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Chapter 6. Fake conspiracy

Trump’s anti-Chinese ‘COVID-19-as-war’ scenario
  • Andreas Musolff
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Conspiracy Theory Discourses
This chapter is in the book Conspiracy Theory Discourses

Abstract

Conspiracy theories have an extraordinarily strong persuasive effect, as their huge increase during the public debate about the COVID-19 pandemic shows. How can they achieve such a communicative impact, given their flawed epistemic status? This chapter studies one COVID-19 related conspiracy theory, i.e. that the virus which caused the pandemic was “unleashed” by the Chinese government on the world, as propagated by the former US President Donald J. Trump and his political allies. Combining cognitive and pragmatic approaches, I analyse Trump’s metaphorical framing of the pandemic in terms of a war-like conflict with China as serving the goal of inducing the US public to suspend their “epistemic vigilance” (Sperber et al. 2010). The analysis shows that the application of epistemic vigilance hinges, inter alia, on the conspiracy theory’s figurative and narrative coherence. This analysis accounts both for the (qualified) success of Trump’s conspiracy theory and its weakness as regards the lack of corroborating ‘back-up’ arguments for his narrative. The result offers clues to ways of re-activating epistemic vigilance and thus, argumentative resistance, against conspiracy theories.

Abstract

Conspiracy theories have an extraordinarily strong persuasive effect, as their huge increase during the public debate about the COVID-19 pandemic shows. How can they achieve such a communicative impact, given their flawed epistemic status? This chapter studies one COVID-19 related conspiracy theory, i.e. that the virus which caused the pandemic was “unleashed” by the Chinese government on the world, as propagated by the former US President Donald J. Trump and his political allies. Combining cognitive and pragmatic approaches, I analyse Trump’s metaphorical framing of the pandemic in terms of a war-like conflict with China as serving the goal of inducing the US public to suspend their “epistemic vigilance” (Sperber et al. 2010). The analysis shows that the application of epistemic vigilance hinges, inter alia, on the conspiracy theory’s figurative and narrative coherence. This analysis accounts both for the (qualified) success of Trump’s conspiracy theory and its weakness as regards the lack of corroborating ‘back-up’ arguments for his narrative. The result offers clues to ways of re-activating epistemic vigilance and thus, argumentative resistance, against conspiracy theories.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Chapter 1. Conspiracy theory discourses 1
  5. Part I. Conspiracy theories
  6. Chapter 2. A corpus-driven exploration of conspiracy theorising as a discourse type 25
  7. Chapter 3. Is my mobile phone listening to me? 49
  8. Chapter 4. “Go ahead and ‘debunk’ truth by calling it a conspiracy theory” 71
  9. Chapter 5. “You want me to be wrong” 99
  10. Chapter 6. Fake conspiracy 121
  11. Part II. Conspiracy theory-related communicative phenomena
  12. Chapter 7. Exploring the echo chamber concept 143
  13. Chapter 8. “If you can’t see the pattern here, there’s something wrong” 169
  14. Chapter 9. Complementary concepts of disinformation 193
  15. Chapter 10. COVID-19 conspiracy theories as affective discourse 215
  16. Part III. Social media and conspiracy theories
  17. Chapter 11. The ID2020 conspiracy theory in YouTube video comments during COVID-19 241
  18. Chapter 12. #conspiracymemes 267
  19. Chapter 13. The New World Order on Twitter 295
  20. Part IV. Stancetaking and (de-)legitimation within conspiracy and anti-conspiracy discourses
  21. Chapter 14. Expressing stance towards COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Macedonian online forum discussions 319
  22. Chapter 15. Ideologies and the representation of identities in anti-vaccination conspiracy theories 343
  23. Chapter 16. Collective identities in the online self-representation of conspiracy theorists 365
  24. Part V. Political and international dimensions of conspiracy theories
  25. Chapter 17. Anti-Sorosism 395
  26. Chapter 18. “These cameras won’t show the crowds” 421
  27. Chapter 19. From strategic depiction of conspiracies to conspiracy theories 443
  28. Chapter 20. “Gender ideology” and the discursive infrastructure of a transnational conspiracy theory 465
  29. Epilogue. Beyond discourse theory in the conspiratorial mode? 489
  30. Notes on contributors 495
  31. Index 505
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.98.06mus

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Chapter 1. Conspiracy theory discourses 1
  5. Part I. Conspiracy theories
  6. Chapter 2. A corpus-driven exploration of conspiracy theorising as a discourse type 25
  7. Chapter 3. Is my mobile phone listening to me? 49
  8. Chapter 4. “Go ahead and ‘debunk’ truth by calling it a conspiracy theory” 71
  9. Chapter 5. “You want me to be wrong” 99
  10. Chapter 6. Fake conspiracy 121
  11. Part II. Conspiracy theory-related communicative phenomena
  12. Chapter 7. Exploring the echo chamber concept 143
  13. Chapter 8. “If you can’t see the pattern here, there’s something wrong” 169
  14. Chapter 9. Complementary concepts of disinformation 193
  15. Chapter 10. COVID-19 conspiracy theories as affective discourse 215
  16. Part III. Social media and conspiracy theories
  17. Chapter 11. The ID2020 conspiracy theory in YouTube video comments during COVID-19 241
  18. Chapter 12. #conspiracymemes 267
  19. Chapter 13. The New World Order on Twitter 295
  20. Part IV. Stancetaking and (de-)legitimation within conspiracy and anti-conspiracy discourses
  21. Chapter 14. Expressing stance towards COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Macedonian online forum discussions 319
  22. Chapter 15. Ideologies and the representation of identities in anti-vaccination conspiracy theories 343
  23. Chapter 16. Collective identities in the online self-representation of conspiracy theorists 365
  24. Part V. Political and international dimensions of conspiracy theories
  25. Chapter 17. Anti-Sorosism 395
  26. Chapter 18. “These cameras won’t show the crowds” 421
  27. Chapter 19. From strategic depiction of conspiracies to conspiracy theories 443
  28. Chapter 20. “Gender ideology” and the discursive infrastructure of a transnational conspiracy theory 465
  29. Epilogue. Beyond discourse theory in the conspiratorial mode? 489
  30. Notes on contributors 495
  31. Index 505
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