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Robert Blaskiewicz

Bob Blaskiewicz is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s “Conspiracy Guy” web columnist, a JREF Swift Blog contributor, a blogger at skepticalhumanities.com, and a regular panelist on the live weekly web show The Virtual Skeptics (Wed 8PM Eastern) and contributes a monthly essay to the Skepticality podcast. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he specializes in and teaches about World War II veterans’ writings, extraordinary/paranormal claims and conspiracy theory.

This Week in Conspiracy: For Fear of a Jesuit Planet

This Week in Conspiracy
April 1, 2013
This Week in Conspiracy: For Fear of a Jesuit Planet

In the lore of conspiracism, few religious groups, with the exception of Jews, are more feared or thought to be more powerful than the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). As I write, it was only yesterday that the College of Cardinals elected the first Jesuit pontiff, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis), which makes you wonder: If they were so powerful, what took them so long to ascend to power?

Conspiracy Theory Roundup (February 9, 2013)

This Week in Conspiracy
February 26, 2013
Conspiracy Theory Roundup (February 9, 2013)

The Conspiracy Theory Roundup is an ongoing series of news items from around the web relevant to connoisseurs of conspiracism.

Information Cycle of Violence

The Conspiracy Guy
January 11, 2013
Information Cycle of Violence

New media, especially YouTube, has changed the public’s relationship to news and information in a way that has made conspiracy theories not only more prevalent but also a much more participatory pursuit. For this reason, it is vital that any student of conspiracy theory attain some degree of media literacy. A good place to start is with the information cycle.

Enemies, Mostly Domestic

The Conspiracy Guy
September 17, 2012
Enemies, Mostly Domestic

The last month has seen a disturbing number of high-profile mass shootings, and these events, when filtered through the conspiratorial worldview, become distorted and magnified in strange and interesting ways.

Tim McVeigh’s Must-Read List: The Turner Diaries

The Conspiracy Guy
June 20, 2012
Tim McVeigh’s Must-Read List: The Turner Diaries

Demographic and social changes, augmented by an entrenched and politically active nativist movement that targets illegal immigrants, should encourage our awareness of the ideological fountain from which the racist subset of these militias draw, including The Turner Diaries.

Out of Mind? Out of Sight!

The Conspiracy Guy
May 17, 2012
Out of Mind? Out of Sight!

The source of the dread, foreboding, or control that conspiracy theorists sense is often outside the range of the normal experience of everyday life, which in no way diminishes the sense of a real threat. Therefore, they locate the locus of power just beyond the normal citizen's perceptual range. . . .

The Denver International Airport Conspiracy

The Conspiracy Guy
April 11, 2012
The Denver International Airport Conspiracy

Somehow, the conspiratorial world has convinced itself that, to use Richard Dreyfus’s phrase as he sculpts his mashed potatoes into a replica of the Devil’s Tower, the Denver International Airport “means something.” What exactly it means is unclear, but conspiracy theorists know its meaning is sinister.

Maria Monk’s Awful Disclosures: A Classic American Conspiracy Theory

The Conspiracy Guy
February 27, 2012
Maria Monk’s Awful Disclosures: A Classic American Conspiracy Theory

We have a long history of being afraid of the wrong people: the Masons, the Illuminati, the Commies, those cunning homosexuals—all of these groups at some point or another have been identified as the enemy, the embodiment of evil that would tear the heart out of America and deliver it to perdition.

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Engineering Truth

Skeptical Inquirer Volume 35.5, September/October 2011

Special Report

You Can’t Handle the Truthiness: A Night Out with the 9/11 Truth Community

Special Report
September 1, 2011
You Can’t Handle the Truthiness: A Night Out with the 9/11 Truth Community

It’s the day of the Rapture, May 21st, 2011, but I’m on my way to the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, for other reasons.

All They Want Is the Truth

Special Report
June 9, 2011
All They Want Is the Truth

At an unconventional convention in Atlanta in February, conspiracy theorists, UFO researchers, alternative medicine advocates, new patriots, and...

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