How Conspiracies Work

Yes. We are on the bed.

You could call it an homage
to old YouTube.

I call it...

comfortable for my butt.

Conspiracy theories.

So as somebody who's lost many a night

tumbling down Wikipedia
rabbit holes,

I love a good conspiracy theory.

It's like, "Ooh, aliens!"

"Ooh, how do people make
such big triangles?"

I think that that it's just fun

imagining the world
to be more interesting

than what I was taught.

But then something weird happened?

A couple weeks ago,
I found myself

in the middle of
a conspiracy theory.

And then, all of the fun
was replaced with just...

pure confusion.

The conspiracy itself is, like,
weird and fun and innocuous.

However, what I really
cared about is, like,

how do you get to that point?

How do you start seeing signs
that were never there to begin with.

That's what I want to know.

And I also want to, like, disprove
this whole conspiracy theory

'cause it's whack.

However, as the person
in the middle of all of this,

I can imagine why I'd be
seen as unreliable.

So...

...I'm calling on a friend!

Uhh, I don't know how to put this.
How do you put this?

People think that I am
part of the Illuminati.

Uh-

Well, are you?

[laughs]

This is just one of the comments,

but I think it really
summarizes the issue.

"I find this channel to
be highly disingenuous-"

"-Corporate product masked
to have the appearance of

an independently run YouTube channel."
"There's no way a single person is that skilled

at animation, editing, presenting, research-"
"Everything is too professional for that-"

"There's no way this girl
is the one who did this"

"A production company put this video
together with you just as a host."

So now- Now...
Now what?

Why am I calling you? Right?

Yeah. I'm, like, "How do you
want me to prove this?

I am wondering if you could explain
to me and the viewers of this video,

how could somebody see
something so mundane

that's just, like, a part
of my life, I guess.

How could someone see that
and think, like, "There must be more."

I'm interested. I'm fascinated.

'Cause I'm, like...

I'm not only interested in your
conspiracy, as interesting as it is.

I think conspiracies have a
knack for, especially nowadays,

to just....

just ruin people's lives,
you know?

I'm gonna solve this mystery.
♪ Scooby-dooby-doo ♪

We don't have the copyright on that.

We're going to investigate
this conundrum. I'm-I'm-

You're doubling down on it, I see.

Hello, I'm Taha.

I'm apparently Sabrina's
only British friend.

I've been given free reign
over this part of the video,

so, welcome to my chaos.

Sabrina's asked me to get into
the mind of a Sabrina Cruz truther

and figure out what's going on.

Okay, hold on.

It needs pictures.

Let's read some conspiracy theories.

"This is a fake channel

A propaganda channel paid by others.
Why the spotty uploads?"

Maybe because it's-
it's just one person?

I love this one.
"Who do you work for?

We all know this isn't your channel.
Whose script are you reading?"

"I think she works for the government."

Oh. This is the best one.

"Her main channel is crash course
with 10 million subs."

John and Hank Green,
eat your heart out.

Okay, so basically,

people think that Sabrina
doesn't make her own videos,

that she's a presenter,
that maybe she works for the government.

How did people get here?

Let's figure it out.

Okay. So, here's what I found out.

There are loads of ways to define
conspiracy theories,

but they all kind of boil down
to the same thing.

It's basically the belief that
a group of people

are secretly working together
to do something bad.

But here's the thing:

When we talk about conspiracy theories,

we aren't talking about every time
everyone has gotten together

to secretly do bad things.

So what are people talking about
when they say "conspiracy theory"?

Or when they talk about conspiracy
theories on the internet?

They talk about a specific type
of conspiracy theory.

It's the type of conspiracy theory that
Sabrina is in the middle of right now.

These conspiracy theories
seem to be unlikely by design.

Here's the really interesting thing that I found.