Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction
Contents:
Mintz in the s. According to Mintz, conspiracism denotes "belief in the primacy of conspiracies in the unfolding of history": Conspiracism serves the needs of diverse political and social groups in America and elsewhere. It identifies elites, blames them for economic and social catastrophes, and assumes that things will be better once popular action can remove them from positions of power. As such, conspiracy theories do not typify a particular epoch or ideology. Justin Fox of Time magazine is of the opinion that Wall Street traders are among the most conspiracy-minded group of people, and ascribes this to the reality of some financial market conspiracies, and to the ability of conspiracy theories to provide necessary orientation in the market's day-to-day movements.
He believes as well that most good investigative reporters are also conspiracy theorists.
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Matthew Gray has noted that conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of Arab culture and politics. West and others have noted that while conspiracy theorists may often be dismissed as a fringe minority, certain evidence suggests that a wide range of the U. West also compares those theories to hypernationalism and religious fundamentalism. Specific events and trends within U. Theologian Robert Jewett and philosopher John Shelton Lawrence attribute the enduring popularity of conspiracy theories in the U.
The Watergate scandal has also been used to bestow legitimacy to other conspiracy theories, with Richard Nixon himself commenting that it served as a " Rorschach ink blot " which invited others to fill-in the underlying pattern. Historian Kathryn S Olmstead cites three reasons why Americans are prone to believing in government conspiracies theories:. The widespread belief in conspiracy theories has become a topic of interest for sociologists, psychologists, and experts in folklore since at least the s, when a number of conspiracy theories arose regarding the assassination of U.
He suggests that one of the most important characteristics of these accounts is their attempt to unveil the "real but hidden" power relations in social groups. The political scientist Michael Barkun , discussing the usage of "conspiracy theory" in contemporary American culture, holds that this term is used for a belief that explains an event as the result of a secret plot by exceptionally powerful and cunning conspirators to achieve a malevolent end.
The research suggests that the smaller the minority believing in a specific theory, the more attractive it is to conspiracy theorists. Humanistic psychologists argue that even if a posited cabal behind an alleged conspiracy is almost always perceived as hostile, there often remains an element of reassurance for theorists. This is because it is a consolation to imagine that difficulties in human affairs are created by humans, and remain within human control.
If a cabal can be implicated, there may be a hope of breaking its power or of joining it.
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Belief in the power of a cabal is an implicit assertion of human dignity—an unconscious affirmation that man is responsible for his own destiny. People formulate conspiracy theories to explain, for example, power relations in social groups and the perceived existence of evil forces. Some people prefer socio-political explanations over the insecurity of encountering random , unpredictable, or otherwise inexplicable events. According to Berlet and Lyons, "Conspiracism is a particular narrative form of scapegoating that frames demonized enemies as part of a vast insidious plot against the common good, while it valorizes the scapegoater as a hero for sounding the alarm".
Some psychologists believe that a search for meaning is common in conspiracism.
Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction
Once cognized, confirmation bias and avoidance of cognitive dissonance may reinforce the belief. In a context where a conspiracy theory has become popular within a social group, communal reinforcement may equally play a part.
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Some historians have argued that there is an element of psychological projection in conspiracism. This projection, according to the argument, is manifested in the form of attribution of undesirable characteristics of the self to the conspirators. Historian Richard Hofstadter stated that:. This enemy seems on many counts a projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him.
A fundamental paradox of the paranoid style is the imitation of the enemy. The enemy, for example, may be the cosmopolitan intellectual, but the paranoid will outdo him in the apparatus of scholarship, even of pedantry. The Ku Klux Klan imitated Catholicism to the point of donning priestly vestments, developing an elaborate ritual and an equally elaborate hierarchy. The John Birch Society emulates Communist cells and quasi-secret operation through "front" groups, and preaches a ruthless prosecution of the ideological war along lines very similar to those it finds in the Communist enemy.
Spokesmen of the various fundamentalist anti-Communist "crusades" openly express their admiration for the dedication, discipline, and strategic ingenuity the Communist cause calls forth. Hofstadter also noted that "sexual freedom" is a vice frequently attributed to the conspiracist's target group, noting that "very often the fantasies of true believers reveal strong sadomasochistic outlets, vividly expressed, for example, in the delight of anti-Masons with the cruelty of Masonic punishments.
