What They Don't Want You to Know About Planet X: Surviving 2012 and the Aesthetics of Conspiracy Rhetoric

Abstract

Predictions of catastrophe at the end of the year 2012 are popular enough to be exploited by Hollywood and debunked by NASA. Drawing from a YouTube video series predicting a 2012 cataclysm caused by “Planet X,” we ask whether the discourse in question is a conspiracy theory and demonstrate how it exemplifies the challenges of analyzing rhetoric in the “paranoid style.” Examining these videos in terms of evidence, credibility, and inter-textuality, this article articulates an aesthetic of conspiracism, going beyond identifying the components of paranoid style to answer what makes a good conspiracy theory as such.

Keywords:

• Aesthetics
• Conspiracism
• Conspiracy Theory
• Planet X
• Rhetoric
• YouTube
• 2012

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Reyes

Ian Reyes (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 2008) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island.

Jason K. Smith

Jason K. Smith (Ph.D., Florida State University, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications and Media Arts at Bethany College.