Teaching Conspiracy Theorists

On the surface, a conspiracy theory may seem like misinformation regarding a specific subject.Details about a certain conspiratorial event or position may be correct, but the core of the conspiracy theory is a lie.For example, Joseph Uscinski et al. estimate that 30 percent of Americans believe that the media overhyped the problems of COVID -19 to destroy the reputation of Donald Trump, who was then president of the United States. 1 However, COVID -19 is a health problem in the United States: as of 2022, over a million Americans have died of COVID -19.COVID -19 causes fever, nausea and vomiting, debilitating muscle and body pains, headaches, a loss of taste, and shortness of breath. 2 While those who believe the conspiracy theory are correct about the inordinate amount of attention COVID -19 received from television news (especially CNN and MSNBC), they are incorrect when they assume news coverage was designed to take down the Trump presidency.If anything, Donald Trump, who initially scheduled regular media briefings on COVID, talked about how COVID -19 was a hoax (it is not) and how it was nothing more than the "common flu," which is also untrue. 3 If anything, Trump courted the media and gave misleading information.As a result, Trump's ignorance about COVID -19 (and other issues) ultimately led to him losing the election.According to J. Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood, over 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory. 4 This is a problem, since believing in conspiracy theories can lead Americans to forego vaccinations, such as the COVID -19 vaccine, mistrust objective research, and act out violently (such as what occurred on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters, believing he had won the election, stormed the Capitol building).Moreover, it can divide Americans by