The book is dedicated to my late partner, who I've mentioned many times on this podcast. The dedication reads to Pat Lindsey, co-founder of the Skeptic Society and Skeptic Magazine. If you're a professional scholar who studies conspiracies, you'll be interested in that chapter. In part three, well, what do you say? You can sort of apply by just asking questions, right?
Michael Shermer discusses his new book Conspiracy, out October 25, 2022. In Conspiracy Shermer:
- reviews and integrates evolutionary, psychological, social, cultural, political, and economic conditions that fuel conspiracy theories
- presents his own original three-tiered theoretical model of Proxy Conspiracism, Tribal Conspiracism, and Constructive Conspiracism
- classifies and systematizes conspiracy theories in order to tease apart their different causes (incl. JFK’s assassination, the 9/11 Truth movement, Pizzagate, QAnon, the Big Lie, Project MKULTRA, Operation Paperclip, and the perennial conspiracy theories surrounding UFOs)
- offers his Conspiracy Detection Kit on how to tell if a conspiracy theory is true, false, or undecidable
- and suggests how to talk to a conspiracy theorist.
You can order your copy on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Eza8Lf) and Audible (https://adbl.co/3eGXkaT) now.