Berlet: Conspiracies, Demonization & Scapegoating
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:19 amIronic that Berlet does what those he critiques also do- taking valid critiques and then grossly overgeneralizing. Anti-Semitism is indeed one element of far-Right conspiracy discourse, but Berlet uses this problem to tar conspiracy investigators in general with this same brush.
Even though Berlet has sway with certain sectors of "the Left", I'm not sure that a wholesale railing against "the Left" nor simply tagging Berlet as an agent of the CIA or Israel are the best responses. Far more important is to respond with reason, utilizing a coherent argument grounded in solid evidence... >AD
Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracies, Demonization &
Scapegoating
by Chip Berlet
Political Research Associates
June, 2009
Executive summary:
http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic ... m-exec.pdf
[The full text of the report may be
found here:
http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic ... 2Dem-1.pdf]
Executive Summary
Even before Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th
President of the United States the Internet was seething
with lurid conspiracy theories exposing his alleged
subversion and treachery. Among the many false claims:
Obama was not a proper citizen of the United States (and
his election as President should thus be overturned); he
was a secret, fundamentalist Muslim; he was a tool of
the New World Order in a plot to merge the government of
the United States into a North American Union with
Mexico and Canada.
Hours following a flubbed inaugural oath of office, the
Internet circulated claims that Obama was not really
President of the United States because the wording of
the oath of office had been scrambled by U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Roberts. A few days after the
inauguration came a warning that Obama planned to impose
martial law and collect all guns.
Many of these false claims recall those floated by
right-wing conspiracy theorists in the armed citizens
Militia Movement during the Clinton administration -
allegations that percolated up through the media and
were utilized by Republican political operatives to
hobble the legislative agenda of the Democratic Party.
Assertions that President Clinton assisted drug
smugglers, ran a hit squad that killed his political
enemies, and covered up the assassination of his aide
Vincent Foster first circulated on right-wing
alternative media, spread to right-wing information
networks, and eventually appeared in mainstream media
outlets.
A similar scenario could add to the already daunting
challenges of the Obama administration. When Obama's
"web-savvy" aides saw "conspiracy theories building up
on the internet," they staged a repeat swearing in as
"the fastest way to stop the speculation getting out of
control." Such events illustrate the power and
pervasiveness of conspiracism. What Richard Hofstadter
described as the "paranoid style" in U.S. right-wing
movements derives from belief in an apocalyptic struggle
between "good" and "evil," in which demonized enemies
are complicit in a vast insidious plot against the
common good, and against which the conspiracist must
heroically sound the alarm. As seen in the
aforementioned examples, this type of conspiracism can
move easily from the margins to the mainstream.
This study challenges the validity of conspiracy theory
as a form of political analysis, and traces the roots
and dynamics of conspiracism through United States
history. Drawing on his extensive scholarly as well as
popular writing on the topic, author Chip Berlet shows
that the development of modern conspiracismis rooted in
bigotry and that the conspiracist analytical model
itself encourages demonization and scapegoating of
blameless persons and groups. In so doing, conspiracism
also serves to distract society and its would-be agents
of change away from ongoing, structural causes of social
and economic injustices.
Examining various episodes spanning more than 200 years
of U.S. history, Toxic to Democracy demonstrates how
conspiracy theories have repeatedly garnered mass public
followings. Throughout, the basic dynamics of
conspiracism remained the same regardless of the
ideological leanings of the conspiracists, or the (often
interchangeable) identity of their targets. The
resurgence of conspiracy theories-on both the Right and
the Left - since the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, and the tendency for antisemitic conspiracies
to surge during times of financial crisis, makes the
lessons of this study particularly urgent. What follows
is a summary of key findings from Toxic to Democracy:
Conspiracies, Demonization & Scapegoating:
THE CONSPIRACIST ANALYTICAL MODEL: TOOLS OF FEAR
The conspiracist narrative is built upon four key
elements, which Berlet calls "tools of fear": 1)
Dualism; 2) Scapegoating; 3) Demonization; and 4)
Apocalyptic Aggression.
Dualism is an overarching theme or "metaframe" in which
people see the world as divided into forces of good and
evil. Scapegoating is a process by which a person or
group of people are wrongfully stereotyped as sharing
negative traits and are singled out for blame for
causing societal problems, while the primary source of
the problems is overlooked or absolved of blame.
Demonization, a process through which people target
individuals or groups as the embodiment of evil,
facilitates scapegoating.
