great primer on conspiracies

in depth look at conspiracy theories and real conspiracies. An interesting insight into the mind and thought patterns of a conspiracy theorist.

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Repetition shown to be major social knowledge base

knowledge, transparency and scepticism are the limiters of this fake form of hubristic knowledge or gossip.

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🤔 Really !?! / Really ?!? 🧐

As an adherent of the x-files I choose to believe that…
the truth IS out there,
should you want to investigate yourself, your beliefs and your world,
instead of following en-mass the ‘current’ trendsetters.
Most enjoyable listen on humanities thought / thoughtless / thoughtlessness incurring behaviour.
Interesting listen thanks Michael :-)

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Boring rehash (for me, anyway)

I was raised by sceptics and read Kuhn ~40 years ago. I didn't find much new in this course and constantly found myself challenging the content to alleviate boredom. His historical example set is heavy on recent events and would be much enriched by going back to the incredible shenanigans following USA's independence, and noting that conspiracies abound before and after most revolutions. His use of 'we' is insulting to those of us who are sceptical by nature.
I was hoping for better advice on how to talk to the nutters who believe in contrails and think global warming is a hoax.
Might be good for some audience...not this one.

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Very informative

Thus lecture series is presented with a high degree of professionalism, integrity and humour. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot of history etc

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Quite good, interesting, politically balanced, perhaps a little assumptive at times

This was a good lecture, well written and nicely narrated. I was searching for content like this mostly to understand the psychological underpinnings of why people become interested and eventually for some, become consumed by CT.

These lectures were politically balanced and didn’t delve into right v left and pointed out how CT inflicts all sides of the political spectrum. The author provided an interesting examination of his own beliefs on the JFK CT and how his own opinions changed and how this was linked to the power of film.

A couple of assumptions I question; the author seems to draw a connection between creation science and CT, under the premise that creation science helps to explain complexities in simple terms. And while I see his point here, I’m not sure if this is true for all followers of creation science. I’m not a follower of creation science but did some studies in that space many years ago, and while it seemed to me that a sizeable proportion of creation science followers were skeptical of government and probably prone to CT train of thought, I don’t think this conclusive.

The other item I thought was assumptive was the author seems to take for granted that all scientist are really good at what they do and work under the highest level of ethical approaches. I grew up in a house of science, my father is a scientist, my wife studies science and science was probably my favourite subject. Unfortunately the entrance requirements to study science at the university level is actually not that high and the calibre of graduates, in my observations and experience, is not as good as the general public may think.

The author also makes a link that skeptics of climate change are linked to CT concepts. Again I question this for one, the term “climate change” in contemporary vernacular is arguably a political term and not a scientific or meteorological one. Does the climate change? I’m sure it does, just as my observations of four and bit decades on this earth points out that everything changes, so why should the climate be any different! The reality in this space is that we do not in any way, shape or form have data capture capability both now and retrospectively to attempt to prognosticate to any degree of certainty on a global scale. It is very much an evolving and continuing work in progress.

I had the impression the author had drawn some unnecessary conclusions in the realm of science and by not discussing some of its limitations had perhaps cheapened the importance of science in properly examining and dissecting CTs.

All in all listening to this lecture was time well spent and it would be great to attend one of these lectures In person.

I think it would be quite interesting to examine the role of religion and no-religion in CT. Sometimes when I listen to conspiracy “preaching” by people I wonder if they believe in this stuff as a replacement for religion?

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1 person found this helpful

compulsory education for conspiratorists

Great presentation. Helped me to understand true conspiracies from false, why certain people (Inc me) are or were, more given to conspiracy theories than others and for what reasons. Dr Shermers unraveling of the 9/11 and Arch Duke Franz Ferdinands and JFK assassinations were eye opening, brilliant and conclusive. Highly recommended.

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Entertaining and thought provoking

An entertaining insight into human belief systems. I found it most interesting that the author obviously has his own beliefs formed,like the rest of us, through the influence of his emotions and pre existing concepts of right and wrong. Well worth the listen.

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Really enjoyable

Good insight into human behaviour, this book made me see the world a little more clearly. Easy to listen to and thoughtfully laid out

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Excellent, important, and entertaining

very useful theory and analysis, interesting examples, plus now I know who killed John F Kennedy.

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