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Profit drives conspiracy theories

Why are there so many conspiracy theories? Because promoting them is a lucrative business.

Here in the U.S., conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of “Infowars” made millions from calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax, and the victims’ families “crisis actors.” A jury decided the money he made by exploiting their dead children and calling them liars belongs to them, not him.

In the U.K., a terror attack survivor has decided to sue a man who asserts the incident didn’t happen and the survivor wasn’t injured, when in fact he’s paralyzed from the waist down and his daughter — also injured in the attack — is profoundly disabled.

The man’s motive is money. “A former engineer and website designer, he makes money from selling books and DVDs outlining his theories, as well as speaking at events and posting videos online,” BBC News said here. Seems to me that money belongs not to him, but to the people he’s exploiting.

He follows them, stakes out their homes, films them. His activities subject them to abuse. “Enough is enough,” the survivor’s lawyer said.

Technically, the legal dispute isn’t over ownership of the profits, but a demand for payment of damages. But at the end of the day, it’s about who gets the money that selling conspiracy theories brings in. And that really shouldn’t require much thought.

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