Dogma : Cults, Conspiracy & Secret Societies

Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer's celebrated columns in Scientific AmericanFor fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American ma...

28 Nov 202254min

Conspiracy theories are a part of the human condition. Everyone believes at least one, but given the number of conspiracy theories, it is more likely that everyone believes a few. Some people have a w...

28 Nov 202252min

Most conspiracy theories reside permanently in the murky corners of the internet. QAnon is the rare breakout hit. Earlier this month, it bounded out of the online swamps and onto the national stage.QA...

28 Nov 202239min

Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the di...

28 Nov 202230min

You’ve seen them in movies and on TV, but cults are more prevalent than you think—and they’re armed with strategies that can brainwash and persuade even the most unlikely of candidates.But how do indi...

28 Nov 202231min

Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere to do his bidding a...

28 Nov 202245min

The Action has produced a handbook on conspiracy theories that provides the most comprehensive analysis of phenomenon to date. It examines where conspiracy theories come from, who believes in them, an...

28 Nov 202247min

The Earth is flat, the World Trade Center collapse was a controlled demolition, planes are spraying poison to control the weather, and actors faked the Sandy Hook massacre.All these claims are bunk: f...

28 Nov 202249min