Even the most sincere and well-intentioned conspiracy
theorists contribute to dangerous social dynamics of
demonization and scapegoating. Apocalypticism, also
ametaframe, involves the expectation that dramatic
events are about to unfold during which a confrontation
between good and evil will change the world forever and
reveal hidden truths. Apocalyptic Aggression occurs when
scapegoats are targeted as enemies of the "common good,"
and this can lead to discrimination and violent acts.
INTERCHANGEABLE TARGETS/BROAD APPEAL
The way in which the tools of fear are employed allows
for scapegoat targets to change along with historic
circumstances, even as the process by which these
targets are vilified using the "Tools of Fear" remains
the same.
A central motif of the 1950s Red Scare was that the
enemy - communists, both at home and abroad - threatened
the common good. Today Arabs and Muslims are portrayed
in a similar demonizing way as an alien force conspiring
to destroy Western culture from without and within. It
is not that threats do not exist; it is that these
threats are hyperbolized in a way that harms civil
society and weakens homeland security.
The Christian Right, which in the 1960s mobilized to
battle "Godless Communism," now battles "Godless Secular
Humanism" which they see as supporting sinful abortion
and gay rights. Since these views are often wrapped
around conspiracist theories claiming liberal sedition
or satanic collaboration, the ability to resolve
disputes through civic compromise is hobbled.
THE TERROR ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 MOVED
CONSPIRACY THEORY TO CENTER STAGE IN THE UNITED STATES.
Immediately following the attacks, stories began to
circulate about 4,000 Jews being warned to avoid the
twin towers on 9/11. Reporters traced the contention
back to a series of rumors and claims by unnamed sources
that bounced around the Internet, becoming more
elaborate with each retelling. Within weeks of the 9/11
attacks, some on the Left circulated claims that
government officials were "Guilty for 9- 11." This has
turned into a "9/11 Truth Movement" where conspiracists
debate whether then-President Bush and Vice President
Cheney allowed the attacks to happen to gain political
advantage, or actually planted explosives to collapse
the World Trade Center and sent amissile into the
Pentagon. Outlandish conspiracies fingering then-Vice
President Dick Cheney and "the neoconservatives" have
been injected into mainstream anti-Iraq War venues and
documents. Sometimes these claims carry the baggage of
antisemitism.
CONSPIRACISM'S BIGOTED ROOTS
The roots of contemporary conspiracism can be traced
back more than 200 years to the French Revolution.
Conspiracists claimed the French Revolution was not due
to long simmering public resentment due to poverty and
despotism, but was orchestrated by the Illuminati, a
secret society evolved from the ranks of Freemasonry,
who were allegedly scheming to turn contented peasants
into violent rebels.
In the early 1900s, the merger of Freemason and Jewish
scapegoats took hold in the United States with the
publication of the influential hoax, entitled the
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The Protocols
purports to be the minutes of secret meetings of a
Jewish ruling clique conspiring to take over the world.
It incorporates many of the core conspiracist themes
outlined in the Freemason attacks, and overlays them
with antisemitic allegations. A common conspiracist
interpretation of the Protocols is that, peeling away
the layers of the Freemason conspiracy, past the
Illuminati, exposes a rotten Jewish core.
Some contemporary conspiracy theorists directly mention
the Protocols and claim they are an authentic document.
This is easily found on Far Right websites, Conspiracy
Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating especially those
affiliated with Neonazis and Christian Identity.
However, mentions of the Protocols cut across the
political spectrum.
RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACISM
In the 1960s the John Birch Society (JBS) and other
Patriot Movement groups peddled the anti- Freemason
ideology from the 1790s, using it to explain the
communist threat. Communists allegedly were just one
guise of the Mason's Illuminati leadership. Later the
Illuminati were variously said to control Wall Street,
Hillary Clinton, and Dick Cheney. In terms of public
discourse, when the JBS blamed the secret elites and
plutocrats for the vast conspiracy, the organization was
not covertly blaming the Jews. Instead a favorite theme
of the JBS continues to be that the liberal globalists
are planning a New World Order run by a totalitarian One
World Government through the United Nations.
Nonetheless, the JBS cites books and other works that
perpetuate stereotypes about Jews, banking, and global
power.
The right-wing group Populists American takes a step
further toward antisemitism. For this group, the problem
is not all Jews. Rather, its website explains that the
real "enemy of all mankind" is the "Zionist Jews" who
are "not to be confused with other Jews." The website
then posts the text of the Protocols with a disclaimer
typical of this genre.
Out on the fringes of conspiracism are organized White
supremacist groups and neonazis who are mad about what
they call ZOG: the Zionist Occupational Government
(their name for the U.S. government in Washington,
D.C.). The National Alliance, Aryan Nations, and
Christian Defense League are White racist groups that
cite the Protocols.
LEFT-WING CONSPIRACISM
Contemporary Leftist conspiracism gained a significant
foothold as a response to blows suffered by social
justice movements, starting with the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and increasing after
the 1968 assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Conspiracism
percolated at the margins of the Political Left until
the mid 1980s. In 1986 the liberal Christic Institute
filed a lawsuit, Avirgan v. Hull (known in the popular
press as the La Penca bombing case), which unwittingly
helped pull at the seam of what would soon unravel into
the Iran-Contra scandal.
The Christic Institute charges originally concerned a
series of allegations of CIA misconduct involving covert
action and gunrunning in Central America to assist the
overthrow of the socialist Sandinista government in
Nicaragua. Christic soon wrapped the case in conspiracy
stories dating back to the Kennedy assassination and the
Vietnam War - diverting attention from the illegal
activities of the Reagan administration. The case was
dismissed, but the conspiracist claims lived on.
TRACKING FROM RIGHT TO LEFT
Leftist conspiracy theories of the '60s and '70s
established conspiracism as a form of discourse and
analysis on the Political Left as well as some leftof-
center countercultures, thereby facilitating the
migration of (somewhat sanitized) right-wing conspiracy
theories from Right to Left
In its signature Avirgan v. Hull lawsuit (mentioned
above) the left-leaning Christic Institute incorporated
the central, conspiracist claims of The Secret Team, a
book by right-wing populist L. Fletcher Prouty.
Christic's investigators maintained back channel
communications with right-wing groups known to purvey
antisemitic conspiracy theories. Christic inadvertently
took conspiracy allegations rooted in the Protocols,
sanitized the antisemitic references, and peddled the
results to the Political Left and gullible liberal
funders.
The 9/11 conspiracy theory alleging 4,000 Jews were
warned of the attacks is a clear case of antisemitic
conspiracism peddled by certain Political Right groups
as a recruitment tool. Their ultimate goal is mobilizing
people to oppose progressive social and economic justice
campaigns by targeting vulnerable communities as
scapegoats. The progressive version of the 9/11
conspiracy generally avoids blatant antisemitic
references. Some on the Left, however, picked up phrases
such as "international bankers," "globalist elites,"
"secret government," "international bankers," and
"banksters," that historically have been used as coded
references to alleged Jewish power.While their target
was Bush and Cheney, the accusations and catchphrases
employed were laden with antisemitic bigotry.
SEEMINGLY UNBIGOTED CONSPIRACISM ENCOURAGES SCAPEGOATING
AND DEMONIZATION
While some theories reject overt bigotry, as in the main
branch of the "9/11 Truth Toxic to Democracy Movement,"
they fail to appreciate that the analytical model of
conspiracy thinking normalizes the process of demonizing
a scapegoated group. Once researchers embrace the
conspiracist mindset in which a vast global conspiracy
is effectively an analog of the allegations about
conniving secret elites found in the Protocols, the step
from a Secret Team to a Secret Jewish Team is a very
small one. Even when conspiracist theories do not center
on Jews, homosexuals, people of color, immigrants, or
other scapegoated groups, they still create an
environment where racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia,
xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice,
bigotry, and oppression can flourish.
GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACISM: COUNTERSUBVERSION
Conspiracy theories are not confined to the margins of
the political spectrum. Conspiracist theories have been
used by governments to preserve the status quo against
those they characterized as subversive alien outsiders
and their sympathizers. Countersubversive conspiracy
theories can be utilized by governments to build mass
support for the surveillance, disruption, and crushing
of dissident social and political movements in the U.S.,
as was done during the McCarthy era and again with the
backlash against the social justice movements of the
1960s and '70s. With the fall of the Berlin Wall,
anticommunists both inside and outside government moved
away from conspiracy theories about global communist
subversion and embraced a new target- terrorists. These
conspiracy-based fears are present in hardline U.S.
foreign and domestic counterterrorism policies that
undermine First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment
protections for dissidents and religious and ethnic
minorities whose views span the political spectrum. This
could have potentially far ranging implications for how
the United States prosecutes the "war on terror" abroad.
Antiterrorism policies based in hyperbolic conspiracy
theories reduce the effectiveness of homeland security.
THE (IL)LOGIC OF CONSPIRACISM
Conspiracism is neither a healthy expression of
skepticism nor a valid form of criticism; rather it is a
belief system that refuses to obey the rules of logic.
These theories operate from a pre-existing premise of a
conspiracy based upon careless collection of facts and
flawed assumptions. What constitutes "proof" for a
conspiracist is often more accurately described as
circumstance, rumor, and hearsay; and the allegations
often use the tools of fear-dualism, demonization,
scapegoating, and aggressively apocalyptic stories-which
all too often are commandeered by demagogues.
Thus conspiracism must be confronted as a flawed
analytical model, rather than a legitimate mode of
criticism of inequitable systems, structures, and
institutions of power. Conspiracism is nearly always a
distraction from the work of uprooting hierarchies of
unfair power and privilege.
CONSPIRACISM IS PERILOUS TO IGNORE
Conspiracist theories are attractive in part because
they start with a grain of truth embedded in preexisting
societal beliefs.
Conspiracy theorists are correct about one thing: the
status quo is not acceptable. Conspiracists have
accurately understood that there are inequalities of
power and privilege in the world-and threats to the
world itself-that need to be rectified. What conspiracy
theorists lack is the desire or ability to follow the
basic rules of logic and investigative research.
Conspiracy theories spotlight lots of fascinating
questions- but they seldom illuminate meaningful
answers.
While conspiracists tell compelling stories, they
frequently create dangerous conditions as these stories
can draw from pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices.
Cynical movement leaders then can hyperbolize false
claims in a way that mobilizes dangerous forms of
demonization and scapegoating. People who believe
conspiracist allegations sometimes act on those
irrational beliefs, and this has concrete consequences
in the real world. Angry allegations can quickly turn
into aggression and violence targeting scapegoated
groups. Conspiracist thinking and scapegoating on a mass
scale are symptoms, not causes, of underlying societal
tensions; and while conspiracism needs to be opposed,
the resolution of the grievances themselves is necessary
to restore a healthy society. Whether conspiracist
claims are circulated by angry populists or anxious
government officials, the dynamics generated by
conspiracy theories are toxic to democracy.
___________________________________________
Even though Berlet has sway with certain sectors of "the Left", I'm not sure that a wholesale railing against "the Left" nor simply tagging Berlet as an agent of the CIA or Israel are the best responses. Far more important is to respond with reason, utilizing a coherent argument grounded in solid evidence... >AD
Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracies, Demonization &
Scapegoating
by Chip Berlet
Political Research Associates
June, 2009
Executive summary:
http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic ... m-exec.pdf
[The full text of the report may be
found here:
http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic ... 2Dem-1.pdf]
Executive Summary
Even before Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th
President of the United States the Internet was seething
with lurid conspiracy theories exposing his alleged
subversion and treachery. Among the many false claims:
Obama was not a proper citizen of the United States (and
his election as President should thus be overturned); he
was a secret, fundamentalist Muslim; he was a tool of
the New World Order in a plot to merge the government of
the United States into a North American Union with
Mexico and Canada.
Hours following a flubbed inaugural oath of office, the
Internet circulated claims that Obama was not really
President of the United States because the wording of
the oath of office had been scrambled by U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Roberts. A few days after the
inauguration came a warning that Obama planned to impose
martial law and collect all guns.
Many of these false claims recall those floated by
right-wing conspiracy theorists in the armed citizens
Militia Movement during the Clinton administration -
allegations that percolated up through the media and
were utilized by Republican political operatives to
hobble the legislative agenda of the Democratic Party.
Assertions that President Clinton assisted drug
smugglers, ran a hit squad that killed his political
enemies, and covered up the assassination of his aide
Vincent Foster first circulated on right-wing
alternative media, spread to right-wing information
networks, and eventually appeared in mainstream media
outlets.
A similar scenario could add to the already daunting
challenges of the Obama administration. When Obama's
"web-savvy" aides saw "conspiracy theories building up
on the internet," they staged a repeat swearing in as
"the fastest way to stop the speculation getting out of
control." Such events illustrate the power and
pervasiveness of conspiracism. What Richard Hofstadter
described as the "paranoid style" in U.S. right-wing
movements derives from belief in an apocalyptic struggle
between "good" and "evil," in which demonized enemies
are complicit in a vast insidious plot against the
common good, and against which the conspiracist must
heroically sound the alarm. As seen in the
aforementioned examples, this type of conspiracism can
move easily from the margins to the mainstream.
This study challenges the validity of conspiracy theory
as a form of political analysis, and traces the roots
and dynamics of conspiracism through United States
history. Drawing on his extensive scholarly as well as
popular writing on the topic, author Chip Berlet shows
that the development of modern conspiracismis rooted in
bigotry and that the conspiracist analytical model
itself encourages demonization and scapegoating of
blameless persons and groups. In so doing, conspiracism
also serves to distract society and its would-be agents
of change away from ongoing, structural causes of social
and economic injustices.
Examining various episodes spanning more than 200 years
of U.S. history, Toxic to Democracy demonstrates how
conspiracy theories have repeatedly garnered mass public
followings. Throughout, the basic dynamics of
conspiracism remained the same regardless of the
ideological leanings of the conspiracists, or the (often
interchangeable) identity of their targets. The
resurgence of conspiracy theories-on both the Right and
the Left - since the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, and the tendency for antisemitic conspiracies
to surge during times of financial crisis, makes the
lessons of this study particularly urgent. What follows
is a summary of key findings from Toxic to Democracy:
Conspiracies, Demonization & Scapegoating:
THE CONSPIRACIST ANALYTICAL MODEL: TOOLS OF FEAR
The conspiracist narrative is built upon four key
elements, which Berlet calls "tools of fear": 1)
Dualism; 2) Scapegoating; 3) Demonization; and 4)
Apocalyptic Aggression.
Dualism is an overarching theme or "metaframe" in which
people see the world as divided into forces of good and
evil. Scapegoating is a process by which a person or
group of people are wrongfully stereotyped as sharing
negative traits and are singled out for blame for
causing societal problems, while the primary source of
the problems is overlooked or absolved of blame.
Demonization, a process through which people target
individuals or groups as the embodiment of evil,
facilitates scapegoating.
Even the most sincere and well-intentioned conspiracy
theorists contribute to dangerous social dynamics of
demonization and scapegoating. Apocalypticism, also
ametaframe, involves the expectation that dramatic
events are about to unfold during which a confrontation
between good and evil will change the world forever and
reveal hidden truths. Apocalyptic Aggression occurs when
scapegoats are targeted as enemies of the "common good,"
and this can lead to discrimination and violent acts.
INTERCHANGEABLE TARGETS/BROAD APPEAL
The way in which the tools of fear are employed allows
for scapegoat targets to change along with historic
circumstances, even as the process by which these
targets are vilified using the "Tools of Fear" remains
the same.
A central motif of the 1950s Red Scare was that the
enemy - communists, both at home and abroad - threatened
the common good. Today Arabs and Muslims are portrayed
in a similar demonizing way as an alien force conspiring
to destroy Western culture from without and within. It
is not that threats do not exist; it is that these
threats are hyperbolized in a way that harms civil
society and weakens homeland security.
The Christian Right, which in the 1960s mobilized to
battle "Godless Communism," now battles "Godless Secular
Humanism" which they see as supporting sinful abortion
and gay rights. Since these views are often wrapped
around conspiracist theories claiming liberal sedition
or satanic collaboration, the ability to resolve
disputes through civic compromise is hobbled.
THE TERROR ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 MOVED
CONSPIRACY THEORY TO CENTER STAGE IN THE UNITED STATES.
Immediately following the attacks, stories began to
circulate about 4,000 Jews being warned to avoid the
twin towers on 9/11. Reporters traced the contention
back to a series of rumors and claims by unnamed sources
that bounced around the Internet, becoming more
elaborate with each retelling. Within weeks of the 9/11
attacks, some on the Left circulated claims that
government officials were "Guilty for 9- 11." This has
turned into a "9/11 Truth Movement" where conspiracists
debate whether then-President Bush and Vice President
Cheney allowed the attacks to happen to gain political
advantage, or actually planted explosives to collapse
the World Trade Center and sent amissile into the
Pentagon. Outlandish conspiracies fingering then-Vice
President Dick Cheney and "the neoconservatives" have
been injected into mainstream anti-Iraq War venues and
documents. Sometimes these claims carry the baggage of
antisemitism.
CONSPIRACISM'S BIGOTED ROOTS
The roots of contemporary conspiracism can be traced
back more than 200 years to the French Revolution.
Conspiracists claimed the French Revolution was not due
to long simmering public resentment due to poverty and
despotism, but was orchestrated by the Illuminati, a
secret society evolved from the ranks of Freemasonry,
who were allegedly scheming to turn contented peasants
into violent rebels.
In the early 1900s, the merger of Freemason and Jewish
scapegoats took hold in the United States with the
publication of the influential hoax, entitled the
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The Protocols
purports to be the minutes of secret meetings of a
Jewish ruling clique conspiring to take over the world.
It incorporates many of the core conspiracist themes
outlined in the Freemason attacks, and overlays them
with antisemitic allegations. A common conspiracist
interpretation of the Protocols is that, peeling away
the layers of the Freemason conspiracy, past the
Illuminati, exposes a rotten Jewish core.
Some contemporary conspiracy theorists directly mention
the Protocols and claim they are an authentic document.
This is easily found on Far Right websites, Conspiracy
Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating especially those
affiliated with Neonazis and Christian Identity.
However, mentions of the Protocols cut across the
political spectrum.
RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACISM
In the 1960s the John Birch Society (JBS) and other
Patriot Movement groups peddled the anti- Freemason
ideology from the 1790s, using it to explain the
communist threat. Communists allegedly were just one
guise of the Mason's Illuminati leadership. Later the
Illuminati were variously said to control Wall Street,
Hillary Clinton, and Dick Cheney. In terms of public
discourse, when the JBS blamed the secret elites and
plutocrats for the vast conspiracy, the organization was
not covertly blaming the Jews. Instead a favorite theme
of the JBS continues to be that the liberal globalists
are planning a New World Order run by a totalitarian One
World Government through the United Nations.
Nonetheless, the JBS cites books and other works that
perpetuate stereotypes about Jews, banking, and global
power.
The right-wing group Populists American takes a step
further toward antisemitism. For this group, the problem
is not all Jews. Rather, its website explains that the
real "enemy of all mankind" is the "Zionist Jews" who
are "not to be confused with other Jews." The website
then posts the text of the Protocols with a disclaimer
typical of this genre.
Out on the fringes of conspiracism are organized White
supremacist groups and neonazis who are mad about what
they call ZOG: the Zionist Occupational Government
(their name for the U.S. government in Washington,
D.C.). The National Alliance, Aryan Nations, and
Christian Defense League are White racist groups that
cite the Protocols.
LEFT-WING CONSPIRACISM
Contemporary Leftist conspiracism gained a significant
foothold as a response to blows suffered by social
justice movements, starting with the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and increasing after
the 1968 assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Conspiracism
percolated at the margins of the Political Left until
the mid 1980s. In 1986 the liberal Christic Institute
filed a lawsuit, Avirgan v. Hull (known in the popular
press as the La Penca bombing case), which unwittingly
helped pull at the seam of what would soon unravel into
the Iran-Contra scandal.
The Christic Institute charges originally concerned a
series of allegations of CIA misconduct involving covert
action and gunrunning in Central America to assist the
overthrow of the socialist Sandinista government in
Nicaragua. Christic soon wrapped the case in conspiracy
stories dating back to the Kennedy assassination and the
Vietnam War - diverting attention from the illegal
activities of the Reagan administration. The case was
dismissed, but the conspiracist claims lived on.
TRACKING FROM RIGHT TO LEFT
Leftist conspiracy theories of the '60s and '70s
established conspiracism as a form of discourse and
analysis on the Political Left as well as some leftof-
center countercultures, thereby facilitating the
migration of (somewhat sanitized) right-wing conspiracy
theories from Right to Left
In its signature Avirgan v. Hull lawsuit (mentioned
above) the left-leaning Christic Institute incorporated
the central, conspiracist claims of The Secret Team, a
book by right-wing populist L. Fletcher Prouty.
Christic's investigators maintained back channel
communications with right-wing groups known to purvey
antisemitic conspiracy theories. Christic inadvertently
took conspiracy allegations rooted in the Protocols,
sanitized the antisemitic references, and peddled the
results to the Political Left and gullible liberal
funders.
The 9/11 conspiracy theory alleging 4,000 Jews were
warned of the attacks is a clear case of antisemitic
conspiracism peddled by certain Political Right groups
as a recruitment tool. Their ultimate goal is mobilizing
people to oppose progressive social and economic justice
campaigns by targeting vulnerable communities as
scapegoats. The progressive version of the 9/11
conspiracy generally avoids blatant antisemitic
references. Some on the Left, however, picked up phrases
such as "international bankers," "globalist elites,"
"secret government," "international bankers," and
"banksters," that historically have been used as coded
references to alleged Jewish power.While their target
was Bush and Cheney, the accusations and catchphrases
employed were laden with antisemitic bigotry.
SEEMINGLY UNBIGOTED CONSPIRACISM ENCOURAGES SCAPEGOATING
AND DEMONIZATION
While some theories reject overt bigotry, as in the main
branch of the "9/11 Truth Toxic to Democracy Movement,"
they fail to appreciate that the analytical model of
conspiracy thinking normalizes the process of demonizing
a scapegoated group. Once researchers embrace the
conspiracist mindset in which a vast global conspiracy
is effectively an analog of the allegations about
conniving secret elites found in the Protocols, the step
from a Secret Team to a Secret Jewish Team is a very
small one. Even when conspiracist theories do not center
on Jews, homosexuals, people of color, immigrants, or
other scapegoated groups, they still create an
environment where racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia,
xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice,
bigotry, and oppression can flourish.
GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACISM: COUNTERSUBVERSION
Conspiracy theories are not confined to the margins of
the political spectrum. Conspiracist theories have been
used by governments to preserve the status quo against
those they characterized as subversive alien outsiders
and their sympathizers. Countersubversive conspiracy
theories can be utilized by governments to build mass
support for the surveillance, disruption, and crushing
of dissident social and political movements in the U.S.,
as was done during the McCarthy era and again with the
backlash against the social justice movements of the
1960s and '70s. With the fall of the Berlin Wall,
anticommunists both inside and outside government moved
away from conspiracy theories about global communist
subversion and embraced a new target- terrorists. These
conspiracy-based fears are present in hardline U.S.
foreign and domestic counterterrorism policies that
undermine First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment
protections for dissidents and religious and ethnic
minorities whose views span the political spectrum. This
could have potentially far ranging implications for how
the United States prosecutes the "war on terror" abroad.
Antiterrorism policies based in hyperbolic conspiracy
theories reduce the effectiveness of homeland security.
THE (IL)LOGIC OF CONSPIRACISM
Conspiracism is neither a healthy expression of
skepticism nor a valid form of criticism; rather it is a
belief system that refuses to obey the rules of logic.
These theories operate from a pre-existing premise of a
conspiracy based upon careless collection of facts and
flawed assumptions. What constitutes "proof" for a
conspiracist is often more accurately described as
circumstance, rumor, and hearsay; and the allegations
often use the tools of fear-dualism, demonization,
scapegoating, and aggressively apocalyptic stories-which
all too often are commandeered by demagogues.
Thus conspiracism must be confronted as a flawed
analytical model, rather than a legitimate mode of
criticism of inequitable systems, structures, and
institutions of power. Conspiracism is nearly always a
distraction from the work of uprooting hierarchies of
unfair power and privilege.
CONSPIRACISM IS PERILOUS TO IGNORE
Conspiracist theories are attractive in part because
they start with a grain of truth embedded in preexisting
societal beliefs.
Conspiracy theorists are correct about one thing: the
status quo is not acceptable. Conspiracists have
accurately understood that there are inequalities of
power and privilege in the world-and threats to the
world itself-that need to be rectified. What conspiracy
theorists lack is the desire or ability to follow the
basic rules of logic and investigative research.
Conspiracy theories spotlight lots of fascinating
questions- but they seldom illuminate meaningful
answers.
While conspiracists tell compelling stories, they
frequently create dangerous conditions as these stories
can draw from pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices.
Cynical movement leaders then can hyperbolize false
claims in a way that mobilizes dangerous forms of
demonization and scapegoating. People who believe
conspiracist allegations sometimes act on those
irrational beliefs, and this has concrete consequences
in the real world. Angry allegations can quickly turn
into aggression and violence targeting scapegoated
groups. Conspiracist thinking and scapegoating on a mass
scale are symptoms, not causes, of underlying societal
tensions; and while conspiracism needs to be opposed,
the resolution of the grievances themselves is necessary
to restore a healthy society. Whether conspiracist
claims are circulated by angry populists or anxious
government officials, the dynamics generated by
conspiracy theories are toxic to democracy.
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I might have to take that back. You must be kidding.