Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is a story that says that a group of people ("conspirators") have agreed ("conspired") to engage in illegal or malicious actions and hide them from the public.
Conspiracy theories are usually spread out of prejudice, with little or no credible evidence. Many conspiracy theories consist of claims that some historical events were created by the "conspirators".[1]
Distorted history based on conspiracy theories are sometimes called pseudohistory, while those promoting pseudohistory are called historical revisionists, or simply revisionists.[2]
Examples
[change | change source]- Holocaust denial[3][4]
- Irish slaves myth[5][6]
- 9/11 conspiracy theories[7]
- UFO conspiracy theories[8]
- Rwandan genocide denial[9]
- Chemtrail conspiracy theory[10]
- Cambodian genocide denial[11]
- Moon landing conspiracy theories[12]
- John F. Kennedy's assassination conspiracy theories[13]
- Illuminati and Freemasonry-related conspiracy theories[14]
- Diana, Princess of Wales' death-related conspiracy theories[15]
As listed above, there are various conspiracy theories, some of which seem to be straightforward, with false causes for unexplained events. We now know all we are ever going to know about the 9/11 attacks and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Likewise, that the Earth is round – as opposed to flat – has so much evidence that denying it is simply irrational.[1]
Proliferation
[change | change source]Digital age
[change | change source]There has been a growth in recent years in conspiracy theories proposed on the internet. Conspiracy theories once limited to fringe audiences have become common in mass media, and particularly on the internet. Conspiracy emerged as a cultural phenomenon in the United States of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[1][16]
It is worth remembering that conspiracy theorists get paid by websites according to how many viewers they attract. Websites that seem free to the user are paid for by adverts, usually quite harmless, though they may be annoying. The point is that the people who put up the individual articles get paid once the number of viewers is over a certain qualifying number.[source?]
Critique
[change | change source]David Grimes has calculated that it takes at least three years to expose a conspiracy theory on the internet,[17] depending on the number of people involved.[17] Many conspiracy theories would be exposed in three to four years.[1][17]
Related pages
[change | change source]- Big lie
- Antisemitism
- Cognitive bias
- Disinformation
- Social psychology
- Sociocultural theory
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
- Clarke, Steve (2006). "Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorizing". Conspiracy Theories (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781315259574. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Sunstein, Cass R.; Vermeule, Adrian (January 17, 2008). "Conspiracy Theories" (PDF). U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper (387). Retrieved December 14, 2024.
Last revised: 7 Feb 2008
- van Prooijen, Jan-Willem; Douglas, Karen M (June 29, 2017). "Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations". Memory Studies. 10 (3). doi:10.1177/1750698017701615. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Douglas, Karen M.; Uscinski, Joseph E.; Sutton, Robbie M.; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Nefes, Turkay; Ang, Chee Siang; Deravi, Farzin (March 20, 2019). "Understanding Conspiracy Theories". Advances in Political Psychology. 40 (S1): 3–35. doi:10.1111/pops.12568. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Douglas, Karen M.; Sutton, Robbie M. (September 28, 2022). "What Are Conspiracy Theories? A Definitional Approach to Their Correlates, Consequences, and Communication". Annual Review of Psychology. 74: 271–298. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031329. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- ↑
- "revisionism". The Britannica Dictionary. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
- Shank, Tyce (2022). "Historical Revisionism: Revising or Rewriting". Liberty University. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
- Arribas, Cristina M; Arcos, Rubén; Gértrudix, Manuel; Mikulski, Kamil; Hernández-Escayola, Pablo; Teodor, Mihaela; Novăcescu, Elena; Surdu, Ileana; Stoian, Valentin; García-Jiménez, Antonio. "Information manipulation and historical revisionism: Russian disinformation and foreign interference through manipulated history-based narratives". Open Research Europe. 1. 3 (121). doi:10.12688/openreseurope.16087.1. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
- ↑
- Evans, Richard J (2002). Telling lies about Hitler: The Holocaust, history and the David Irving trial. Verso. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- Schonfeld, Gustav (2010). "Holocaust denial". Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association. 121 (104). Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- "David Irving". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved December 30, 2024.
David Irving was once treated with great respect for his historical tomes on World War II and Nazi Germany. But in recent years, the writer has become known as the world's most prominent Holocaust denier.
