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But these conspiracy videos aren't cute bits of harmless inanity for all. They're hurtful to one very specific group—other conspiracists."Ask your average high school student what the Illuminati is, they'll tell you it's this secret society of celebrities and rap stars," said Mark Dice. "What's been lost is the real Illuminati."Dice is a conspiracist who's self-published a slew of volumes about the Illuminati, including 2013's Illuminati in the Music Industry, which focused on the belief that musicians such as Rick Ross and Christina Aguilera are members of the shadow government. "I used the celebrity phenomenon as bait, really, to rope people in and them feed them real issues," he said. Issues such as the vast, shadowy network of power brokers who introduce global policy and decide when wars are waged and who fights in them.But being allowed to use social media to get his message out is a double-edged sword. While Dice's YouTube channel has received more than 85 million views, the social media landscape has polluted the message he's preaching. "Pre-Facebook, pre-YouTube, someone interested in the Illuminati would have to search for themselves," said Dice. "They'd have this burning desire to figure out this world we live in, to see these organizations that shape the political landscape." But now? "They're introduced to this material on a surface level, and it's blown into this mythological fairytale. The truth has been lost in this viral explosion of data."
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