Script:
Introduction: Hi my name is Hakan Vardar and I’m a senior at Glynn Academy. I am going to be covering the ideas surrounding conspiracy theories as a whole, are they negative for learning, and what causes the stigmas attached to them.
History: Conspiracy theories have been around forever, one of the most popular one’s is the Illuminati. Why don’t we take a look into the history of the Illuminati? The Illuminati was formed in the late 1700’s by a man named Adam Weishaupt. He formed this group because he was too poor to join the Freemasons. This group was formed in Bavaria Germany and slowly grew traction. As this grew so did the possibility of them getting noticed for their unusual ideas and practices. The church did not like this when they were discovered and were immediately told to break up. After this happened many people believe they traveled else where to set up shop. Which is most likely the base of how modern Illuminati theories began. These conspiracies aren’t all new though. Even from the early 1800’s people were creating theories about their doing during the French Revolution, as stated by Michael Taylor in “British Conservatism, the Illuminati, and the Conspiracy Theory of the French Revolution, 1797–1802”.
Stigmas Explained: Michael J Wood in “Some Dare Call It Conspiracy: Labeling Something a Conspiracy Theory Does Not Reduce Belief in It.” “ a growing psychological research tradition has generated a great deal of knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of beliefs in conspiracy theories. The term “conspiracy theory” itself, however, has received little explicit attention in the psychological literature, despite considerable interest from philosophers and political scientists in its precise meaning and implications.” This refers to the stigmas that society has on conspiracy theories, and gives us insight to the reasoning behind why this stigma has occurred. Most people have a certain threshold of what or what they cannot believe. If these theories begin to dive into somewhat of a more personal belief the listener might literally not be able to believe what one is hearing therefore creating a stigma of “crazy” or “delusional”. This can also be argued that high stress causes one to have thoughts that do not make sense. While these ideas cannot be proven or disproved they are certainly interesting to talk about.
What could cause these theories: Reasoning fueling the conspiracy theorists can be explored through some of our desires to be different or go against the flow. Sated by Roland Imhoff and Pia Karoline in “Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs.” “Being the one who sees through the smoke screens that hide the incredible truth might not only give people a sense of greater control (because they see through the plot) but also the sense of being special, of being one of the few people who see the truth.” This tells us a possible answer for some of the conspiracies that have been generated over time.
What to do with these conspiracy theories: These conspiracy theories have been very concerning to parents worried about their children. But what I ask you is can these ideas be approached or talked about with kids in a safe and positive manner? Renee Hobbs said in “Teach the conspiracies” “Conspiracy theories create opportunities for rich discussion about how and why we decide what to believe”. I believe this is a very good point and brings up the idea that conspiracy theories could be a good thing for kids to base their knowledge around and learn to decipher what makes logical sense, and what could actually be true. While doing this the children might as well learn/open their eyes to the ideas and ideals that not everything can go their way in life. Now I offer you one source to look over and stimulate yourself with the knowledge of what could be true, but we won’t ever know. It is a booked called Conspiracy Theories : Secrecy and Power in American Culture by Mark Fenster.