Conspiracy Theories / Edition 1

9/11 was an inside job. The Holocaust is a myth promoted to serve Jewish interests. The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School were a false flag operation. Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government. These are all conspiracy theories. A glance online or at bestseller lists reveals how popular some of them are. Even if there is plenty of evidence to disprove them, people persist in promoting them. Why? There can be no clearer indication that something has gone wrong with our intellectual and political culture than the fact that conspiracy theories have become mainstream. When they are dangerous, we cannot afford to ignore them. At the same time, refuting them by rational argument is difficult, because conspiracy theorists discount or reject evidence that disproves their theories. As conspiracy theories are so often smokescreens over political ends, we need to come up with political as well as intellectual responses if we are to have any hope of defeating them.