American Conspiracism An Interdisciplinary Exploration

1.      Reflections on American Conspiracism

The editor explains how the scholars in this volume approach their subjects, defines conspiracism, and identifies the major findings of each chapter.

Luke Ritter

Part I: Knowledge

Whom should we trust? In this part, scholars consider how we come to know things about the world and how conspiracism is constituted. In general, conspiracy theories challenge mainstream interpretations (or epistemes). As we assess conspiracy theories, we therefore must interrogate not only the veracity of particular claims but also the personal disposition of believers and the reliability of “expert” authorities. How can false information corrupt our ability to acquire knowledge?

2.      The Epistemology of QAnon

What people believe--including about QAnon and other conspiracy theories--reflects both their individual characteristics and the social and informational environments in which they find themselves.

Keith Harris

3.      The Devil in the Details: The Memory Wars, Trauma Studies, and the Satanic Panic

Sometimes, authorities contribute to mass hysteria. In promoting certain quasi-scientific techniques to elicit “trauma” in patients, the psychoanalyst of the 1980s, for example, lent a certain authority to the extraordinary allegations of satanic ritual abuse in U.S. daycares.

Thomas R. Brooks

4.      Viral Belief: The Psychology of COVID Conspiracy Theories

An individual’s propensity toward delusion was both enhanced by the social conditions of the recent COVID-19 pandemic and shaped by sociopolitical factors, primarily mistrust in scientific authorities and right-wing political orientation.

Fernanda Pérez-Gay Juárez, Lina Khayyat, Michael Ronca, and Ian Gold

5.      True Conspiracies: The Legacy of J. Edgar Hoover, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Earl Ray

Some conspiracy theories are true. While they are rare, they do take root by adhering to a strict set of conventions that involve secrecy, power, and a commitment to a common goal. 

Nina Gilden Seavey

Part III: Function

What are the social effects of conspiratorial beliefs? In this part, scholars contemplate the ways in which conspiratorial beliefs work in the public sphere and what effects they may have on interpersonal and social relationships. What does conspiracism do for us? How does it influence our behaviors, organizations, and politics? To what extent are conspiratorial beliefs disruptive? 

6.      Interpersonal Relationships and Online Social Support in the QAnon Age

In the age of social media, QAnon conspiracism functions as an additional wedge in the dissolution of intimate relationships between believers and disbelievers.

Kathryn Coduto

7.      Social Vigilantism and American Conspiratorial Beliefs

The individual trait of social vigilantism, characterized by resistance to authority and the inclination to spread such resistance to others, might account for the apparent impulse among believers to aggressively spread certain conspiracy theories.

Donald A. Saucier and Noah D. Renken

8.      Taking Conspiracies to Extremes: How Extremist Groups Use Conspiracy Narratives to Stoke Violence

Extremist groups, such as the Boogaloo Bois, deliberately use certain kinds of conspiratorial “threatoric” to incite radicalization and violence.

H. Colleen Sinclair, Andrew R. Burns and Brett S. Burton

9.      Good Conspiracism

In some instances, conspiratorial beliefs, such as distrust of the U.S. government, can yield a desirable reliance on democratic forms of decision-making and produce a net positive effect in society.

Charles U. Zug and Steven F. Pittz

Part III: Nation

Whose country is it? In this part, scholars explain how conspiratorial beliefs relate to community, nationalism, and immigration in U.S. history. Certain conspiratorial ideas have indeed proven integral to the formation of American identities.

10.   Nativism and the Roman Catholic Plot to Destroy America

U.S. conspiratorial nativism emerged in the mid-1830s as the consequence of destabilized political identity amid rapid immigration and yielded a patterned structure by which Americans have expressed their various discontents, though it has failed to thwart pluralism so far.

Luke Ritter

11.    Ku Klux Konspiracism in the 1920s

During the 1920s, the KKK strategically employed various popular conspiracy theories to gather new followers and infiltrate the cultural conversation.

