W
hen you are reading this, you have started reading my PWS. Firstly, I would like to introduce myself, so you know who’s behind this. My name is Joran Andringa. I was born in Groningen seventeen years ago and still live just outside the city. Last year, I moved to the College of Kamerlingh Onnes to finish my GCSE. I did not have to think too long to choose a subject for my PWS. I have always been interested in reading about conspiracy theories and everything around it. In my opinion, I think the media are brainwashing us. What you read in the paper, see on the news or hear on the radio is, is accepted as the truth. However, there is, very often, more behind everything the media are telling us. Sometimes, certain conspiracy theories just make more sense and seem more logical.
Introduction
MAIN QUESTION:
Why are there conspiracy theories and how do conspiracy theories affect the world?
1st QUESTION:
What are conspiracy theories?
2nd QUESTION:
What kind of people believe in conspiracy theories and why do they believe in conspiracy theories?
3rd QUESTION:
How do conspiracy theories arise and develop?
4th QUESTION:
What are the most well-known conspiracy theories and how “famous” are these conspiracy theories?
5th QUESTION:
Are there any recognized conspiracy theories that turned out to be the truth, and what happens after a conspiracy theory is recognized as the truth?
6th QUESTION:
What is the influence of conspiracy theories on the world?
Chapter 1
If we look up the words ‘conspiracy’ and ‘theory’ in the dictionary we find the following:
con·spir·a·cy
[kuh n-spir-uh-see]
noun, plural con·spir·a·cies
1. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; to plot.
2. a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful or evil purpose: He joined the conspiracy to overthrow the government.
the·o·ry
[thee-uh-ree, theer-ee]
noun, plural the·o·ries
1. a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual facts.
2. contemplation or speculation: The theory that there is life on other planets.
3. guess or conjecture: My theory is that ne never stops to think words have consequences.
When we combine these two words we get the following:
conspiracy theory
noun
1. a theory that explains an event as being the result of a plot by a covert group or organisation; a belief that a particular unexplained event was caused by such a group.
2. the idea that many important political events or economic and social trends are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.
That’s it according to the dictionary but what really is a conspiracy theory?
A conspiracy theory is an explanatory supposition that claims that a certain event, situation or development, which is usually evil and illegal, is well planned and secretly executed by the a group or an organisation, which is often the government. The group or organisation is used as a scapegoat because the supporters of the conspiracy theory distrust them. Conspiracy theories are often used by people to explain an inexplicable event and make it all look more logical. For example, if all of a sudden a celebrity dies, a building collapses or something else happens out of the blue and there hasn’t been much said about the cause of the event, people start researching things for themselves. If the report by the police, government or researchers doesn’t make things clearer, people start their own research, that often lead to false accusations.
Human beings are curious. When there’s a lack of clearness or not enough information about a certain event, people start speculating things automatically and looking for more information. The evidence of a conspiracy theory is usually doubtful. If there’s a little mistake in the official declaration of a certain event, for example, this is often automatically seen as evidence. Supporters of conspiracy theories often prove their right by asking a question.
Example no. 1:
How is it possible that on the 11th of September 2001 the Twin Towers collapsed so quickly when steel melts at a temperature of 1500 °C when jet fuel can can’t a temperature above 800 °C?
You can’t answer that and it all seems logical so supporters of this theory claim that the government caused the collapse of the both Twin Towers.
Example no. 2:
Speaking about the photographs of the first landing on the moon. How comes the flag is waving on the pictures? There is no wind in space. And how comes there are no stars in the background? They should be there.
Arguments like this are used to prove the faking of the moon landing(s). The government of the United States faked the moon landing in a studio. Human beings make mistakes. Apparently they forgot about the stars and they made another mistake by making the flag wavy.
Talking about the Apollo moon landing. It is one of the most famous conspiracy theories. According to the people that support the theory, NASA recorded the whole moon landing in a studio. The reason for this is that they wanted to be ahead of the Russians because the Russians were ahead of them all the time. The first ‘thing’ in space ever was Russian. The Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space. The first woman in space was also Russian. Just like Russia landed the first impact-probe on the moon and on Venus. So the Americans had to catch up. John F. Kennedy, who was president at that time, promised that an American man would reach the moon before the decade was over. There are a lot of people that actually believe this conspiracy theory because the quality of the recordings was higher than most people on earth could imagine. However NASA refuted this by saying that out of thousands of pictures, they only chose the best ones, the ones with the highest quality. There were many bad quality pictures among all the pictures they took.
As I said, you can’t see any stars on the pictures but what’s also weird is that the astronauts didn’t take pictures of the starts either, even though they were well-trained in taking pictures of the stars. NASA however again refuted this by saying that for taking pictures of the stars you need a long shutter time and they didn’t have that much time, just enough to play a game of golf on the moon though.
A lot of people had their doubts by the wavy flag. NASA said the flags looks wavy, indeed, but it wasn’t because it was blowing. No, it was because the flag was folded and when they placed it on the moon they had to unfold it. It is somehow wavy, NASA says, but that’s because of the vibrations in the ground by placing the flag. Furthermore, it is just folded. The supporters of conspiracy theories come with arguments, on which NASA responds. Then the supporters of the conspiracy theories respond on that again. Because of this a conspiracy theory doesn’t die.
Evidence against a conspiracy theory gets rejected almost always and immediately. If there is some proof that blows away the conspiracy theory, the supporters of the conspiracy theory will claim that the organisation that’s really behind the event, just came up with this ‘proof’ to distract attention of what really happened. Also, if there is not enough information to proof a conspiracy theory, the thinkers will say that is because the evidence is erased by the people that are on the other side. All the information that will back up the theory a little is used as evidence to support the whole theory. If a certain conspiracy theory is unlikely to believe, followers of the theory will claim that that is because the opposite party brainwashes you to believe them and not to believe the conspiracy theory. So basically, however you look at it, according to conspiracy theory supporters, they think that they are always right because everything that can bring damage to or that can be used against the conspiracy theory is part of the conspiracy.
Chapter 2
The supporters
The magazine ‘Quest’ has been doing a little research to conspiracy theories. There are a lot of clichés about conspiracy theorists. “They are irrational, poorly educated and just paranoia.” This, however, is not true. People often think that there’s almost no one that actually believes in conspiracy theories, this is not true either. There are actually a lot of people who believe in one or more theories.
You can’t really say how many supporters there are since it’s going up and down all the time. There are times were a lot of people start reading about a certain conspiracy theory and there are times where almost no one bats an eye. After the event itself happened, a lot of people talk about it, of course. Then it becomes a little less. Let’s take the assassination of John F. Kennedy for example. After he was shot people were doing self-research to what really happened and who was really behind the assassination. A lot of people believed in the conspiracy theories around JFK. Then it became a little less but when the Oscar winning movie JFK was published in 1991, people, all of a sudden, started investigating the assassination again. People started reading about it on the internet again and they formed their own opinion on what happened. They started supporting conspiracy theories again. That is how it goes with conspiracy theories: the more you hear or read about a certain conspiracy theory, the more you will believe it.
What kind of people believe in conspiracy theories?
According to Jan-Willem van Prooijen, conspiracy theories are very popular among people who can’t handle uncertainties, people who need straight facts and clear answers. These people need structure in their life. Especially after big events, like a war, an attack or a celebrity’s death, they need to know what really happened. Big events or situations need big causes, says van Prooijen. According to van Prooijen people who read a lot about conspiracy theories, don’t believe in coincidence, and pointing at someone who is guilty in their eyes, is much easier.
In a conspiracy theorist’s head people have bad intensions most of the time. Van Prooijen says that people who do believe in conspiracy theories are way more distrustful than believe who do not believe in conspiracy theories. The more people distrust others, the more these people are likely to be a believer. Political paranoia. That is how Van Prooijen likes to call it.
Looking at the results of a lot of research to conspiracy theories, you can see that the believers often belong to the ethical minority and have a lower income. Latino’s and black Americans are usually more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than people with a higher income.
Reasons people believe in conspiracy theories
People that make up conspiracy theories and believe in conspiracy theories often called “foolish” or “stupid” for believing these theories. People that do not spend much time thinking about conspiracy theories or do not believe in conspiracy theories often think the supporters of theories, like this one, are irrational while they are actually thinking a little bit too rational. Our brain is set up to recognize patterns. That is just how human beings are. When you see a red traffic light, you automatically link it to danger. Looking for and finding patterns like this is a natural thing. However, conspiracy theorists are looking for patterns like this too much. When you do that, you start seeing patterns in things that should not even be linked.
Often they are wrong but sometimes they are right. For example, there is a website called WikiLeaks. It is a website for whistleblowers. A whistleblower is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, dishonest, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. On WikiLeaks these whistleblower published secret information about the American government. All of a sudden these secrets were available for everyone. On this website, there has, for example, information been published about an American military mission in the Middle-East. Just like this, there have been many more conspiracy theories that were proven to be true. When a conspiracy theory is prove to be true, the supporters will say that they said it all the time. Because of this, other people, will start following these people that “said it”, which will lead to a higher percentage of people that believe in conspiracy theories.
If you have to deal with being lied to a lot, you will more likely believe in conspiracy theories. If you are being lied to a lot, you will distrust people easier. It is harder for you to believe things then. Just like you won’t believe people anymore, you won’t believe what the media says or what the government says. You start to distrust everyone and are more likely to follow a conspiracy theory.
Jan-Willem van Prooijen is professor at the VU Amsterdam. He says there are a lot of conspiracy theorists in the Netherlands. Van Prooijen says that believing in conspiracy theories is because people want to understand and explain social events. “A need that encourages mainly in threatening, uncertain situations, after an terrorist attack or a natural disaster for example. A conspiracy theory usually starts with a simple assumption: the official statement is wrong, the government is somehow behind it. The need for pointing at a scapegoat is simply men’s nature.”
If you read about conspiracy theories a lot, you are also more likely to believe it. That sounds pretty logical but it does explain why people that believe in a certain conspiracy theory, will read more about it and start confirming their own theory.
So, usually people that believe in conspiracy theories are a little bit distrustful in general. People that find it difficult to face doubts and insecurities. Most of the time, these people are slightly more likely to come from an ethnic minority or have a lower income than the average citizen. Believing in a certain conspiracy theory gives them some satisfaction, with which they can fill up uncertainties about certain events. Also, personal experiences can lead to believing conspiracy theories.
Research at the University of Kent has shown that conspiracy theories are more likely to be believed by people who are willing themselves to conspire. According to Dr. Karen Douglas and Dr. Robbie Sutton, two researches from the University’s School of Psychology, found that someone’s perception that “I would do it” informs his or her perception that “they did it”. In the study, participants were asked whether they would personally play a role in such conspiracies, if they had been in a position to do so. An example of this way was ‘If you were in the positions of the government, would you have ordered the attack on the Twin Towers? The more that participants indicated a willingness to conspire, the more they found the same conspiracy theories to be plausible, interesting and worth considering. Among all the everyone that participated to the research, Douglas and Sutton saw that the participants who were highly Machiavellian, what means that someone is willing to exploit others for personal gain, were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.
Chapter 3
Arising of theories
Conspiracy theories arise when people do not believe what there is said that happened. Of course, they are made by people. Someone distrusts something and starts using his own fantasy. There are a lot of these conspiracy theorists, for sure, just like there are many conspiracy theories. But who are these people that make all these conspiracy theories? It is not that easy to just launch a conspiracy theory, otherwise everyone could just come up with a, according to them, conspiracy theory. I could go on Facebook, write something about who really hijacked the airplanes on September 11, 2001, as a joke and call it a conspiracy theory. It is not that easy. There are some people that are being recognized as ‘conspiracy theorists’. People who are really busy with conspiracy theories a lot and often come up with more theories.
The reason people make conspiracy theories is basically the same reason people do believe in conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists have their questions about a certain event or development in the world and start thinking for themselves. Especially, if you are already a famous person and have “fans”, you will be more likely to be believed. Your fans will think alike you and will easily believe you. Often these supporters of conspiracy theorists have the same way of thinking as the conspiracy theorist himself and therefor a conspiracy theory will be easily believed.
Conspiracy theorists
Alex Jones is one of these recognized conspiracy theorists. Jones is a radio host show and a writer and he also makes films and documentaries. He describes himself as “a dedicated and aggressive Constitutionalist”. Alex Jones’ website is called INFOWARS. On this website he broadcasts his own radio show called The Alex Jones Show, based in Texas, where he was also born in 1974. On his website he posts videos and news and the website even has a store. Jones sometimes appears on the great television channels from the United States and Great-Britain such as Russia Today, CNN and Fox News. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers and all the videos on there get a lot of views.
Jones is well known for his views on the government of the United States. He claims that it was the government that is behind the attacks on 9/11. He also claims to have predicted these attacks. In one his shows he warned his public about a secret mission of the government: a terrorist attack under false flag would happen soon. He asked his supporters to phone the government and tell they know about their plans. And he was right, on September 11, 2001, the United States got attacked. However, he predicted another terrorist attack. Jones said that the attacks would take place in October, 2006. FOX, an American television channel, heard about his prediction and paid attention to it. When there was no terrorist attack in that October, Jones said this was because the media paid too much attention to it.
Another famous conspiracy theorist is David Icke, a British writer and activist. He used to be a professional football player, sports reporter and national spokesman for the British Green Party but since 1990 he is, as he calls himself, a fulltime researcher of who and what really rule the world. In 1991 Icke called himself God’s son and since then the British Green Party did not want anything to do with the conspiracy theorist anymore. Icke claims that the world is being ruled by the Illuminati and according to Icke they are responsible for every conspiracy theory so far.
In 1991 David Icke came up with the conspiracy theory which included a list of world leaders who are not human but aliens instead. He made up this conspiracy theory that these people actually come from the Reptilians, mentioned before. A couple of descendants of these alien creatures are George W. Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Queen Elizabeth and princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. In this same year he also published the book The Biggest Secret, a book about this conspiracy theory.
David Icke also thinks 9/11 was an inside job. He tells you all about it in his book Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster. Besides these two books, he has published sixteen more books.
Milton William Cooper was once described by Bill Clinton as “the most dangerous man of the United States”. There is not much known about Cooper’s life although he claimed to have been raised in a military family, to have served the first in the air force and then in the navy. Public records show that Cooper had, indeed, served for the US Navy for a while. He was discharged in 1975. After graduating from a junior college in California, he worked for several technical and vocational schools. In 1988 he started making his conspiracy theories known. During his time serving the navy, he had seen a lot of documents, plans for the 9/11 attacks, for example. These documents really shocked him. In 1991 Cooper published Behold a Pale Horse, a book full of his conspiracy theories, about JFK, UFOs and AIDS, for example. On November 5, 2001, Cooper was fatally shot after an exchange of gunfire with sheriff deputies after they tried to arrest Cooper. "He had vowed that he would not be taken alive," said Tom McCombs, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service.
Development
You can’t really say how many supporters there are since it’s going up and down all the time. There are times were a lot of people start reading about a certain conspiracy theory and there are times where almost no one bats an eye. After the event itself happened, a lot of people talk about it, of course. Then it becomes a little less. Let’s take the assassination of John F. Kennedy for example. After he was shot people were doing self-research to what really happened and who was really behind the assassination. A lot of people believed in the conspiracy theories around JFK. Then it became a little less but when the Oscar winning movie JFK was published in 1991, people, all of a sudden, started investigating the assassination again. People started reading about it on the internet again and they formed their own opinion on what happened. They started supporting conspiracy theories again. That is how it goes with conspiracy theories: the more you hear or read about a certain conspiracy theory, the more you will believe it.
