Thursday, May 29, 2014

Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous ideas


Cover image for Conspiracy theories & other dangerous ideas / Cass R. Sunstein.
Conspiracy Theories and other Dangerous Ideas by Cass R. Sunstein, 267 pages

I picked this book up when browsing the recently arrived new books in Social Science. While the title makes it seem that it is about the different theories and other legends or myths, it is actually about how they start and why they last. The book is broken down into chapters, with each chapter being a “dangerous idea”. I put that in quotes as it would be more accurate to say dangerous political ideas. Some of the “dangerous ideas” are things like health care reform and minimalism. I can’t say I consider those to be dangerous to think about. Dangerous in a political sense yes, but not for the average person.

Overall I should have stopped reading after the first long chapter on conspiracy theories. The rest of the ideas, while discussed don’t go into the same detail nor do they fully explain either the issue or the suggested possible answer.  

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