Description
Today the world is awash in conspiracy theories, which deny mainstream news narratives in favor of complex tales of secret powers working behind the scenes. Since conspiracy theories can be found on all parts of the political spectrum, they are something that affects all of us. In this course we will consider numerous case studies of conspiracy theories. We will also study the history of such theories (which seem to date back to the time of the French Revolution). What does the rise of conspiracy theories tell us about growing distrust of our social institutions? We will also discuss techniques for distinguishing between conspiracy theories that are actually true, those that may or may not be true, and those that are clearly false.