h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there!

The entry is very good, but I'd like to point out some things I perceived as flaws:

1) There are conspiracies everywhere (at least in the theorists' minds), not just in the US. For instance, every theorist worth his salt knows that free masons are behind every important event since the French Revolution (which was caused by them), and all theorists which are also a little anti-semite (a rather common combination) know that Jews control the media all around the world. IMHO the entry is a little too much focused on American lunacies.

2) I believe most individual conspiracies should be tackled on individual entries. A general entry about conspiration theories should (IMHO) focus on the mentality of the theorists. For instance, most theorists I know have some sort of "us and them" tendency, meaning, you either agree with them or you're part of the conspiration. Also, they are very reliant on selective analysis of facts and "authoritative" opinions. Just take any random theorist message and count the number of times the words "fact" and "professional" appears on it!

3) I liked the comparison between religion and conspiration theories in the beginning of the entry, and believe that this could be further elaborated. For instance, what about cults that are based on conspiration theories themselves, like scientology (and that's perhaps the silliest conspiration theory of all!)? What happens when you mix religion with the pseudo-factual mentality of most conspiration theorists?

Marino

The ultimate conspiracy theory is the one staring you in the face, the concept of conspiracy theory itself is the ultimate conspiracy theory.
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