Conspiracy Theories

Introduction

👽Ancient aliens built the pyramids of Egypt and gave Mayans the power to time travel.⏳

✝️A mysterious group of medieval knights protects the ultimate secret about Jesus’s time on earth. 🔐

🤖A genius inventor and artist from the 1500’s left us intricate codes in his notes and paintings which predict technologies far beyond his time. 🚀

Learn about these arguments and more as we take a trippy dive into the very weird world of conspiracy theories.

Every conspiracy theory does the same six things:

🗺️Describes an alleged secret plot.

👉Identifies a group of conspirators.

🔎Offers “evidence” that seems to support the conspiracy theory.

👁️‍🗨️Suggests that nothing is as it appears and everything is connected.

👿Divides the world into good or bad or another binary.

👥Scapegoats people and groups.

We will analyze primary and secondary sources, explore cultural context, and examine the causes that lead to the conspiracy theories’ development. By analyzing the internal reasoning of conspiracy theories, you’ll learn how to logically construct arguments, use historical reasoning/evidence, and avoid logical fallacies.

Essential Questions

• What makes us vulnerable to cognitive biases and flaws in logic?
• How does mis- and dis-information spread?
• How can we arm ourselves to combat conspiratorial thinking? 
• How do conspiracy theories derive from and impact particular groups?

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to…

• Identify and analyze common errors in logic.
• Evaluate evidence based on its source, authority, and context.
• Analyze how historical context such as political and emotional/social environments impact people’s thinking.
• Identify and apply elements of sound logic and argumentation.
• Apply knowledge of the ancient world, origins of human civilization, and/or the renaissance to their analysis.