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Conspiracies & Conspiracy Theories

What We Should and Shouldn't Believe - and Why

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Conspiracies & Conspiracy Theories

By: Michael Shermer, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Michael Shermer
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About this listen

Millions of Americans buy into conspiracy theories. Did you know that...

  • 81 percent of Americans believe more than one person was responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy?
  • 1/3 of this country thinks 9/11 was an “inside job” by the Bush administration?
  • 21 percent believes aliens crash-landed in Roswell and are being hidden in Area 51?
  • 7 percent are convinced that the moon landing was faked?

What causes some people to advocate these unfounded—often disproven—ideas as reality? And why is the power of conspiracies so compelling that they can motivate people to act, some even participating in acts of violence?

In this eye-opening Audible Original, Professor Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and the host of the Science Salon podcast, takes you through some of the most prevalent conspiracy theories in history, giving you a clear understanding of how and why they came about, who was likely to believe and perpetuate them, and the reality behind these beliefs.

Whether you are looking for the truth regarding popular conspiracy theories; are fascinated by the psychology of why people buy into them; or are interested in how they shaped and were shaped by history, this course will provide you all the tools you need to better understand the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories.

©2019 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC. Media Studies Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Thought-Provoking Critical Theory

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All stars
Most relevant  
Some interesting points made in this book
Recommend it as it’s fairly easy to follow

Enjoyable

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easy to listen to,a great listen and very informative yet interesting,would for sure recommend

Good book

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A great set of lectures on the subject with psychological explanations for the phenomena

highly instructive

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I thought I was buying a book about conspiracy theories but it's quite a dry lecture for 80% of the book about theory rather than actual conspiracies.

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The beginning of the book was very insightful and interesting in regards to the phycology of conspiracy.
However I don't think the author was very balanced in his views it felt more what to think rather than a way of looking at thinks. For me personally 9/11 with all the facts is undoubtedly the most troubling for me.I was 15 and saw the BBC announced the falling of building 7, 25 minutes before it fell after I thought the whole thing very strange.

The Conspiracy theorist bane

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Very good narrator, engaging and easy to listen to, but nearing the end, the book explained the concepts less and less, which made it hard to follow. I have to listen to this again to understand better and remember all the biases. This book leaned well into my confirmation bias, lol.

Not everything explained, otherwise very good.

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I found the subject highly interesting and informative. There was a lot of examples that were explained in detail. It is great to have a logical perspective and rational approach to these ideas.

Extremely interesting

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Well worth listening. It's quite educational and good to know why we believe in conspiracy theories. However, the author has biases and I don't trust everything he's preaching.

interesting

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Always good to get a perspective and as a person that does look into some conspiracies I was interested to test myself and see if i fall into some of the characteristics, which indeed I did and I am grateful for realising that from this book. However, the very things that were identified in conspiracy behaviour seemed to materialise in this book with the author falling foul of the very things that were being pointed out. i.e. creating narratives that backed up the stories and ignoring other elements, or, placing conspiracies in extreme boxes of paranoia, e.g. chem trails are a fact not a conspiracy and there is more than enough out there to prove this including what is posted on government web sites. Now whether what is going on who is doing it and whether it is nefarious or not is another debate, but to simply label it as people believing that the world is being sprayed by airlines and government for whatever reason is unfair and there are many conspiracies that are way more complex with varying versions that should not be labelled as crazy ideas. JFK was a good rational view, less so 9/11, as that was labelled up in the same extreme narrative when there is much more minutia to be studied. As for the moon landing, again, to dismiss purely on the level of people that need to be involved is naïve in my opinion. I agree to some extent that it would be impossible for so many to stay quiet, but then you are assuming that so many knew in the first place? You may not be able to move or plant a tree without someone noticing, but you sure can plant a seed and watch it turn into a tree and no one would realise. Plenty of valid questions on moon landing based on tech that we have today yet we still cant seem to go back to the moon as quickly as we did 50 years ago even though we are so much more advanced. I guess once we get there again, perhaps we can prove we were there before, but the longer this return saga goes on the more I wonder whether we are solving puzzles for the first time rather than returning to old ground? So, all in all a helpful book to make me think about my own views and seek better confirmation, but equally a book to dismiss when it comes to some of the particular conspiracies covered. There is no doubt in my mind that the whole world is full of corruption and deception, it happens at every level from your own family, companies, local authorities right up to countries and the world organisations and it all comes down to wealth. Never let a good conspiracy get in the way of making a shed load of money! That goes for both sides. Those that make conspiracies and those that try to douse them down as absurd fantasies. The truth is somewhere in the middle and we just have to decide through our own research what we believe and what we do not.

Author seemed to become a victim of his analysis

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At first I found this book interesting! However the longer it went on it became more about debunking peoples believes then conspiracies and conspiracy theories and how they come about.

Now I’m not one to insult anyone’s intelligence but when we get to Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter, I had to turn off!

What you believe is up to you and I will not try and persuade you otherwise why would I? But if Lee Harvey Made that shot he would have been the best of the best sniper the world had ever seen!

Now if you don’t believe me that’s fine I can live with that, but what cannot be denied is that shot came from the front of the vehicle sadly causing part of the president’s skull to explode out over the trunk!

When a bullet hits a target it makes a hole proportionate to its size then explodes out of a target, so unless you are saying that Lee Harvey Oswald was capable of firing a bullet from behind the president getting it to do a 180degree turn and then locking onto the presidents forehead all from behind the the motorcade which is in motion? Well your understanding on Newton’s Physics is better then mine! So ultimately what does this say it can only lead to one conclusion that some Conspiracies are real.

However it seems the writer wants us all to believe the opposite and the Government is this loving truth telling collection of our peers that would never lie and only ever tell you the truth, yeah right Michael this is one conspiracy that will never go away, because it is based on fact.

Conspiracies & Theories

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