The 21st century has already graced us with tons and tons of conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and myths. We have the internet to thank in large part for at least the distribution end of these falsehoods, but then we also have Snopes.com, which tries to nip those theories and what-not in the bud. This book, from columnist and movie critic Richard Roeper, covers many such cases very quickly with just a little bit of liberal politics, humor, and film criticism to diversify the product from others.
Debunked!: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century covers roughly 30 different conspiracies in 236 pages, which makes it rather breezy for non-fiction. The 9/11 chapter is the first largest at 17 pages, which isn't really enough to put the subject to rest, exactly. This makes for a casual, quick, and very entertaining pace of reading, but some of the more convoluted conspiracy theories aren't given enough space to be thoroughly debunked, however that can be quantified. The book works well as it is formatted, but it should be made clear that Roeper dismisses a few things too casually in order to keep the book's pacing on track (The liberal media conspiracy chapter is one page of text, mostly just a list of famous conservative media personalities. Surely you can say more than that on the subject.)
The subject chapters range entirely from too easy, crazy stuff like grilled cheese Virgin Mary, to matters so difficult to judge that they are beyond the scope of a book this size, like the Bird Flu. There's not a whole lot to say about the Virgin Mary sightings besides "Wow, I can't believe someone is worshipping an oil stain" and "Why on Earth would God send us a symbol like that, anyway?" There's not a whole lot to debunk, really, as there isn't really an applicable science to miracles. In the case of the Bird Flu, the chapter focuses on Donald Rumsfeld's financial interest in Tamiflu, which was marketed as a potential solution to the Bird Flu that turned out to be overblown. Did Rumsfeld want to profit from scaring us over Bird Flu? The book's conclusion: Well, probably not, I mean he's already really rich, and he probably isn't that cynical and awful. So, it wasn't really that helpful of a chapter.
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