#13 – Why Conspiracy Theories are Toxic

In this episode, Virgil goes into detail about the conspiracy theorist worldview and the dangers of viewing everything through a conspiratorial lens. Virgil details his prior history with conspiracy theories and his motivations for being a conspiracy theorist in the past. Virgil discusses the turn from the more harmless conspiracy theories to the more pernicious, bigoted, and hate-filled theories about the state of the world and the people responsible for the ills of the society. In this talk, we hope we can address the reasons why someone would turn to conspiracy theories in a time of chaos and uncivility and how conspiracy theories are ultimately false, manipulating, bigoted, and toxic for everyone involved.