Favored subjects include famous deaths, government activities, new technologies, terrorism and questions of alien life. While the complete facts of the situation and correct methodology are ostensibly important to them, Latour proposes that the scientific process is instead laid on as a patina to one's pet theories to lend a sort of reputation high ground. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. A conspiracy theory, on the other hand, is "an intellectual construct", a "template imposed upon the world to give the appearance of order to events". Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Duke University Press Books.
Christopher Hitchens described conspiracy theory as the "exhaust fumes of democracy": Conspiracy theories may be emotionally satisfying, by assigning blame to a group to which the theorist does not belong and so absolving the theorist of moral or political responsibility in society. If you cannot change your own life, it must be that some greater force controls the world. Sociological historian Holger Herwig found in studying German explanations for the origins of World War I , "Those events that are most important are hardest to understand because they attract the greatest attention from myth makers and charlatans.
French sociologist Bruno Latour suggests that the widespread popularity of conspiracy theories in mass culture may be due, in part, to the pervasive presence of Marxist -inspired critical theory and similar ideas in academia since the s. While the complete facts of the situation and correct methodology are ostensibly important to them, Latour proposes that the scientific process is instead laid on as a patina to one's pet theories to lend a sort of reputation high ground.
The "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces e. Michael Kelly , a Washington Post journalist and critic of anti-war movements on both the left and right, coined the term "fusion paranoia" to refer to a political convergence of left-wing and right-wing activists around anti-war issues and civil liberties , which he said were motivated by a shared belief in conspiracism or shared anti-government views.
Barkun has adopted this term to refer to how the synthesis of paranoid conspiracy theories, which were once limited to American fringe audiences, has given them mass appeal and enabled them to become commonplace in mass media , [58] thereby inaugurating an unrivaled period of people actively preparing for apocalyptic or millenarian scenarios in the United States of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
In his book The Open Society and Its Enemies , the philosopher Karl Popper used the term "the conspiracy theory of society" to denote a conception of social phenomena that he found to be defective—namely, that social phenomena such as "war, unemployment, poverty, shortages Popper acknowledged that genuine conspiracies do exist, [64] but noted how infrequently conspirators have been able to achieve their goal. The historian Bruce Cumings similarly rejects the notion that history is controlled by conspiracies, stating that where real conspiracies have appeared they have usually had little effect on history and have had unforeseen consequences for the conspirators.
Cumings concludes that history is instead "moved by the broad forces and large structures of human collectivities". In a article, the legal scholars Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule considered a number of possible government responses to conspiracy theories, including censorship and taxation, and concluding that the authorities ought to engage in counter-speech and dialogue, which they termed "cognitive infiltration".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For a list of notable theories, see List of conspiracy theories. For other uses, see Conspiracy theory disambiguation and conspiracy. List of conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theories in the Arab world. Cherry picking Conspiracy fiction Fake news Fringe theory Furtive fallacy Influencing machine List of fallacies List of topics characterized as pseudoscience Occam's razor Propaganda Pseudohistory Pseudoscience Superstition. At their broadest, conspiracy theories 'view history as controlled by massive, demonic forces. For our purposes, a conspiracy belief is the belief that an organization made up of individuals or groups was or is acting covertly to achieve a malevolent end. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America.
University of California Press. University of North Carolina Press. Endorsement of conspiracy theories is influenced by personal willingness to conspire". British Journal of Societal Psychology. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise: Its Origin and Authorship by P. The American Historical Review. The claim that [David R. Parker of Virginia in Full text. Conspiracy Theory in America. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 11 December Conspiracy Theories and End-Times Paranoia. The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America. Secrecy and Power in American Culture. University of Minnesota Press; 2nd edition.
A methodology to analyze topic representation in search engine results". Retrieved 16 May Conspiracy Theories in American History: Return to Book Page. Preview — Conspiracy Theories by Jovan Byford.
Through a series of specific questions that cut to the core of conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon this book deconstructs the logic and. Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction [Jovan Byford] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com * FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Through a series of specific questions thatcut.
A Critical Introduction by Jovan Byford. Through a series of specific questions thatacut to the core of conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon this bookadeconstructs the logic and rhetoric of conspiracy theories and analyses the broader social and psychological factors that contribute to their persistence in modern society. Unknown Binding , pages. Published May 14th by Not Avail first published October 12th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Conspiracy Theories , please sign up.
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