feature substantial powers to slander and misrepresent it in the public eye.
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Soon, moral panics in the form of literature, such as John Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy, began spreading the idea that Bavarian Illuminati were responsible for all manner of ills, like singlehandedly causing the French Revolution. Let’s get rational everyone. It is highly improbable that a small group of German intellectuals were sitting around drinking beers in lederhosen/yodelling/other stereotypes, and then one of them was all ‘Ja you know, this talk about women’s right to education is like getting real boring. Jürgen, Hans, Detlev, Hans und Johannes? You know what we should do instead? Topple an entire nation’s governmental system, that’s what! Prost!’ But we all know this is not what Bavarian Illuminati were really like. I have probably grossly underrepresented the amount of men named Hans that were present.
The Illuminati Today
‘Illuminati’ no longer refers to the socialist philosophers of the 1700s. Now there exists an entire subculture of people eager to connect seemingly random political, global and pop cultural events with a secret society called the Illuminati. The current consensus among theorists is that the Illuminati is a shadowy group that pulls strings to gain cultural and political control of the planet. They believe the Illuminati is doing this to achieve a ‘New World Order’. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with 80s dance music for sad people. Because some of the people posting about Illuminati on Youtube and other sites seem, frankly, mad, it is often hard to follow the kilometre-length leaps that they make from one fact to another. For example, some theorists believe that New World Order means everyone will become a homosexual- whether they like this or not. However, I find this hard to follow. The Illuminati manipulates election results, yes? So the Illuminati is hard at work putting people like Vladimir Putin, and even our dear old Tone into power to create a world where homosexuality is so completely tolerated that it is illegal to be anything else? Well, Illuminati, you’re rubbish at your job.
Christianity and Me (and the Illuminati)
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the opponents of the original Bavarian Illuminati, many of the people posting Youtube content about the theory tend to be deeply religious Christian conservatives. When seen from their perspective it becomes apparent why the Illuminati would exist in the first place. It is their belief that the Illuminati are agents of the devil, and that they do what