The Conspiracy Theory Pyramid Scheme

The conspiracy theory pyramid scheme has three tiers. First, writers and intellectuals who reinforce and legitimate conspiracy memes, sometimes without explicitly endorsing conspiracy theories. Second, people with a psychological affinity for conspiracy theories. And third, people who feel threatened by a specific issue and become persuaded that a conspiracy is at work. The pyramid metaphor should not be taken to imply that the top tier is in control and dominates the second and third tiers of the pyramid. Interaction between the tiers is reciprocal, not hierarchical. The authors examined in this chapter have played an important role on the first tier of the conspiracy theory pyramids: Andrew Wakefield, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Frederick Seitz, James Inhofe, Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, and Edward Herman.