- "David Irving". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- "Deniers in different countries". Auschwitz-Birkenau. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- ↑
- "Statement on Holocaust Denial Conference Sponsored by Iranian Regime". George W. Bush White House Archives. December 12, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- Küntzel, Matthias (2012). "Judeophobia and the Denial of the Holocaust in Iran". Holocaust Denial. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110288216.235. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- "Holocaust Denial and Distortion from Iranian Government and Official Media Sources, 1998–2016". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- "At the Paris Olympics, Iran is leading the antisemitism charge". New York Post. July 30, 2024. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- Abramson, Scott (August 19, 2024). "The Iranian regime is not its people". Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). Retrieved December 23, 2024.
The Iranian people are the most pro-American and least antisemitic population in the region.
- Ghorbanpour, K. (December 4, 2024). "Opinion | Is Iran an Antisemitic 'Nazi Regime'?". Haaretz. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- ↑
- "How the Myth of the "Irish slaves" Became a Favorite Meme of Racists Online". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). April 19, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- Pogatchnik, Shawn (March 16, 2017). "AP FACT CHECK: Irish "slavery" a St. Patrick's Day myth". Associated Press (AP). Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- "The myth of the Irish slave, white supremacy and social media". Trinity College Dublin. October 3, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- "Fact check: 'Irish slaves' meme repeats discredited article". Reuters. June 19, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- McKee, Liam (2021). "Slaves To A Myth: Irish Indentured Servitude, African Slavery, and the Politics of White Nationalism" (PDF). UCSD Department of History. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ↑
- "Myth of Irish 'slavery' promoted by white supremacists ahead of St. Patrick's Day". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). March 16, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
Last Updated: March 17, 2017
- Kelly, Brian (July 2, 2020). "'Irish Slaves': Debunking the Myth". Rebel News (Ireland). Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- "More false claims about 'Irish slaves' spread on social media". AFP Fact Check. July 7, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- Ftouhi, Sabrina (November 2, 2021). "The Irish were never slaves". UWEC Spectator. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- "'Irish slaves' book based on outright lie". Alton Telegraph. October 7, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- "Myth of Irish 'slavery' promoted by white supremacists ahead of St. Patrick's Day". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). March 16, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ↑
- Knight, Peter (2008). "Outrageous Conspiracy Theories: Popular and Official Responses to 9/11 in Germany and the United States". New German Critique (103). Duke University Press: 165–193. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Byington, Bradley (December 19, 2020). "Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories and Violent Extremism on the Far Right: a Public Health Approach to Counter-Radicalization". Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. doi:10.26613/jca/2.1.19. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Allington, Daniel; Buarque, Beatriz L; Flores, Daniel Barker (December 27, 2020). "Antisemitic conspiracy fantasy in the age of digital media: Three 'conspiracy theorists' and their YouTube audiences". Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics. 30 (1). doi:10.1177/0963947020971997. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Dye, Isobel (June 24, 2023). "Does Antisemitism Provide the Blueprint for Nearly All Conspiracy Theories?" (PDF). Polyphony. 5 (2). American Studies Press. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Kressel, Neil J. (2024). "The Psychology of Contemporary Antisemitism". Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (3 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781003399162. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- ↑