Chapter 4
4.1 The assassination of JFK
From 1961 till 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known by his initials JFK, was the president of the United States of America. JFK got famous because he wanted to land men on the moon to win the Space Race against the Russians. The Cuba Crisis and the Vietnam War were two main topics while he was president. On November 22, 1973, JFK was assassinated in Texas while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife Nellie in the presidential limousine. At 12:30 p.m. CST, while entering Dealey Plaza, Nellie Connally turned around to President Kennedy, who was sitting in the backseat, and commented, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you,” which President Kennedy acknowledged by saying “No, you certainly can’t.” Those were the last words ever spoken by John F. Kennedy.
The conspiracy theories around the assassination of John F. Kennedy are, for sure, in the top 3 of greatest conspiracy theories. People have a lot of questions about the assassination of the president. The shots that killed the president have been fired by the then 24-years old Lee Harvey Oswald but over 70% of the Americans doesn’t believe the official report and thinks there has been a conspiracy. There are a lot of conspiracy theories around the assassination but the British magazine ‘The Week’ made a list of a couple of conspiracy theories. Some are not very likely to have happened, but there are a few very interesting ones.
Who killed the 35th President of the United States? There are many conspiracy theories about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Some say that there were certain individuals from the CIA were behind the killing while others claim the mafia killed the charming man. What was Castro’s role in all of this? And what about the Cuban exiles and the US army? But there are also people that believe that Jacqueline, the Kennedy’s wife, was behind the killing of her husband. Others think that alien life may have had something to do with it. Or maybe it is true that Lee Harvey Oswald really killed the president. When someone gets killed, there’s always room to speculate about who the murderer is. The assassination of JFK, and all the conspiracy theories around it, have become really popular. Never before has a murder been talked about so much. Today, more than fifty years after the assassination, it is still an actual topic. The conspiracy theory about Kennedy’s death has become one of the most famous conspiracy theories. More than 80% of the Americans doesn’t believe the official report and thinks there is a conspiracy behind it. They don’t simply believe that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot the president.
Wie vermoordde John F. Kennedy? Author: Perry Vermeulen. JFK movie
Probably the most famous conspiracy theory about how John F. Kennedy died, is that the job was done by the CIA. The intelligence service could always do their thing without strict supervision. That changed when Kennedy became president. The new president chose diplomacy over secret operations, which led to discontent within the organization. The Bay of Pigs Invasion is a failed invasion from Cuban exiles, working together with the American CIA. Their goal was bring down Fidel Castro and take over Cuba. This however did not work out very well. The operation failed. ‘After the Bay of Pigs Invasion two important people from the CIA, Allen Dulles and Charles Cabell, had to clear up the field. Cabells brother, Earle, was mayor of the city of Dallas at that certain day in November, 1963. Earle Cabell changed the route the presidential limousine would go.’
Some people believe the mafia was behind the assassination of JFK. President Kennedy wanted to crackdown organized crime as much as he could. The US Congress concluded, in 1979, that the Texan mafia boss Carlos Marcell had ‘the motive, the resources and the opportunity to kill President Kennedy’.
Another conspiracy theory is, that a man named the Umbrella Man had something to do with Kennedy’s death. On a film Abraham Zaptruder made of the assassination, you can see that there were a lot of people watching Kennedy drive by. On the film you also see two suspicious men. It was a bright and sunny day, the 22th of November, 1963, however, you can see that one of the men suddenly opens his umbrella. The Umbrella Man, as he is called, may have given a sign to a shooter. When the police asked the man about it, later in 1976, he said that it was a protest against Kennedy, which made it even weirder.
There are even people who think aliens were the reason JFK was shot. People claim that Kennedy was killed because he was about to expose all the secrets about connections with aliens. He wanted to tell that the American government has kept it secret all the time and that it is true that aliens have come to earth. This theory has its origin in a memo of the CIA, in which he wanted to see everything about UFOs and aliens. The CIA thought the ‘truth’ about alien life must remain undercover.
4.2 AIDS and the CIA
4.3 The attacks on 9/11
4.4 The moon landing of Apollo 11
4.5 UFOs in Roswell
4.6 Chemtrails
4.8 New World Order (and Illuminati)
Other well-known conspiracy theories are the ones about the New World Order. I am sure you have heard of it before. The NWO, short for New World Order, is all about known people coming together in secret to talk and decide about the future of the planet we live on.
