Online and sub/urban lore are the new Brothers Grimm, and it's clear that the processes that produce folklore and religion have not stopped. Conspiracies, in particular, often reflect folkloric processes, and they continue to influence culture, creative arts—and, often disturbingly, politics. This panel will look at conspiracies, real, imagined, and uncertain, and see how, regardless of their veracity, they have been shaped—in reality and fiction-- by the forces of folklore.
And just how did the Illuminati grow from an historical footnote to a conspiracy even other conspiracists laughed at to a mainstream boogeyman?