- Robertson, David George (November 25, 2014). "Metaphysical conspiracism: UFOs as discursive object between popular millennial and conspiracist fields". University of Edinburgh Research Archive. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Bronner, Stephen Eric (2020). "Conspiracy Fetishism, Community, and the Antisemitic Imaginary". Antisemitism Studies. 4 (2). Indiana University Press: 371–387. doi:10.2979/antistud.4.2.06. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Kofta, Mirosław; Soral, Wiktor; Bilewicz, Michał (2020). "What breeds conspiracy antisemitism? The role of political uncontrollability and uncertainty in the belief in Jewish conspiracy". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 118 (5): 900–918. doi:10.1037/pspa0000183. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Robertson, David G. (2021). "Chapter 7 They Knew Too Much: The Entangled History of Conspiracy Theories, UFOs and New Religions". Handbook of UFO Religions. pp. 178–196. doi:10.1163/9789004435537_009. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Robertson, David G. (2022). "Conspiracy Theories about Secret Religions: Imagining the Other". The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781003014751. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- ↑
- Monbiot, George (June 13, 2011). "Left and libertarian right cohabit in the weird world of the genocide belittlers". The Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- Caplan, Gerald (2017). "Manufacturing Controversy: Left-Wing Denial of the Rwandan Genocide". Controversies in the Field of Genocide Studies (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781351295000. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- Jones, Adam (2019). "Denying Rwanda: Why Do Leading Leftists Deny the Rwandan Genocide of 1994?". The Scourge of Genocide: Essays and Reflections. University of British Columbia – Okanagan: Routledge. pp. 346–359. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- Melvern, Linda (2020). Intent to Deceive: Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi. ISBN 9781788733281. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- Hintjens, Helen M.; van Oijen, Jos (March 30, 2020). "Elementary Forms of Collective Denial: The 1994 Rwanda Genocide". Genocide Studies International. 13 (2). doi:10.3138/gsi.13.2.02. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ↑
- Bakalaki, Alexandra (May 12, 2016). "Chemtrails, Crisis, and Loss in an Interconnected World". Visual Anthropology Review. 32 (1): 12–23. doi:10.1111/var.12089. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
Special Issue:Uncertain Visions: Crisis, Ambiguity, and Visual Culture in Greece
- Cairn, Rose (2016). "Climates of suspicion: 'chemtrail' conspiracy narratives and the international politics of geoengineering". The Geographical Journal. 182 (1): 70–84. doi:10.1111/geoj.12116. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
First published: 25 November 2014
- Corbett, Charles R. (2020). "Chemtrails and Solar Geoengineers: Governing Online Conspiracy Theory Misinformation". Missouri Review. 85 (3). Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Saltman, Kenneth J. (2020). "Salvational Super-Agents and Conspiratorial Secret Agents: Conspiracy, Theory, and Fantasies of Control". symplokē. 28 (1–2). University of Nebraska Press: 51–63. doi:10.5250/symploke.28.1-2.0051. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Rakopoulos, Theodoros (2022). "Of fascists and dreamers: conspiracy theory and anthropology". Anthropologie sociale (Social Anthropology). doi:10.3167/saas.2022.300104. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Bakalaki, Alexandra (May 12, 2016). "Chemtrails, Crisis, and Loss in an Interconnected World". Visual Anthropology Review. 32 (1): 12–23. doi:10.1111/var.12089. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- ↑
- "Chomsky and the Khmer Rouge". The New York Times. 1988. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- Brinkley, Joel (2011). Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land. Public Affairs. pp. 48–49.
Khmer Rouge apologists easily outnumbered those who believed a tragedy was under way. These people had been vociferous opponents of the Vietnam War [. ...] whatever the US government had to say now was per force a lie [. ...One of the deniers Gareth] Porter said simply that it was 'a myth that between one million and two million Cambodians have been victims of a regime led by genocidal maniacs [. ...] A few weeks earlier Noam Chomsky [...] offered an article in the Nation that conflated the American bombing and the Khmer Rouge horrors [. ...] He cited 'highly qualified specialists' [...] concluded that executions numbered at most in the thousands.'
- Smith, Harrison (November 16, 2017). "Edward S. Herman, media critic who co-wrote 'Manufacturing Consent,' dies at 92". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
Dr. Herman was championed by many on the left [...] but his writings on genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda were criticized for [...] belittling the testimonies of survivors.
- Blackwell, Matthew (July 15, 2018). "Devastation and Denial: Cambodia and the Academic Left". Quillette. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
Amazingly, even as Cambodia disintegrated, the Khmer Rouge benefitted from unsolicited apologetics from intellectuals at the West's august universities.
