TED-Ed: Are the Illuminati real? | Chip Berlet

The video explores the rise and fall of the Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria to promote Enlightenment ideals against the Church's influence. The society expanded by recruiting from the Freemasons but was dissolved by a government ban. Despite its brief existence, the Illuminati became infamous through conspiracy theories, though no evidence supports their continued existence. The ideas they championed, however, influenced modern Western governance.

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