David Dempsey

Ms. Soring

Ap Language and Composition

3/31/17

Do conspiracies based communities differ from others?

According to dictionary.com, a conspiracy theory is an idea that many important

political events or economic and social trends are the products of secret plots that are largely

unknown to the general public. There are many different communities that are based around

conspiracies, and almost all of them share many traits with communities based around things that

are viewed as more normal.

The conspiracy community, and the people who fill its ranks, are no different than other

communities, so there is no reason they need to be viewed differently.

There are an innumerable amount of different theories that are classified as conspiracies.

These theories include some of the more famous ones people know include one such as the

Illuminati, or the New World Order (NWO). But there are also more secretive ones very few

people have heard about, such as project MKULTRA. There have been many theories that have

started out as just that, theories, but then have been proven to be true with evidence. Many of the

people that are drawn to conspiracy theories tend to be, those with low self-worth, especially

with regard to their sense of agency in the world at large (Koerth-Baker ). People are drawn to

these theories, others who believe in similar theories, and the communities surrounding the

theories, due to the fact they have the belief in common.

 I care about the conspiracy community, because I see myself as part of it. I first

discovered conspiracies a couple years ago, when I stumbled a podcast called, Stuff They Dont

Want You to Know. This podcast delved into different unexplained occurrences and the theories

behind them. One of the first episodes and theories I ever learned about, is about a few Black

Knight Satellite theories. These theories, which try and explain the origins of an unknown

satellite in space, orbiting around earth, offer explanations such as it may be extraterrestrial in

origins, or produced and launched by a more advanced civilization, lost to history. These

theories got me extremely interested in different types of conspiracies, eventually leading me to

meet people in real life and online, discussing our different views on theories. Many of the

people I meet are considered normal people, average in every other aspect in their life. They

dont openly talk about their beliefs in fear of people viewing them differently. This is due to

society in general viewing anyone who believes in conspiracies as crazy. When someone is

labeled as crazy, they lose all credibility. Personally, I would rather not be looked at like some

crazy lunatic, or lose my credibility. I like when people respect and think about what I say. I

chose to write about how the conspiracy community isnt crazy, and that it is just like any

other community, so there is no reason to view people who are a part of this community any

differently than anyone else.

Communities based around conspiracies have the same structure as other communities.

There is a general community that believes in conspiracies, but there are other smaller, sub

communities that believe in more specific conspiracies. The three main communities are made

up of people who believe in political conspiracies, historical conspiracies, and super

conspiracies.
 The political conspiracy community is split even further, in which people join

communities that are based around conspiracies that align with their political beliefs. One of the

most recent political conspiracy theory is the birther theory. This theory was introduced in 2008

and spread the idea that presidential candidate, Barack Obama, wasnt born in the United States,

making him not eligible to run for president. The current president, Donald Trump, was a major

figure in this community, and a key person in the popularization of the theory. After he realized

that being in the community may affect his chances of being elected president, he left it by

saying Hillary Clinton, his opponent, started it in 2008 to try and beat Obama. This specific

community, and politically centered communities in general, usually come up with and spread

theories like these to attempt to sway an election one way on another. They also tend to be very

close minded, they are not usually open to discussion or debate over what they believe in.

The second major sub community of the conspiracy community is based around

Historical conspiracies. This sub community is brought together over historical conspiracies,

which give theories that differ from popular, or given explanation. One of the theories they

believe in is the mystery surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. They can come up

with different theories, like the CIA was behind the killing, or the more popular theory, that there

was more than one shooter. Many times, people in this community, work together to come up

with evidence to support their theory. And unlike the political conspiracy community, people

who have different beliefs can discuss their theories in a civilized manner, and perhaps even

change other peoples minds.

The last major sub community is centered around super conspiracies. Super conspiracy is

a term that not many people know about, but example of this type everyone knows about. Super
conspiracies are ones that theorize that there is a shadow organization, such as the illuminati, or

the New World Order, that is made up of powerful people, like famous celebrities, or world

leaders, and is secretly behind all world events in history.

People who have different beliefs than someone in any community can start arguments.

But, within each sub community, and even the conspiracy community overall, there may be

some arguements over different beliefs that can escalate very quickly. When a person finds a

theory that differs from theirs, many times they begin to research, looking for information that

can undermine the other persons belief or theory. Sometimes people's theories are so crazy, that

they have little to no basis in fact. For example, when the whole birther theory took a turn

against Trump and he, and others who believed in that theory, claimed Hillary Clinton started it,

which led to the people who didn't believe in that theory, to start doing a little digging. They

came across Snopes, a fact finding website, that verifies the authenticity of statements made.

They found that the theory was actually started on an online right-wing community, which lead

to others in the political party to start believing it was true. Things like this happen in other

communities, just not on this level. For example, if someone finds a song within their music

community, they point out the errors the artist made, like whether it was just samples of other

songs put together or the beat didn't go with the lyrics. The don't try and purposely undermine

the other persons credibility, but the make a point that they don't like what the other person has

done or came up with.

