On this season, we'll be exploring the moral panics, urban legends, and conspiracy theories that shape our psychology and culture and why we end up believing them.

I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith, and this is American Hysteria. Is this really a woman that you're

looking at? Or is it all an illusion? Because what are they giving birth to the New World Order

Satanic raid? Protocols of Zionism, designed to give the synagogue of Satan, ultimate world domination. The public's

finally waking up to the fact that Hillary Clinton's a reptilian shape-shifter. So I'm definitely

interested to see where this new election goes. My first real introduction to the Illuminati and their New World Order came when I was a freshman in college in 2007 by a movie suggestion from my dad, who always had a new conspiracy theory to share with me.

Zeitgeist was one of the first movies you could get streaming online for

free, which made it feel noble, like someone was finally doing something not just for the money.

At first, it seemed to be a hip critique of religion, of the government, of the rich, you know, all the

good stuff. And it felt easy to believe against the background of Bush's presidency, of the remaining

unanswered questions from 9- presidency, of the remaining unanswered

questions from 9-11, and the misleading reasons for a war in Iraq that I was actively protesting

against. I just sort of accepted the Illuminati as secret fact. But the thing I didn't know at

the time, the thing I didn't know until years later, was it the movie Zeitgeist and the ones that

came after

it completely rebranded the Illuminati conspiracy. The idea that a global cabal of elite rulers

control and manipulate world events has actually always been a serious American fear.

Eventually, I started to see these little hints of a scarier side to this conspiracy that I was known to chatter on about, half joking, but also, if I'm being honest, half serious.

I felt the need to do a deeper dive into the origins of this story. And when I did, I found a confusing mess of anti-Semitism, New Age mysticism, Christian extremism, radical right-wing militia

propaganda, and uphology. That is the study of UFOs. What I found was at times hilarious

and at other times deeply alarming. I wondered how we got here to 2018 when in formation, our most mega of mega celebrities sings,

y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess.

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