance better. She states that people occasionally claim that they have been abducted from public places by aliens, in this case that may provide them with witnesses and affirmations but no evidence could be shown so far (Blackmore). As it is well known, only a small number of people believe such alien abductions, however, rating of this kind of news is quite high on media, because humankind has been wondering if there are extraterrestrial creatures out of the earth. Another example can be conspiracy theories which are about the origins of religions such as the rejection of Jesus Christ. There are some people who pay attention to...
In researching this and many other conspiracy theories, one can see many uses of sensationalism, mainly by the media. This media- the news (local and national), magazines, tabloids, television shows, movies, and so on- has a huge e...
This conspiracy takes the term man made more literally, and says that AIDS was created by the CIA in order to wipe out African Americans and homosexuals. It sounds out there, but it makes sense considering the discrimination against both of those groups. Racism still persists and hatred towards homosexuals has just increased over the years. Sure they have a lot more supporters than before as well, but with that comes much more backlash and attacks against these two groups. It is possible the government decided that this hatred would turn into something to big to handle, so they decided to try and end it discreetly before everything fell apart. Even if it is a very disturbing way to try to solve a problem, it is not like the US has not taken drastic measures to end issues before. Take to atomic bomb droppings for example. More than 95% of the people killed in those attacks were probably innocent people who had no right being killed, but the United States found it necessary if it meant ending the war. Creating AIDS could be a more secretive and slow way of ending another very serious issue which is causing anger between blacks/homosexuals and people who do not like them. It is not like this a theory that is only believed by uneducated people either. Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai, who won a Nobel Prize in 2004, used her platform to support the idea that AIDS was created by man. Overall, there is no definitive evidence to support where AIDS originated, but there is good reason to believe that the government wanted something to take out discriminated groups, so they created the