Another similarity between the conspiracy community and any other community out

there is its members. Just like any community one could think of, the conspiracy community is

made up of members. People are drawn to the community since it is based around something
they believe in, putting them in contact with others who believe in the same thing, essentially

forming the community. In every community, each person is involved on a different level.

In the conspiracy community, people who are deeply involved are who became

synonymous with the community in the eyes of people outside of it. These types of people are

ones who have dedicated their entire lives to the community, essentially giving up a normal job,

sometimes even life, to just pour all their effort into the research or the spreading of their

theories. One of these people is David Icke. He is the stereotypical conspiracist, he believes in

so many theories, there's probably not a theory he doesn't believe in. He has written books, and

currently uses videos on his YouTube channel to spread the theories he believes in. Many of th

theories he believes in, such as how there is a secret reptilian brotherhood who control the world,

or my favorite, the moon landing was faked. The evidence that they come up for in order to

support these types of theories are stretches so far they are in danger of snapping. These are the

types of people who give the conspiracy community a bad name. They force their beliefs on

people who don't even believe in conspiracies. This happens in religious communities as well,

someone trying to impose their religious beliefs on someone else, but when this happens it is

usually more publicized than when it happen in the conspiracy community. When someone like

David Icke does the same thing, instead of making a big deal out of it, people just label the

person crazy, which sometimes they are. But this also means they have an unfair prejudice if

they meet someone else from the conspiracy community, as they usually just disregard anything

the person says, even if it has nothing to do with a conspiracy, since they already labeled the

person as crazy. Most of the people this affects are on the other end of the involvement spectrum

than someone like David Icke.

 Most of the people that make up the community are very lightly involved. These are the

people who have discovered conspiracies and thought that they are interesting. Whether they

discovered the subreddit, /r/conspiracies, or came across the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You

to Know they have minimal time invested in the community. The only time they may be exposed

are if they are bored and just scrolling through the subreddit feed or watching a podcast episode

on the latest world event. Many can see logic behind some of the more popular theories, like JFK

assassination, or the Roswell incident, but still disregard the crazier ones. This is the category I

fall into, as I don't purposely go out of my way to research a event that I learned about and

thought that it may have happened in an alternative way, but if something about a conspiracy

pops up on my social media feed, I'll click the article link and read it if there is one.

It sucks to be a part of this community sometimes, as I can't share anything I learn. If I

see an interesting theory or factoid, I can't tell my friend about it without looking like I'm a

lunatic. People need to realize that many of the members of the conspiracy community, are just

like them, they just a few different beliefs. Again just like religion, there are many different

religions in the world, and most people don't judge others if they have different religious beliefs

than them, so why do they do it when the belief is about a historical event that people still aren't

one hundred percent sure about.

There is evidence that people tend to turn to conspiracies and the surrounding

communities when they have a low self worth, as it give them the illusion of control over their

lives. When people get put down for something they use to fight their issues, it can to lead to

more issues, like depression or even suicidal thoughts. People turn to conspiracy communities

since they make the person feel welcome, but other people and even society constantly out the
person down, making fun of them and damaging their reputation and credibility. And the

community they turn to has very little differences than any other one out there, it even shares

many similarities to a religious community.

There are people who look down on communities as a whole, but most of the time those

people are viewed as a bad person. When this happens to the conspiracy community, the

person who looks down on the community isn't viewed any differently. The conspiracy

community shouldn't be viewed any differently than any other community, and if someone

happens to look down on the community, they should be labeled as a bad person.

Most of the time the conspiracy community keeps to itself, as it doesn't interest the

people not specifically in the community. A few times someone inside the community will share

a theory they find interesting with a friend from outside the community. But the main interaction

the conspiracy community has with others is through the people that are deeply involved, almost

to an extremist level. These people are trying to spread, sometimes even force their beliefs on

others. This, again, is similar to religious communities. Many religious communities don't

interact with communities that do not share their beliefs, but the few interactions that do occur,

are usually extremists who are trying to spread their religious ideology, many times through

violence. The conspiracy community doesn't use violence, that I know of, to spread the theories

they believe in, not even the extremists of the community.

If there is anything I want you, the reader to take away after reading this, it's that the

conspiracy community is no different than any other community out there. They have the same

structure and member spectrum as any community you could think of, since they are essentially

are a community that just shares different beliefs than most other people and communities. This
difference in beliefs from others is just something for people to turn to so they can feel like they

have control, or know more than they actually do, just like people in religious communities do.

So people outside this community shouldnt view the conspiracy community, or the people that

make it up, any differently than they'd view someone from their own community.
https://www.infowars.com/33-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-what-every-person-

should-know/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/magazine/why-rational-people-buy-into-conspiracy-theorie

s.html

http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-started-birther-movement/

https://m.youtube.com/user/davidick

http://www.stufftheydontwantyoutoknow.com