Toxic Attempts to Explain the Inexplicable
Apr 15, 2021
Conspiracy theories arise from a deep-seated human instinct to try to explain the inexplicable.
The more horrifying and senseless a public disaster, the more powerful the urge to blame it on some secretive and sinister cabal. Rather than reacting to shocks with shrugs—acknowledging that bad things happen to good people, and to great nations—worried citizens often view terrible events as purposeful rather than random. By fingering powerful plotters as responsible for the awful developments, conspiracists elevate themselves to the status of courageous crusaders against imaginary evils, and celebrate their insider knowledge of “what’s really going on.”…Click here to read the full column at Newsweek.com.