Felix Harcourt

12.   Constitutional Conspiracism: Aryans, Alpha Chads, and White Nationalists

A strand of conspiratorial thought pairing supposed threats to the physical male body and the proverbial civic body politic has been (and remains) integral to American white nationalist aspirations.

Josh Vandiver

13.   Of Borders and Disorders: The U.S.-Mexico Border in the Trump Era

Trump’s pledge to “build the wall,” the Great Replacement Theory, and QAnon-generated conspiracy theories about the U.S.-Mexico border have resonated with Americans who prioritize collective aggrievements related to space, race, and gender.

Joshua D. Martin

Part IV: Meaning

How do believers feel? In this part, scholars investigate what conspiracism means to believers. What benefits might individuals or groups derive from embracing conspiracy theories? Why do people continue to hold onto certain conspiratorial beliefs regardless of their evidentiary basis?

14.   Grievance Tales: On the Affective Resonance of “Crazy” Beliefs

Regardless of their truth value, certain conspiratorial narratives uniquely empower marginalized communities to find solidarity in their shared victimhood and to resist the dominant culture.

Tad Tuleja

15.   American Flat Earth Belief

Those who readily dismiss Flat Earth belief as the unfortunate byproduct of Anglo fundamentalism have failed to acknowledge its origins and continuing resonance within African American communities.

Edward Guimont

16.   Long Live the King: Reviving an American Icarus

The Elvis Lives following shows us more about believers than Elvis, including their propensities toward nostalgia and eroticism.

Zoë Antoinette Eddy

Biography

Luke Ritter, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Political Science, New Mexico Highlands University, USA. He is the author of Inventing America’s First Immigration Crisis: Political Nativism in the Antebellum West (2021).

"Conspiracy theories have quickly become a major part of mainstream political rhetoric, yet scholars have been slow to fully investigate how these theories come to be, and the role they play in affecting social and political outcomes. Further hindering our understanding is the fact that conspiracy theories, due to their numerous causes and consequences, cannot be fully understood from only one disciplinary lens. In this expansive volume, Luke Ritter has assembled some of the brightest minds from across disciplines to forge a new and more complete understanding of how conspiracy theories help or hinder knowledge, the roles conspiracy theories play in society, and what the emergence of conspiracy theories mean for politics and policy. I strongly recommend this important volume for anyone interested in better understanding conspiracy theories."

Joseph Uscinski, Ph.D., Professor at University of Miami, USA, Author of American Conspiracy Theories (2014) and Editor of Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them (2018)

"The editor and authors behind this book have conspired to produce a scholarly work of deep importance and insight. Why do people believe conspiracy theories? This collection shows that the answers are as complex as the theories themselves. Rather than setting out to dismiss conspiracism as a collection of crackpot ideas or a contemporary crisis, these essays offer an open-minded and rigorous exploration, charting historical throughlines up to the present. Plenty of light is shed on particular ideas and political moments, from 19^th-century anti-Catholicism to the death of Elvis. Yet deeper down the rabbit hole it becomes clear that this kind of interdisciplinary effort offers broader insights into how we come to believe anything, and how we function as a society when information and authorities can't always be trusted. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand American conspiracism in all its complexity and contradictions."

Rob Brotherton, Ph.D., Lecturer at Barnard College, USA, Author of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories (2015)

"In the past decade, scientists and practitioners increasingly have realized the prevalence and impact of conspiracy theories in contemporary society. This book offers a fresh, out-of-the-box perspective on conspiracy theories in an American context. How do people construct conspiracy theories, what are their effects, how do conspiracy beliefs relate to nationalism, and what do conspiracy theories mean for the people who believe in them? In 15 innovative essays, scholars from across the humanities and social sciences share their views on these important questions. Each author builds their argument around a case study, such as QAnon, Flat Earth belief, the Satanic Panic, the Ku Klux Klan, the Martin Luther King assassination, COVID-19 denial, and many others. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the causes and consequences of conspiracy theories." 

Jan-Willem van Prooijen, Ph.D., Endowed Professor of Radicalization, Extremism, and Conspiracy Thinking, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, Author of The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2018)