- ↑
- Renard, Jean-Bruno (2005). "Negatory Rumors: From the Denial of Reality to Conspiracy Theory". Rumor Mills (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781315128795. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Eversberg, Thomas (February 7, 2019). "What Can We Learn?". The Moon Hoax?. pp. 123–136. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Bilewicz, Michał; Imhoff, Roland (2022). "Political Conspiracy Beliefs and Their Alignment on the Left-Right Political Spectrum". Social Research: An International Quarterly. 89 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 679–706. doi:10.1353/sor.2022.0039. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Kelly, Weill (2022). Off the edge: Flat earthers, conspiracy culture, and why people will believe anything. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Ghasemizade, Mohsen (2024). "A Computational Journey Through Conspiracy Theories: A Genealogical Approach". The University of Vermont. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- ↑
- Pinsker, Sanford (1992). "America's conspiratorial imagination". The Virginia Quarterly Review. 68 (4). University of Virginia: 605–625. JSTOR 26437308. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Pratt, Ray (2003). "Review: Theorizing Conspiracy". Theory and Society. 32 (2). Springer Nature: 255–271. JSTOR 3108580. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Broadbent, Joseph (2014). "A Paranoid Style? : The JFK Assassination and the Politics and Culture of Conspiracy Theory" (PDF). University of East Anglia. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Yablokov, Ilya (2019). "Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theories in Putin's Russia". Antisemitism Studies. 3 (2). Indiana University Press: 291–316. doi:10.2979/antistud.3.2.05. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
- Gagné, Michel Jacques (March 27, 2022). Thinking Critically About the Kennedy Assassination: Debunking the Myths and Conspiracy Theories (1 ed.). London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003222460. ISBN 9781003222460. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
- ↑
- Boym, Svetlana (Spring 1999). "Conspiracy theories and literary ethics: Umberto Eco, Danilo Kis and The Protocols of Zion". Comparative Literature. 51 (2): 97–122. doi:10.2307/1771244. JSTOR 1771244.
- Leonidas Donskis (1 January 2003). Forms of Hatred: The Troubled Imagination in Modern Philosophy and Literature. Rodopi. pp. 41–. ISBN 90-420-1066-5.
- Williford, Thomas J. (2005). "Chapter IV: Conservative Political Rhetoric: The Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy Theory" (PDF). Armando los espiritus: Political Rhetoric in Colombia on the Eve of La Violencia, 1930-1945 (PhD dissertation). Vanderbilt University.
- Barbara De Poli (2014). "The Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy: The Path from the Cemetery of Prague to Arab Anti-Zionist Propaganda". Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110338270.251. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
- "The Myth that Jews Control the World". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
- S. Broschowitz, Michael (May 6, 2022). "The Violent Impact of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories: Examining the Jewish World Domination Narratives and History". Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
- ↑
- Birchall, Clare (2001). "Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation". Continuum. 15 (1). Brighton and Hove, England: 67–76. doi:10.1080/713657760. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
Published online: 01 Jul 2010
- Douglas, Karen M.; Sutton, Robbie M. (2008). "The Hidden Impact of Conspiracy Theories: Perceived and Actual Influence of Theories Surrounding the Death of Princess Diana". The Journal of Social Psychology. 148 (2): 210–222. doi:10.3200/SOCP.148.2.210-222. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
Published online: 07 Aug 2010
- Brotherton, Robert; French, Christopher C. (January 15, 2014). "Belief in Conspiracy Theories and Susceptibility to the Conjunction Fallacy". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 28 (2): 238–248. doi:10.1002/acp.2995. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
- Douglas, Karen M.; Sutton, Robbie M. (November 1, 2018). "Why conspiracy theories matter: A social psychological analysis". European Review of Social Psychology. 29 (1): 256–298. doi:10.1080/10463283.2018.1537428. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
- Leigh, David (August 26, 2019). "Conspiracy Theories". Investigative Journalism: A Survival Guide. pp. 99–110. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
- Birchall, Clare (2001). "Conspiracy Theories and Academic Discourses: The necessary possibility of popular (over)interpretation". Continuum. 15 (1). Brighton and Hove, England: 67–76. doi:10.1080/713657760. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
- ↑
- Barkun, Michael 2003. A culture of conspiracy: apocalyptic visions in contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press
- Camp, Gregory S. (1997). Selling fear: conspiracy theories and end-times paranoia. Commish Walsh.
- Goldberg, Robert Alan (2001). Enemies within: the culture of conspiracy in modern America. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09000-0. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019.
- Fenster, Mark (2008). Conspiracy theories: secrecy and power in American culture. University of Minnesota Press; 2nd edition. ISBN 978-0-8166-5494-9.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2
- Barajas, Joshua (2016). "How many people does it take to keep a conspiracy alive?". PBS NEWSHOUR. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
- Grimes, David R (2016). "On the viability of conspiratorial beliefs". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0147905. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1147905G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147905. PMC 4728076. PMID 26812482.