One of the most famous NWO groups is de Bilderberg Group. It is a mysterious group with people who meet each other every year to talk about… no one knows. Only the members of the Bilderberg Group know. The first meeting of the group was in 1954. It was founded because the relationship between the United States and Europe got worse. The group was founded by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Queen Juliana’s husband. Together with Józef Retinger, Paul Rijkens and Paul van Zeeland he founded the group. It took place in the Netherlands in the Bilderberghotel in Oosterbeek. Now you know where the group got its name from. Ever since 1953, the Bilderberg Group comes together every year. Even though the Bilderberg Group is pretty open about their members, it is still a mystery what they are discussing at these meetings. Every member of the Bilderberg Group needs to keep everything they speak about strictly secret.
Chapter 5
MK-ULTRA
Watergate
The NSA is tapping your phone line
Chapter 6
Conclusion
EPILOGUE
Hereby, I am writing the last words of my PWS on paper. I liked working on this project a lot but I am glad that it is finished now. A relieving feeling. I think, for your PWS, it is important to choose a subject you really like and find genuinely interesting because you have to spend a long time working on it and if you choose a subject you don’t even like, you will start disliking working on your PWS. So I did choose this nice subject I find interesting and I liked working on it. Sometimes, it was hard, especially in the beginning but once I started working on it and really got into these conspiracy theories, it was very fun writing, reading and learning about it. I had to work alone so I had to do everything by myself, which I think was both good and bad for me. I think if I had a mate to work with, I would be more motivated but this way it was alright, too. and learning about it. Also, I liked working on my PWS better than anything else on school because I could do it all by myself and did not really have to listen to anyone and could just work on it the way I wanted.
SOURCES
LOGBOOK
LOGBOOK PWS
Name: Joran Andringa
Class: H5a
Section: E&M
Subject: English
Mentor: Mr. Reijnders
DATE TIME PLACE ACTIVITIES
NOTES
September 8-15, 2015 2h School Thinking of a subject. Searching on the internet for a good subject.
September 15-22, 2015 4h School Made a list of a couple of interesting subjects and asked myself questions about it. What would I like to know about it? What am I going to research?
September 26, 2015 2h Home Decided to go for conspiracy theories. Looking for a good conspiracy theory to do my PWS about. Orientation about conspiracy theories. Choosing between a few conspiracy theories I would like to focus on.
September 28, 2015 2h Home Thinking of questions about assassination of JFK. I chose that as my subject.
October 3, 2015 3h Home I watched the movie JFK.
October 4, 2015
2h Home Searched for information of JFK and the conspiracy theory of his assassination on the internet and put down the first words of my actual PWS on paper.
October 8, 2015 1h Home After having to think about it for a while, I decided to change my subject to conspiracy theories in general instead of focusing on the conspiracy theory about the assassination of JFK.
October 13, 2015 4h Home Thinking of a new main question and sub-questions. Also thinking about what I want to research. Made notes and wrote down a little bit information about conspiracy theories.
October 15, 2015 3h Home Reading about conspiracy theories and making some notes every now and then.
October 16, 2015 1h Home Reading about different conspiracy theories.
October 16, 2015 2h Home Went to the library to look up information about conspiracy theories.
October 20, 2015 2h School Working on my PWS. Looking up information. Searching through the web. Started answering my first sub-question.
November 10, 2015 3h School Working on my sub-question about conspiracy theorists.
November 11, 2015 2h School Continued working on my first sub-question.
November 12, 2015 2h Home Working on the layout of my PWS. How do I want my PWS to look like?
November 25, 2015 1h School Worked on my PWS after school.
November 27, 2015 2h Home Working on sub-question number two. Searched on the internet and answered sub-question two. Not completely done with that one yet.
November 28, 2015 3h Home Reformulating sub-questions. Starting working on the other sub-questions.
November 29, 2015 6h Home Been busy with my PWS all day. Writing down a lot of information and put information into my official PWS document as well. Read a lot on the internet.
Kwestie van wantrouwen.
Krantenkoppen en stellingen
Hoe goedgelovig zijn mensen