The startling announcement that Germany had foiled an attempted armed coup by an extremist group and arrested 25 people on December 7 across three countries was met with a sense of disbelief globally. Gobsmacked responses peppered social media platforms but it was evident that while the notion of an armed coup in a country like Germany is a matter of very serious concern, the probability of the government in Berlin being overthrown was near zero, and at one level comic. But the development is also a reflection of the power of conspiracy theories and the manner in which its extreme...