What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You: The Research Fallacy Essay
Background: A conspiracy theory is a paranoid belief that unseen malevolent powers control and
suppress naiVe people through extreme or mundane events. People use them to make sense of a
chaotic world, stripping events of all nuances and seeing the world as a simple dichotomy of good and evil’ With the internet, conspiracy theories are in a golden age with new ones popping up every day.
Your Task: Pick one conspiracy theory below and research it. Give a brief history behind it but mostly
focus on the fallacies the conspiracy theorists use to back up their argument. you do not have to rebut their ideas since they are already false, but you must point out the fallacies. you must quote and cite the
sources, using them to back up your opinion. You must quote at least three if not more primary sources
in correct M.L.A. style. All these sources should have a writer,s name attached.
The Conspiracy Theories:
o The 9/11,Truth Movement or The Truthers
r Climate Change Conspiracy
r The Fluoride Conspiracy
r Vaccines Are Dangerous
o HIV Does Not Cause AtDS /
o Holocaust Deniers
o Moon Landing Conspiracy
Criteria for Success:
I search the library’s database for secondary sources to study-books, articles, et cetera about
the conspiracy- to see why they are wrong, then, do the research on Google, looking for
primary sources-theorists (those who believe in the conspiracy)-to quote and analyze. r Have a strong, concise, and persuasive thesis statement at the beginning
o Discuss specific fallacies that we have covered in class quoting by the conspiracy theorists.
Again, you do not have to rebut their claims, just point out the fallacies
‘ Quote and analyze the conspiracy theorists themselves, so you may quote their words and not a
summary of them by the critics of the conspiracy theories. You need to quote original sources
and not the secondary sources although you may quote the secondary sources for your fallacy
d iscussion.
r Cite at least three articles or books that have a writer’s name attached if possible
o Do research; you need to show your research with quotations and examples. Go to the library
and get help.
r Write compound sentences using FANBOYS, semicolons, conjunctive adverbs, transitional
phrases, and subordinators and copy proof your paper for run-on sentences, parallel errors,
fragments, subject verb agreements, and quotation and citation errors
r Cite alloutside sources in the M.L.A. format, complete with a List of Works Cited page (essays
without a List of Works Cited will not be accepted)
r Email rough draft and final draft to yourself to save essay on server
‘ Upload final draft to Turnitin.com. Class: English 1A 504. The class t.D.: 1g6053g2. The
enrollment key: textrulz5O4. Turn in hard copy in class.
1
Essay Sample
l. Thesis
Your thesis should give a short summary of the conspiracy. Then, it should mention the conspiracy
theorists and the fallacies that they use.
Example
ln 1700s, a group of intellectuals formed a group called the Bavarian llluminati whose goal was to argue
against the control of the church in state affairs and for the end wars. lts founder, Adam Weishaupt
started the llluminati to push for the secular ideas of the Enlightenment. Conservative religious groups
convinced the German government to outlaw the llluminati. Since then, many people have accused the
defunct group of controlling governments and generally being behind every bad occurrence. John
Robison, Nesta Helen webster, and william Guy carr have written books discussing their llluminati
conspiracy theories, employing fallacies such as appeal to emotion, non sequitur, ad hominem, straw
man, and doubtful cause.
ll. Body
Your essay should quote each conspiracy theorist and then point out the fallacies used by them
Example
William Guy Car argues, “[Communism] was to be used to enable the llluminati to foment future wars
and revolutions’ Clinton Roosevelt (a direct ancestor of F.D.R.) Horace Greeley, and Chas. Dana were
appointed a committee to raise funds for this new venture. The fund they raised financed Karl Marx and
Engels when they wrote “Das Capital” and “The Communist Manifesto” in Soho, England,, (1). Clinton
Roosevelt, Horace Greeley, and Charles Dana are mostly liberaljournalists and politicians. Karl Marx did
write for the newspa per, The New York Tribune, that Greeley and Dana edited, but Marx wrote antislavery
articles and not articles touting his philosophy. To say that they funded Marx and Friedrich
Engels is a straw man fallacy. Car distorts the fact by implying that Marx’s journalistic work funded him
to write his books when instead most money for the books came from Engel’s rich family. plus, to accuse
Greeley and Dana of some long-term plan to foment future wars by simply paying one out of many
reporters on their staff is a doubtful cause fallacy. The two men could not have caused Marx,s book to
become a basis for so many revolutions. car’s hindsight is all too perfect.
lll. Conclusion
Here, you can put a naysayer in the text and say why the theorists believe in these conspiracies. Don,t
agree with them, but talk about the social reasons that pushes these people to spout such theories