Introduction Here
To truly understand conspiracy theories, we need to first know what they are. The dictionary defines conspiracies as a secret plan, usually enacted by a group of officials, to do something unlawful or harmful. Conspiracy theories link seemingly unrelated evidence together to form a theory for events different from the official account, if there is one. The key point to understand is that conspiracy theories can be real. It’s not all skinny crazy white dudes living in their parent’s basements with walls plastered with photographs and red lines. (although it still could be). So real or unreal, conspiracy theories try to explain a set of events that don’t seem to otherwise add up. Speaking of crazy white dude, who believes …show more content…
Why can’t we just ignore them as the crazy minority in the corner? The problem is, many conspiracies aren’t just believed by minorities or crazies, because, like I mentioned earlier, conspiracy believers are just regular people you meet on the street every day. They might even include yourself. The influence of these theories might not be obvious at first, but after looking at a few examples, it might make a little more sense. Take the Holocaust for example. During world war 2, Hitler ordered millions of Jews and other minorities to be sent to concentration camps, where many died. I’m sure that few of you would deny the holocaust was real, yet many people, and even whole countries, deny the holocaust ever happened. Most holocaust deniers believe the Holocaust is a Jewish conspiracy to further the causes of Jews and to give them an advantage over other groups of people. These anti-semitic conspiracy theorists often call themselves revisionists to sound more legitimate, but there is nothing legitimate about their work. There is a clear danger with trying to re-write history without any facts or basis of evidence. Not only are holocaust deniers trying to re-write history, they are trying to spread hate against the Jews, who have already gone through enough persecution as it is. For these reasons, it’s actually illegal to deny the holocaust in countries like Austria. Conspiracy theories can actually become so popular as to be confused with fact or science, and can severely harm our society’s well-being. Take the autism vaccine scare. Many concerned parents out there believe vaccines can cause autism in their children, and that the scientific community has conspired to cover up the evidence for this. The fact is, there hasn’t been a single reputable study done that shows any sort of causation between vaccines and autism. But this evidence to the contrary comes from the very people who have supposedly covered up the truth, and most people