I grew up in a world immersed in conspiracy theories. I grew up in Seventh-Day Adventism, one giant conspiracy theory (lifestyle SDAs are the least likely to believe in such theories and the most likely to achieve in the world and the least likely to stay in the church, while historic Adventists are the most likely to believe in such conspiracies, the most passionately devoted to the church, and the least likely group of Adventists to distinguish themselves in the wider world).
There are 15 million Adventists in the world but you almost never hear about them because they are about as irrelevant a group as you can find. They get almost no academic and journalistic coverage because their conspiracy theories and church-taught passivity (waiting for the soon coming of Christ to take them to a much better world) do not lead to achievement.
My father, an evangelist and Bible scholar, was constantly importuned by nutters who wanted his time so they could elaborate their various views on how the world would end, how the papacy would bring about national Sunday laws and persecute Sabbath-keepers and the like.
