36 min
Conspiracy Theories: The Folklorist's Perspective Mythic Existence with Jack Daly
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- History
On this episode of Mythic Existence, we dive into the folklorist’s perspective on conspiracy theories. My research for this episode is mostly informed by a book that recently came out called COVID 19 conspiracy theories: QAnon, 5G, the New World Order and Other Viral Ideas, as well as Richard Hofstadter’s seminal work The Paranoid Style in American Politics. We are going to hope to deconstruct why conspiracy theories exist, why they are appealing, and to whom. Conspiracy theories often feed in to confirmation bias. This manifests itself in a number of ways –through the desire to understand ambiguous phenomena, the wish of having a larger role in the world than you really do, or ethnocentric biases. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t actual conspiracies going on, but its best to think critically. So, sit back and get ready for another episode of Mythic Existence.
On this episode of Mythic Existence, we dive into the folklorist’s perspective on conspiracy theories. My research for this episode is mostly informed by a book that recently came out called COVID 19 conspiracy theories: QAnon, 5G, the New World Order and Other Viral Ideas, as well as Richard Hofstadter’s seminal work The Paranoid Style in American Politics. We are going to hope to deconstruct why conspiracy theories exist, why they are appealing, and to whom. Conspiracy theories often feed in to confirmation bias. This manifests itself in a number of ways –through the desire to understand ambiguous phenomena, the wish of having a larger role in the world than you really do, or ethnocentric biases. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t actual conspiracies going on, but its best to think critically. So, sit back and get ready for another episode of Mythic Existence.
36 min