Conspiracy theory Wikipedia. A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes an unwarranted conspiracy, generally one involving an illegal or harmful act carried out by government or other powerful actors. Conspiracy theories often produce hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of history or simple facts. The term is a derogatory one. 3According to the political scientist Michael Barkun, conspiracy theories rely on the view that the universe is governed by design, and embody three principles nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected. Another common feature is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them, so that they become, as Barkun writes, a closed system that is unfalsifiable, and therefore a matter of faith rather than proof. 6Etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary defines conspiracy theory as the theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties spec. It cites a 1. 90. The American Historical Review as the earliest usage example,78 although it also appears in journals as early as April 1. The word conspiracy derives from the Latin con with, together and spirare to breathe. According to John Ayto, the phrase conspiracy theory was originally a neutral term and acquired a pejorative connotation only in the 1. Lance de. Haven Smith has similarly suggested that the term was deployed in the 1. Central Intelligence Agency CIA to discredit John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. 1. Robert Blaskiewicz rejects such claims, asserting instead that the term has always been derogatory and pointing to examples demonstrating that this has been so since the nineteenth century. 1. Examples. A conspiracy theory may take any matter as its subject, but certain subjects attract greater interest than others. Favored subjects include famous deaths, government activities, new technologies, terrorism and questions of alien life. Among the longest standing and most widely recognized conspiracy theories are notions concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 1. 96. Apollo moon landings and the 91. Popularity. Some scholars argue that conspiracy theories once limited to fringe audiences have become commonplace in mass media, contributing to conspiracism emerging as a cultural phenomenon in the United States of the late 2. Unless otherwise noted, all content onOpen Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4. 0 International License. 33000 free ebooks online. Did you know that you can help us produce ebooks by proofreading just one page a day Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience Harper Perennial Modern Classics Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Amazon. com. FREEshipping on qualifying offers. Working with headphones on usually means youd rather not be bothered, but sometimes it means youre just listening to something while you work. If you want to be. All eBooks IT eBook free library. Title ISBN Page Year. NET Development Using the Compiler API 9781484221105. Enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone. On October 26th, 2016, Blinkist launched the biggest update of its app yet with version 4. 0. 0. They also announced it 5 days later in their magazine the publication. According to anthropologists Todd Sanders and Harry G. West, evidence suggests that a broad cross sectionquantify of Americans today gives credence to at least some conspiracy theories. 1. Belief in conspiracy theories has therefore become a topic of interest for sociologists, psychologists and experts in folklore. Conspiracy theories are widely present on the Web in the form of blogs and You. Tube videos, as well as on social media. Whether the Web has increased the prevalence of conspiracy theories or not is an open research question. 2. The presence and representation of conspiracy theories in search engine results has been monitored and studied, showing significant variation across different topics, and a general absence of reputable, high quality links in the results. 2. Types of conspiracy theory. Walkers five kinds. Jesse Walker 2. 01. The Enemy Outside refers to theories based on figures alleged to be scheming against a community from without. The Enemy Within finds the conspirators lurking inside the nation, indistinguishable from ordinary citizens. The Enemy Above involves powerful people manipulating events for their own gain. The Enemy Below features the lower classes working to overturn the social order. The Benevolent Conspiracies are angelic forces that work behind the scenes to improve the world and help people. 2. Barkuns three types. Barkun has identified three classifications of conspiracy theory Event conspiracy theories. This refers to limited and well defined events. Examples may include such conspiracies theories as those concerning the Kennedy assassination, 91. AIDS. Systemic conspiracy theories. Such theories pertain to alleged broad objectives such as domination of a country or of the world. According to Barkun, the conspiratorial machinery for such theories is usually simple, with a single evil organization. Examples may include conspiracy theories about Jews, Freemasons, Communism, or the Catholic Church. Superconspiracy theories. For Barkun, such theories link multiple alleged conspiracies together hierarchically. At the summit is a distant but all powerful evil force. His cited examples are the ideas of David Icke and Milton William Cooper. Rothbard shallow vs. Murray Rothbard argues in favor of a model which contrasts deep conspiracy theories to shallow ones. According to Rothbard, a shallow theorist observes an event and asks Cui bono Who benefits, jumping to the conclusion that a posited beneficiary is responsible for covertly influencing events. On the other hand, the deep conspiracy theorist begins with a hunch, and then seeks out evidence. Rothbard describes this latter activity as a matter of confirming with certain facts ones initial paranoia. 2. Evidence vs. conspiracy theory. Theories involving multiple conspirators that are proven to be correct, such as the Watergate scandal,2. By contrast, the term Watergate conspiracy theory is used to refer to a variety of hypotheses in which those convicted in the conspiracy were in fact the victims of a deeper conspiracy. 2. Noam Chomsky contrasts conspiracy theory to institutional analysis which focuses mostly on the public, long term behavior of publicly known institutions, as recorded in, for example, scholarly documents or mainstream media reports. Conspiracy theory conversely posits the existence of secretive coalitions of individuals and speculates on their alleged activities. 2. Clare Birchall at Kings College London describes conspiracy theory as a form of popular knowledge or interpretation. a The use of the word knowledge here suggests ways in which conspiracy theory may be considered in relation to legitimate modes of knowing. b The relationship between legitimate and illegitimate knowledge, Birchall claims, is closer than common dismissals of conspiracy theory contend. 3. Conspiracism as a world view. The historian Richard Hofstadter addressed the role of paranoia and conspiracism throughout American history in his 1. The Paranoid Style in American Politics. Bernard Bailyns classic The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution 1. America during the time preceding the American Revolution. Conspiracism labels peoples attitudes as well as the type of conspiracy theories that are more global and historical in proportion. 3. The term conspiracism was further popularized by academic Frank P. Mintz in the 1. 98. According to Mintz, conspiracism denotes belief in the primacy of conspiracies in the unfolding of history 3. Conspiracism serves the needs of diverse political and social groups in America and elsewhere. It identifies elites, blames them for economic and social catastrophes, and assumes that things will be better once popular action can remove them from positions of power. As such, conspiracy theories do not typify a particular epoch or ideology. 3.