The Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies: From the Knights Templar to the JFK Assassination: Uncovering the Truth Behind the World’s Most Controversial Conspiracy Theories
Product Description
Did the noble order of the Knights Templar guard a secret about Jesus’ birth?
Was the moon landing faked in a Hollywood movie studio?
Is the government keeping the remains of an alien spacecraft in the top-secret Area 51?Monte Cook takes a look at conspiracy theories–ranging from the historically complex to the seriously whacked out. With a disbelieving eye, he traces the history of some of the world’s weirdest ideas and even includes a chart showing readers… More >>
Tagged with: Assassination • behind • Conspiracies • Conspiracy • Controversial • From • guide • Knights • Most • Skeptic's • Templar • Theories • Truth • Uncovering • World's
Filed under: Conspiracy
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the whole book is based on nonexisting conspircy theories!as if that was not enough
the author uses a fake strawman in the form of skibbled comments in margins to act as his
ghost counterpoint . every “rebuttle” form the strawman is related to gray aliens (even JFK and Marilynn Monroe!)
70% of the “theories” of this book i have never even heard of (i have researched CT for 30 years).
i would call this author a shill but ,he is just to bad at research and writing to even deserve THAT title.
Rating: 1 / 5
I thought the book was great. Well researched accounts of lots of conspiracies with enough wry humor tossed in to keep it funny as well as informative.
Rating: 5 / 5
The title of this book is “The Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies,” and a most deceptive title it is. The author, Monte Cook, is as much a skeptic as Karl Rove is a liberal Democrat.
I started to get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach while perusing the chapter on the JFK assassination. Imagine, after countless documentaries and published debunkings, our “skeptic” still takes the “Magic Bullet” nonsense seriously (for any remaining innocents, there was nothing magic about the bullet that struck both JFK and John Connally). Moreover, his recommended reading turns out to be a single book written by a crackpot, ignoring such exhaustive, responsible treatments as Gerald Posner’s [ASIN:1400034620 Case Closed]and Vincent Bugliosi’s [ASIN:0393045250 Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy].
But Cook really gives away his game in the chapter on 9/11 conspiracy theories. He makes a transparent attempt to throw the reader off the trail by acknowledging that some of the rubbish spouted by tinfoil-hatters is “outlandish.” His true agenda emerges–again–in the recommended reading: two books, one by Jim Fetzer, crank-for-all-seasons, who believes that no planes hit the twin towers, and the other by the arch-charlatan David Ray Griffin, whose myriad errors and falsehoods about the NIST Report in one of his interchangeable books were dissected point-by-point in a white paper by NASA engineer Ryan Mackey (it can be found easily by Googling the author’s name). Griffin’s response to Mackey was to run away. Indeed, Griffin refuses to debate ANY of the army of rationalists who regard him as a fact-free mountebank.
James Randi and Michael Shermer are genuine skeptics. They write stimulating books that pay homage to reason and the scientific method, thereby showing respect for the reader’s intelligence. Monte Cook wrote disingenuous drivel. By lending credence to utter crapola, he insults the reader. Quite simply, a dishonest effort that deserves a swift trip to the circular file.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book attempts to be punchy and pithy, borrows the printed + handwritten notations style that works so well for the Geranamo Stilton childrens series. Thankfully it is a short read.
You won’t learn anything new from this book, because if you are ignorant of the events that are covered, you will be confused by the distorted emphasis placed upon trivial information, and the omission of critical information.
This book commits grevious errors of logic. Two of my pet peeves are the “straw man argument” and “guilt by association”. Both are dishonest. In one example in the 9/11 section, the author ridicules the theory that ‘no planes hit the twin towers in NY city’. No one in there right mind espouses that theory, so the author is debunking something that is already debunked (the straw man). Then the author moves on to talk about Alex Jones, the radio talkshow host, in such a way that implies to the reader that Mr. Jones is a proponent of the discredited theory (guilt by association)….when, in fact, he does not endorse it.
To learn about conspiracies, or what to think about them, I’d recommend a textbook on logic. Learn about “A=A”, “Poisoning the Well”, “Damning with Faint Praise” and other tricks of the misinformaiton trade. Then, read the daily newspaper/weekly magazines and see what you see.
Rating: 1 / 5
I got into this one quite a bit. Chock full of useful info about nutty conspiracies with a good sense of humor. It was kind of like Carl Sagan’s Dance Party’s conspiracy theory segment combined with Brian Dunning’s Skeptoid. This makes an excellent gift for anyone who thinks critically but needs a source of raw data to draw from.
Rating: 4 / 5