Suspicious Minds summary

People often link conspiracy theories to the advent of the internet. But they’ve actually been around for millennia.

Conspiracy theories can be traced all the way back to the Roman Empire.

While it can be fun to discuss conspiracy theories, the truth is that they can also have deadly consequences.

In the Middle Ages, for example, some conspiracy theorists blamed the Jews for the Black Death.

So, what do you think? Is Osama bin Laden still alive? Or did he die, from natural causes, just months after 9/11?

Strangely enough, people who take issue with the official story – that bin Laden was killed by US troops in 2011 – are willing to believe either one of those conspiracy theories, even though they contradict each other.

Some of the best stories feature a hero fighting against an evil force and saving the day. You can see this throughout history. Just think of Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, or even the classic tale of Beowulf.

In fact, most of our popular tales follow a few basic storylines.

It’s natural for human beings to want to know what is happening around them. What is slightly more curious is the desire to create far-fetched and even ridiculous explanations for situations we don’t understand.

While most humans seek to understand why something happened, conspiracy theorists take it to another level, finding hidden motives everywhere.

The key message in this book:

We are all conspiracy theorists. We can’t help creating stories about how good and evil are in a constant struggle to rule the world, a propensity that leads to conspiracy theories. We find comfort in these stories, which allow us to understand tragic events not as uncontrollable accidents but, rather, as the work of evil governments and secret societies.