Conspiracy Audience

"You know there has to me more to it..."
"Nothing is free..."
"I know they said that but..."
"I heard their confession but did you make them..."
"Okay they resigned but why did you make them..."

Conspiracy theorists often actually catch conspirators.  Conspiracies do happen.  However, chasing conspiracies is like an addictive drug to many people.  The conspiracy theorist is obsessed with the belief that there is always a "sub-plot" and that nothing is as it appears.  He does not believe the facts as apparent or presented because "one time they weren't."  It only takes one conspiracy to edge the obsessed theorists to assume that everything is, could be, or is becoming a conspiracy.  Never mind the thousands of things that happen each hour that aren't a conspiracy - the conspiracy theorist is sure that there is a sub-plot to this latest thing.

Conspiracy theorists often find their obsession as a convenient excuse to slip into denial about anything that they don't want to accept.  "Surely, X couldn't have been inappropriate with Y. Y must have done something.  Maybe neither did anything.  Maybe those that lead X just don't like him.  That's it." 

Conspiracy theorists often loose their way amidst the emotion, zeal, marketing and excitement of the latest problem even if it isn't a conspiracy.  For example, Y2K really sucked in the conspiracy theorists.  The news, the panic, the disaster of it all caused them to spend thousands of hours and dollars to protect against what they were assured in fact would not happen.

There is a Conspiracy Theory Audience that teachers will encounter.  At first, it may (ironically) only be a sub-audience but it is capable of balooning quickly on emotional argument and challenges that can not be immediately answered.  A teacher can find themself overwhelmed and "chasing herds of rabbits" with no valuable learning going on and less mature learners becoming very confused.  This is the downside of the Conspiracy Audience.

The upside to this audience is that, when acting with less emotion, they are able to find the subtle sub-plots, additional points, and apply truths is very unique ways to mutliple situations.  Their seeming lack of trust can be parlayed into asking questions that when answered with truth create an even stronger case to the non-conspiracy audiences.

The wise teacher will:

• Not allow disorder to reign in the audience by stopping excessive "rabbit hunting" or emotion with a calm, non-engaging, non-defensive exposition of truth.  The teacher must keep drawing the discussion to truth and gently expose emotion and fiction.
• Disarm the agressive, charismatic conspiracy audience by thinking while listening and asking questions to which the only answer is objective truth.
• Find great value in the mature conspiracy theorist by friendly identifying his approach to learning and asking himto help the group find the possible problems or sub-plots.  This makes him productive and "on the team".
• Will realize that he can never change the mind of a conspiracy audience.  It just can't be done.  The teacher can only provide truth that if embraced will cause this audience to learn.

This seemingly difficult, agressive and contradictory audience is ultimately a small audience usually made up of hermits or very charismatic people.  When the charismatic member of this small audience gets going, he will exponentially multiply the size of the audience - if only with temporary "members".  Probably most important, the teacher should remember that the conspiracy audience is not the enemy.  Chaos is the enemy and chaos can be controlled with consistent, calm presentation of the truth.  This audience mandates that the teacher control the flow of the discussion so that the value of this audience will be seen as chaos is gone disappears.