"Voodoo Histories": When smart people believe dumb things
From 9/11 to the moon landing, how conspiracy theories have changed history -- and why we must fight back
AP/Salon
In the autumn of 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, a strange book began circulating in Western Europe and North America. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" consisted of an 80-page manifesto outlining, in detail, how the existing powers in the world — churches, governments and the like — could be toppled using class hatred, war and Bolshevism, thus establishing a world empire ruled by Jews. Supposedly created by a cabal of nefarious Jews during an 1897 meeting, "The Protocols" was, of course, an anti-Semitic hoax, but that didn't stop it from becoming a sensation in Europe — and one of the first major conspiracy theories of the 20th century.
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