Kurt Eichenwald's The Plot To Destroy America
George Orwell once wrote in an essay on critical thinking, “To see what is in front one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” (Orwell). Orwell, I think was trying to say, that the hard part about critical thinking, is reducing subjectivity and increasing objectivity. Conspiracy theories often suspend critical thinking to maintain the assertion. There is a large audience for this type of reasoning. A reluctance to accept things as they appear to be, by not to search for meaning in randomness. There are very few conspiracy theories that have succumbed to the weight of facts. They often come with the tagline “the truth will come out”, only to never come out. Many of these theories are born out of a rebellion to those in power and the structures that …show more content…
This philosophy states “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily”, that if there are two explanations for an occurrence, the simpler one is the better one (Thornburn). The more assumptions that you must make, the less likely the explanation is. When you need to add something to fulfill its function of the narrative, you just added the chance to weaken the theory. Kurt Eichenwald’s, The Plot to Destroy America, explains conspiracies and people’s dependence on believing in them. “If people try to correct a false belief, they can simply entrench the belief.” (Sunstein). Conspiracy theories can be a fun way to escape the reality of some mundane truths while realizing that you’re “theorizing “other possible outcomes. When you escape down the rabbit hole of escapism, leaving facts behind, it just becomes delusion. The greater purpose that person believed they were serving disappears. Conspiracies feed off the need in some to believe there is a hidden-hand operating what we perceive as reality. Many rely on yet more conspiracies to answer: then why do these truths remain hidden? A Matrix-like realm pulling the strings? For some, having faith is not something that is easily explainable. It’s choosing to
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103 Words | 1 PagesThe book talks about inflection points which if not handled carefully, are drastic (10x) enough to put a company out of business. Basically, the author made a basis criticism on how Andrew Grove’s book “Only the Paranoid Survive” promoted the wrong thoughts on “normal suspicion” and “paranoia” survivor. I agree with our author stating that the phrase in the book “a little paranoia can be useful or only the paranoid survive” is such a misleading statement which Grove’s book ignores the differences of what paranoia and normal suspicion are. Also, it is important to differentiate the complexity that each of the acts
Fahrenheit 911 By Michael Moore
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How Facts Backfire
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The Great Gatsby Wooden Headedness Analysis
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1258 Words | 6 PagesConspiracy theories are widely known in the society that we live in today. Webster’s definition of a conspiracy theory is a theory that explains an event or situation as the result of a secret plan by usually powerful people or groups. Conspiracy theories are accepted by many people in the world that we live in today. A recent conspiracy theory involves the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed twenty students.
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Professor Davies's Riveted: An Analysis Of Confirmation Bias
912 Words | 4 PagesDuring one of his lectures, Professor Davies answers this question by using the belief in a very popular theory as an example: the full-moon effect theory. This theory presumes that people will become more violent and crazy when there is a full moon. By using a table containing each aspect that would represent the theory, Professor Davies explains that confirmation bias influences how people make observations during the full moon; out of all the four quadrants of the table, the most noticeable observation would be when people act aggressively during the full moon. Later, when those same people attempt to support their belief in the full-moon effect theory, they would try to recall the most significant information; said information would involve their observations regarding the times when both the full moon and the display of aggressive human behaviour are present. However, this would result in an inconsistent view of their observations since they exclude opposing evidence that would contradict the full-moon effect
Cry Liberty By Peter C. Hoffer Summary
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Alan Weisman's The World Without Us
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