Is There a New Conspiracism?

ABSTRACT

The authors of a much discussed recent book A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum argue that ‘a new conspiracism’ has emerged recently. Their examples include Donald Trump’s allegations that elections have been rigged, ‘Birther’ accusations about Barack Obama, ‘QAnon’ and ‘Pizzagate’. They characterize these as ‘conspiracism without the theory’. They argue that the new conspiracism is validated by repetition, disregards experts, and is satisfied with the conclusion that allegations are ‘true enough’. Here I argue that there is no new conspiracism. Muirhead and Rosenblum have misconstrued their chief examples of new conspiracism and mischaracterized classic conspiracism. The non-existence of a new conspiracism matters. If those studying contemporary conspiracism suppose that many of the objects of their study are theory-free then they are liable to fail to examine the theories that actually are driving contemporary conspiracism. Also, if they suppose that they are confronting an entirely new phenomenon then they are in danger of failing to learn lessons from the rich history of conspiracy theorizing.

KEYWORDS:

• Birther
• conspiracy theory
• Donald Trump
• new conspiracism
• QAnon

Acknowledgments

Thanks to audiences at the 45th Annual Midwest Philosophy Symposium, held at the University of Minnesota, and at Charles Sturt University, as well as Maarten Boudry, and two anonymous referees, for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Muirhead and Rosenblum acknowledge that not all conspiracy theories can be categorised as either new or classic (2019, 19).

2. See Perspectives on Politics, 18, 4, 1150-61, Contemporary Political Theory, 19, 1, 142-174, Fraser (2021), Kalpokas (2019), Marler (2020) and Singal (2019).

3. I’m not the only person who is not convinced that a clear distinction between new and classic conspiracism can be drawn. In a short commentary on A Lot of People are Saying, Grant (2020, 1152) mentions that she is unpersuaded that new conspiracism is new. However, she does little to explain why she holds these doubts.

4. Roman history is riddled with conspiracies and conspiracy theorizing. For discussion, see Pagán (2004).

5. See Bronner et al. (2016). See also Wagner-Egger et al. (2019).

6. See, for example, Basham (2019) and Dentith (2019). For a helpful summary of early phases of this debate, see Basham and Dentith (2018).

7. I’m not arguing that widespread use of the internet has not changed conspiracy theorizing at all. For discussion of ways in which the internet may have affected conspiracy theorizing, see Clarke (2007), Southwell, Thorson, and Sheble (2018), and Uscinski, DeWitt, and Atkinson (2018).

8. See Balfour (2020), Grant (2020) and Urbinati (2019).

9. ‘Controlled demolition’ theorists, such as Jones (2006), argue that they could not.

10. For further criticisms of the controlled demolition theory, see Mackey (2008).

11. A nice example of this happening is presented by Keeley. Initially the conspiracy theory regarding the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, which motivated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, only involved BATF agents. The theory expanded over time to include FBI agents, other federal agencies, and members of the press (Keeley 1999, 122).

12. For relevant details, see McEvoy (2020). See also Pennycook and Rand (2021), and Berlinski et al. (Forthcoming).

13. For further discussion of this sequence of events, see Amarasingam and Argentino (2020), and Tangherlini et al. (2020).

14. Patrons of the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria fled soon after Welch appeared with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. So, when he discharged it, he did not harm anyone (Amarasingam and Argentino 2020, 39).

15. There are many variants of the theory that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on 22 November 1963, was not merely a result of the lone actions of Lee Harvey Oswald, as official reports state. It has been variously alleged that the FBI, CIA, KGB, Mafia, Cuban exiles in America, the U.S.A. military, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and various combinations of these groups and individuals, conspired to have Kennedy assassinated (Clarke 2007, 176).

16. Q Clearance is a term used in the U.S.A. Department of Energy for security clearance required to access top secret restricted data.

17. See: https://www.erasechildtrafficking.org/child-trafficking/child-trafficking-definition/ (accessed 31 January 2021).

18. These events are recounted in Bernstein and Woodward (1974). In 2005, Deep Throat was revealed to be Mark Felt, the former associate director of the FBI.

19. For further discussion, see Keeley (1999) and Clarke (2014, 129-130).

20. The involvement of Satan in the conspiracy theories mentioned raises broad questions about the relationship between conspiracy theories and religion. These questions are beyond the scope of this paper. For some consideration of them, see Bezalel (2021) and Keeley (2007).

21. For further information about the history of the Know Nothing movement, see Anbinder (1994).

22. As well as promoting theories about the sexual depravity of Catholic officials, ‘Know Nothings’, promoted theories about Papist plots against the United States. (Karabell 2021).

23. Icke asserts that 43 U.S.A. Presidents have been shape-shifting alien reptilians, as have some British Prime Ministers and members of the British royal family (Lewis and Kahn 2005, 52).

24. See Fried (1991, Chapter 5).

25. See, for example, Hofstadter’s (1971) work on populist conspiracy theorizing in the U.S.A., in the nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.

26. Uscinski and Parent’s (2014) study is based on an analysis of 104,832 letters to the editor of the New York Times over the period 1890 to 2010. For further discussion and a defence of their methodology, see Uscinski and Parent (2014, 54-70).

27. For further discussion, see Uscinski and Parent (2014, 119-122).

28. According to a 2010 ABC News Poll: https://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/Birthers_new.pdf (accessed 24 March 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steve Clarke

Steve Clarke is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Social Work and Arts at Charles Sturt University in Australia, and Senior Research Associate of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He works on a broad range of topics in philosophy. Recent publications include Clarke, S. (2020). ‘Huckleberry Finn’s Conscience: Reckoning with the Evasion’, Journal of Ethics, 24 (4), 485-508; Clarke, S (2021). ‘Conspiracy Theories?’, in Future Morality, edited by David Edmonds, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 139-147; and Clarke, S., Zohny, H. and Savulescu, J. (eds.) (2021). Rethinking Moral Status. Oxford University Press.