1 The seven traits of conspiratorial thinking are contradictory, overriding suspicion, nefarious intent,something must be wrong, persecuted victim, immune to evidence,and re-interpreting randomness.

Contradictory- this is when a conspiracy theorist believes in multiple ideas about the conspiracy. The examples used was believing the death of Princess Diana was murdered and also believing that she may have faked her own death. They contradict each other.

Overriding suspicion- A conspiracy theorist will stop themself from believing something if they are suspicious it does not fit within the conspiracy theory. They may not believe the “official account” from the government because they think the government is trying to control us and trick us. 

Nefarious intent- Conspiracy theorists use this against conspirators to make them believe someone is trying to mislead or trick and harm people on purpose to get power or attention.

Something must be wrong- Conspiracy theorists may drop an idea they had or a way they thought about something within the theory that does not support their claim, but it does not change their final idea of the conspiracy theory. They believe the real claim is wrong even if they can not explain why. 

Persecuted victim- Theorists will make themselves come off as a victim. They can present themselves as a hero or villain.

Immune to evidence-  

Re-interpreting randomness- believing nothing occurs by accident, all pieces of the puzzle come together to create the final product and to put together missing pieces of a conspiracy theory.

2 Conspiracy theories can be constructed for reasons like use in political situations. This can be used against others in politics to make people believe what someone wants them to in hopes of helping themselves or potentially harming others for reasons such as a presidential election. They can be used in an attempt to get rid of or out of inconvenient situations. 

3 The virus is no worse than the common cold 

A radio show host Rush Limbaugh believes that the coronavirus is no worse than the common cold and that people are creating panic and stress to undermine Trump. In this conspiracy I think he believes that something must be wrong because he strongly believes in this even though he does not have any information that supports his ideas. There is evidence, such as having different symptoms than the common cold and mortality rates that show he is wrong, but he still thinks he is right. This could be harming Limbaugh because he might not be taking the correct safety precautions meaning he could get the virus or spread it to others. 

There is a vaccine or cure for the coronavirus that the government won’t release

There are people that think the government created the coronavirus so that pharmaceutical companies can profit off of a vaccine. I see this as nefarious intent because if this was true it would mean the government has been working against us to create a profit. This clearly harms people because the virus is going to infect people and whether or not there’s a vaccine, others are going to get it too and it’s going to spread.