"One of the first negative effects is that they induce a sense of political powerlessness. After all, what can ordinary people do if the world is run by secret societies such as the Illuminati, wealthy families such as the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds, or intelligence agencies such as the CIA or the KGB, which operate in secret to establish a new world order? You might as well give up. [...] A second effect, in addition to creating anxiety about something that does not exist or does not pose a real danger, is to cause real social harm. Believing that vaccines are responsible for autism, for example, a theory that has been fuelled and exaggerated by the scam of a discredited doctor who was paid to make false statements, can have devastating effects. Those who refuse to vaccinate their children, sometimes out of legitimate parental fears, other times because they see vaccinations as a plot by governments and Big Pharma, not only expose them to the risk of diseases that were thought to have been eradicated, such as smallpox, rabies or tetanus, but also contribute to the spread of viruses among the rest of the population. A final, but no less harmful, effect of conspiracy theories is that they divert attention to imaginary or unfounded dangers, distracting it from real threats. This leads to groups of people taking to the streets to protest against “chemtrails” instead of directing their protests towards real sources of pollution, such as car exhausts, illegal disposal of toxic waste and, of course, fossil fuels, which are at the root of the global warming problem. (pp. 269-271)"