Join the LWV Moscow for a Speaker Series presentation: Have they gone crazy? Political conspiracy theories and our fellow citizens, presented by Neil Levy on Wed., Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. This presentation will be held virtually via Zoom.

According to polling data, lots of people - many millions - accept outrageous conspiracy theories. Pizzagate was accepted by nearly half of all Republicans. QAnon was supported by similar numbers, and 25% said that Obama may be the literal antichrist. In the light of this data, it’s tempting to conclude our fellow citizens have gone bonkers (as one pollster put it). In this presentation, Levy will give reasons to think that Republicans have not gone crazy. First, while conspiracy theories seem more common on the right now, that’s not because the left is immune. 

Accepting conspiracy theories is really common, and in a different time the left might have been more prone to them than the right. Second, though, there is good evidence that far fewer people really believe the conspiracy theories than reporting believing, Levy will present some of this evidence, including his own philosophical and psychological research. 

Levy is a professor of philosophy at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) and a Senior Research Fellow at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford.