Contemporary Conspiracy Culture; Truth and Knowledge in an Era of Epistemic Instability; First Edition

In this ethnographic study, the author takes an agnostic stance towards the truth value of conspiracy theories and delves into the everyday lives of people active in the conspiracy milieu to understand better what the contemporary appeal of conspiracy theories is. Conspiracy theories have become popular cultural products, endorsed and shared by significant segments of Western societies. Yet our understanding of who these people are and why they are attracted by these alternative explanations of reality is hampered by their implicit and explicit pathologization. Drawing on a wide variety of empirical sources, this book shows in rich detail what conspiracy theories are about, which people are involved, how they see themselves, and what they practically do with these ideas in their everyday lives. The author inductively develops from these concrete descriptions more general theorizations of how to understand this burgeoning subculture. He concludes by situating conspiracy culture in an age of epistemic instability where societal conflicts over knowledge abound, and __the__ Truth is no longer assured, but "out there" for us to grapple with. This book will be an important source for students and scholars from a range of disciplines interested in the depth and complexity of conspiracy culture, including Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Communication Studies, Ethnology, Folklore Studies, History, Media Studies, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology. More broadly, this study speaks to contemporary (public) debates about truth and knowledge in a supposedly post-truth era, including widespread popular distrusts towards elites, mainstream institutions and their knowledge. In this ethnographic study, the author takes an agnostic stance towards the truth value of conspiracy theories and delves into the everyday lives of people active in the conspiracy milieu to understand better what the contemporary appeal of conspiracy theories is. Conspiracy theories have become popular cultural products, endorsed and shared by significant segments of Western societies. Yet our understanding of who these people are and why they are attracted by these alternative explanations of reality is hampered by their implicit and explicit pathologization. Drawing on a wide variety of empirical sources, this book shows in rich detail what conspiracy theories are about, which people are involved, how they see themselves, and what they practically do with these ideas in their everyday lives. The author inductively develops from these concrete descriptions more general theorizations of how to understand this burgeoning subculture. He concludes by situating conspiracy culture in an age of epistemic instability where societal conflicts over knowledge abound, and the Truth is no longer assured, but “out there” for us to grapple with. This book will be an important source for students and scholars from a range of disciplines interested in the depth and complexity of conspiracy culture, including Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Communication Studies, Ethnology, Folklore Studies, History, Media Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. More broadly, this study speaks to contemporary (public) debates about truth and knowledge in a supposedly post-truth era, including widespread popular distrust towards elites, mainstream institutions and their knowledge. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of figures 10 List of abbreviations 11 1. Introduction 12 1.1 Conspiracy theories everywhere? 12 1.1.1 A golden age of conspiracy theories? 18 1.2 Academics on conspiracy theories: stigmatization and normalization 22 1.2.1 The pathological Other: bad science + paranoid politics = societal danger 23 1.2.2 What is wrong with conspiracy theories as the pathological Other? 28 1.2.3 The normal Other: making sense in/of a complex world 30 1.3 A cultural sociological approach: meaning, diversity and relationality 33 1.3.1 Move no. 1: from pathologizing conspiracy theories towards exploring their meaning 34 1.3.2 Move no. 2: from uniformity towards diversity in conspiracy culture 35 1.3.3 Move no. 3: from an isolated towards a relational understanding of conspiracy culture 35 1.4 Outline of the book 36 2. Methodology: Studying the Dutch conspiracy milieu 44 2.1 Introduction 44 2.2 The field 44 2.3 The sources 50 2.3.1 Websites 51 2.3.2 Social movements and organizations 55 2.3.3 Performances and documentaries 57 2.3.4 People 59 2.4 The analyses 62 3. Contemporary conspiracy discourses: How a power elite controls the world 69 3.1 Introduction 69 3.1.1 Modern conspiracy theories: scapegoating an exotic Other 70 3.1.2 Postmodern paranoia: enemies from within 73 3.2 Conspiracy theories today 77 3.2.1 Modern finance: the biggest scam in the history of mankind 78 3.2.2 The media masters: monotony, manipulation and mind control 81 3.2.3 Big bad business and the rise of the corporatocracy 83 3.2.4 Corrupted science: financial pollution and the suppression of dissidence 87 3.2.5 Greedy states and the invisible government: “Orwell, Eat Your Heart Out!” 90 3.2.6 Exploring the supernatural: aliens and higher states of consciousness 93 3.3 Conclusion: modern conspiracy theories or postmodern paranoia? 96 4. From the unbelievable to the undeniable: Epistemological pluralism, or how David Icke supports his super-conspiracy theory 113 4.1 Introduction 113 4.2 Claiming epistemic authority 114 4.3 Method, data, analysis 116 4.4 “The day that will change your life”: David Icke in Amsterdam 117 4.4.1 “Just following the clues”: appealing to experience 121 4.4.2 “All across the ancient world”: appealing to tradition 123 4.4.3 “Living in the cosmic internet”: appealing to futuristic imageries 126 4.4.4 “What scientists are saying”: appealing to science 129 4.4.5 “The incessant centralization of power”: appealing to (critical) social theory 132 4.5 Conclusion 136 5. Breaking out of the Matrix: How people explain their biographical turn to conspiracy theories 142 5.1 Introduction 142 5.2 Biographies in context: on the fundamental connectedness of individual lives and societal developments 143 5.3 Beyond the social logic of awakenings: turning to the richness of life stories 145 5.3.1 Secularization: looking for meaning and purpose in a disenchanted world 148 5.3.2 Mediatization: grappling with fact and fiction in a mediatized world 153 5.3.3 Democratization: education and the cultivation of a critical citizenry 157 5.3.4 Globalization: experiencing truth and reality in a shrinking world 160 5.4 Conclusion 162 6. “I am not a conspiracy theorist” 168 6.1 Introduction 168 6.2 Identification: similarity and difference 170 6.3 Re-claiming rationality: “I am not a conspiracy theorist” 172 6.3.1 Activists: “Get off your knees!” 174 6.3.2 Standing on the barricades? 175 6.3.3 Retreaters: “Be the change you want to see in the world!” 176 6.3.4 Mediators: “Start building bridges!” 179 6.3.5 Corresponding epistemological positions, oppositional ideas about truth 181 6.4 Conclusion 183 7. Contesting epistemic authority: Conspiracy theorists on the boundaries of science 188 7.1 Introduction 188 7.2 Science and its boundaries 190 7.3 Boundary work: construing conspiracy theories as modernity’s dark counterpart 193 7.3.1 Secular remnants of a religious past 194 7.3.2 Protecting the boundaries of science 196 7.4 Challengingtheepistemicauthorityofscience:anattackonits publicimage 198 7.4.1 Critiqueno.1:Skepticism?Whataboutthedogmasof modernscience? 198 7.4.2 Critiqueno.2:Objectivity?Whataboutthepollution of scientific knowledge? 202 7.4.3 Critiqueno.3:Equality?Whatabouttheauthorityof scientific experts? 204 7.4.4 Apop-sociologicalcritiqueofthepublicimageof science 207 7.5 Conclusion:sciencewarsdemocratized 209 8. Conclusion 217 8.1 Contested institutions: facing corruption, desiring purification 218 8.2 Contested knowledge: popular incredulity towards objective truth claims 221 8.3 Hermeneutics of suspicion: “Nothing is what it seems” 224 8.4 Conspiracy culture: living in an age of epistemic instability 228 9. Epilogue: Whose side am I on? 238 9.1 The myth of the neutral sociologist 239 9.2 Scene 1 242 9.3 Scene 2 244 9.4 Scene 3 245 9.5 Conclusion: taking a stance without taking sides 246 Index 251 1,Introduction;,2,Methodology;,3,Contemporary,conspiracy,discourses;,4,From,the,unbelievable,to,the,undeniable;,5,Breaking,out,of,the,Matrix;,6,“I,am,not,a,conspiracy,theorist”;,7,Contesting,epistemic,authority;,8,Conclusion;,9,Epilogue 1 Introduction,2 Methodology,3 Contemporary conspiracy discourses,4 From the unbelievable to the undeniable,5 Breaking out of the Matrix,6 “I am not a conspiracy theorist”,7 Contesting epistemic authority,8 Conclusion,9 Epilogue