Antarctic Nazi Bunkers – WWMD: What Would Mandik Do?

Antarctic Nazi Bunkers – WWMD: What Would Mandik Do?

Mandik thinks conspiracy theories are kooky and defines one as follows:

Conspiracy theories postulate
1. explanations of
2. historical events in terms of
3. intentional states of multiple agents (the conspirators) who, among other
things,
4. intended the historical events in question to occur and
5. keep their intentions and actions secret.

Despite defining conspiracy theories, he thinks that oftentimes it is best to simply declare that “shit happens” (by mere coincidence) when confronted with a conspiracy theory explaining an event.

Let us now apply these elements of his definition to the proposed conspiracy theory that suggests the Nazis have secret bunkers in Antarctica.

The First Element

Mandik defines an explanation:

“an explanation is (or is a true description of) an efficient cause of an event”

In this case, I think the event we are hoping to explain is the Nazi voyage to Antarctica. Could the theory that Nazi’s went to Antarctica to build bunkers that led to the center of the Earth explain this voyage? Yes. This condition is met.

The Second Element

“Historical events” in the context of Mandik’s definition refers to the particular past event in question, rather than a type of past event. In this proposed theory, the historical event is, as aforementioned, the German Nazi voyage to Antarctica, and no other voyages to Antarctica. This condition is satisfied.

The Third Element

Mandik mentions that this is arguably the most important. He states that the historical event in question should point to the intentions, or beliefs and desires, of the agents involved. In the proposed theory, we can see that those who shared beliefs with the Thule Society, as many Nazis and Aryan supremacists did, also held the belief that the Earth was hollow. This belief of Hollow Earth was rooted in white supremacy given that the theory claims the origins of the Aryan race can be traced to a lost continent in the center of the Earth. If the Nazis did indeed take a voyage to Antarctica to build bunkers and find the entrance to the center of the Earth, we can presume it would be based around the beliefs held by the Thule Society and the desire to assert their white supremacy. This condition is satisfied.

The Fourth Element

This element also regards intentionality. This element states that the agents intended for the historical event in question to occur. This is perhaps the most sound element of the entire proposed conspiracy theory because it is true that the Nazis voyaged to Antarctica under Hitler’s orders. Therefore, this condition is satisfied.

The Fifth Element

This element is straightforward in that it only requires the conspirators or agents of the historical event in question to “agree to keep their plans and activities secret.” There are official documents stating the voyage occurred, but there is no record of the intentions of the voyage, perhaps suggesting the voyage’s intent was to remain a secret. Given that the proposed conspiracy goes against the official story of whale-tracking, then perhaps we could assume there was a level of secrecy, but it is difficult to say. I’m not quite sure this element is completely satisfied. We would need to know more about the intentionality of secrecy of the Antarctic voyage. Perhaps by some definitions, this element is satisfied, but I do not think this element fully satisfies the intentional analysis of deception.

All in all, 4/5 of the elements of Mandik’s definition of a conspiracy theory, therefore, this proposed theory contains attributes of a conspiracy theory but is not technically a conspiracy theory. Since the secrecy condition is not satisfied, then we can consider this theory a prima facie conspiracy theory.

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