Jack Mahoney
English 123
1.Contradictory: Conspiracy theorists can simultaneously believe in ideas that are mutually contradictory. An example of this would be that Princess Diana was murdered but that she also faked her own death.
2.Overriding Suspicion : This extreme degree of suspicion prevents belief in anything that doesn’t relate to the conspiracy directly.
- Nefarious Intent: The assumption that all conspiracy theories are evil or will result in something evil happening.
- Something Must Be Wrong: Deception is the basis of official accounts within conspiracy theories.
- Persecuted Victim: Conspiracy theorists often present themselves as victims of organized persecution
- Immune to Evidence: The stronger the evidence against a conspiracy, the more conspirators want people to believe their story.
- Re-interpreting Randomness: The belief that nothing occurs by accident.
Personally, I believe that people believe in conspiracy theories for many reasons. When assessing events that could have a conspiracy theory made out of it, I believe people desire safety, a true understanding of the situation, someone or something to blame for an unfortunate event. Along with this, I believe for the people who create these conspiracy theories, they are looking for fame and to improve their own personal image.
In this article, there are many theories represented on how the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world. I noticed that people are looking to blame the people of Wuhan, China who were in the market when the disease broke out, and also the governments of China and the United States. People are saying that there is a vaccine for COVID-19 and that the government is refusing to release it. Along with this, millions of people have been saying that COVID-19 is no worse than the common flu which was also represented. The most common conspiracy theory characteristics are denial, the “Us vs Them” theory.
Hi Jack, in question 2 I was looking for you to summarize and explain the reasons the CT Handbook author say people believe and share conspiracy theories.
In question 3, I was looking for you to use multiple concepts from question 1 and 2 to analyze some of the conspiracy beliefs about Coronavirus, meaning to show where those characteristics appear in the CTs and speculate about why people believe and share that particular theory using what Lewandowsky and Cook said. I’d love to see some revisions.