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INTRODUCTION: CONSPIRACY / THEORY

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Conspiracy/Theory
This chapter is in the book Conspiracy/Theory
joseph masco and lisa wedeenINTRODUCTION CONSPIRACY/THEORYThe​ twenty-​first​​ century​has​ dawned​as​ an​ era​ of​ generalized​epistemic crisis, an age of propaganda, of wall-to-wall psyops, disorien-tation ​campaigns,​and ​attentional​hacks.​The ​narrative​techniques​being ​drawn on stem from ancient practices as well as from technological rev-olutions in digital communication of all kinds. Social media and smart phones deploying novel product designs based on the latest algorithms and​ theories​of​ subjectivity​have​ become​pervasive​and​ highly​efficient​in capturing, controlling, and directing attention. As the weaponization of​ the​ infosphere​intensifies,​individuals​being​ targeted​for​ influence​are​left​ to​ their​ own​ evaluative​capacities​and​ are​ challenged​to​ explain​to​themselves a world that abandons and obfuscates, misinforms, and rou-tinely​ injures​and​ kills. ​The​ origins​of​ this​ distributed,​direct,​and​ indirect​vio lence must be understood in terms of how information technologies are used to organize and narrativize the ways we apprehend prob lems, turning the sensory regimes and mass- mediated experiences of life into arguments about what hurts and why, about the potentials and dangers of the moment, and about the prospects of creating some kind of collec-tive​​ future.​The​ response​of​ mainstream​journalists​to​ this​ situation​of​intensified​epistemic​precarity​has​ mostly​been​ to​ declare​the​ arrival​of​ a​new​ “golden​age”​of​conspiracy​theory.Obscured by this blanket characterization is the fact that conspiracy theories​come​ in​ many​ va​ ri​ e​ ties, ​and​ they​ appeal​unevenly​and​ in​ dif​ fer -ent ways to whatever audiences they successfully hail. Most generally, a distinction can be made between speculative narratives that are demon-strably preposterous (that the CO viD-19 pandemic is a global hoax) and those that are more or less plausible because, for example, they speak to
© 2024 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

joseph masco and lisa wedeenINTRODUCTION CONSPIRACY/THEORYThe​ twenty-​first​​ century​has​ dawned​as​ an​ era​ of​ generalized​epistemic crisis, an age of propaganda, of wall-to-wall psyops, disorien-tation ​campaigns,​and ​attentional​hacks.​The ​narrative​techniques​being ​drawn on stem from ancient practices as well as from technological rev-olutions in digital communication of all kinds. Social media and smart phones deploying novel product designs based on the latest algorithms and​ theories​of​ subjectivity​have​ become​pervasive​and​ highly​efficient​in capturing, controlling, and directing attention. As the weaponization of​ the​ infosphere​intensifies,​individuals​being​ targeted​for​ influence​are​left​ to​ their​ own​ evaluative​capacities​and​ are​ challenged​to​ explain​to​themselves a world that abandons and obfuscates, misinforms, and rou-tinely​ injures​and​ kills. ​The​ origins​of​ this​ distributed,​direct,​and​ indirect​vio lence must be understood in terms of how information technologies are used to organize and narrativize the ways we apprehend prob lems, turning the sensory regimes and mass- mediated experiences of life into arguments about what hurts and why, about the potentials and dangers of the moment, and about the prospects of creating some kind of collec-tive​​ future.​The​ response​of​ mainstream​journalists​to​ this​ situation​of​intensified​epistemic​precarity​has​ mostly​been​ to​ declare​the​ arrival​of​ a​new​ “golden​age”​of​conspiracy​theory.Obscured by this blanket characterization is the fact that conspiracy theories​come​ in​ many​ va​ ri​ e​ ties, ​and​ they​ appeal​unevenly​and​ in​ dif​ fer -ent ways to whatever audiences they successfully hail. Most generally, a distinction can be made between speculative narratives that are demon-strably preposterous (that the CO viD-19 pandemic is a global hoax) and those that are more or less plausible because, for example, they speak to
© 2024 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS v
  3. INTRODUCTION: CONSPIRACY / THEORY 1
  4. PART I ORGANIZING FICTIONS
  5. 01 IMPASSE AND GENRE IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND LITERATURE 37
  6. 02 WHERE DID AIDS COME FROM? 61
  7. 03 A FALSE FLAG 81
  8. 04 CONSPIRACY ATTUNEMENT AND CONTEXT / THE CASE OF THE PRESIDENT’S BODY 104
  9. 05 CONSPIRACY, THEORY, AND THE “POST-TRUTH” PUBLIC SPHERE 127
  10. PART II ATMOSPHERES OF DOUBT
  11. 06 ON UNCERTAINTY AND THE QUESTION OF JUDGMENT 149
  12. 07 RESONANT APOPHENIA 174
  13. 08 THE PLAY OF CONSPIRACY IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC 190
  14. 09 AN ECONOMY OF SUSPICION / ON THE “MILITARY-CIVILIAN DIVIDE” AND THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM 210
  15. PART III THE FORCE OF CAPITAL
  16. 10 CONSPIRACIES OF THEORY / OF GOLD IN THE SHADOW OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION 235
  17. 11 ADRIAN PIPER AND ALIEN CONSPIRACIES OF BULLYING AND WHISTLEBLOWING 264
  18. 12 HUMANITARIAN PROFITEERING IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AS CONSPIRACY AND RUMOR 291
  19. 13 CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCUSED CONSPIRACY THEORIST / THE FINANCIALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION 314
  20. PART IV THE POLITICS OF ENMITY
  21. 14 CONSPIRACY AND ITS CURIOUS AFTERLIVES 341
  22. 15 COMEDY OF TERRORS / NATIONAL SECURITY FICTIONS AND THE ORIGINS OF AL-QA‘ IDA 362
  23. 16 AFTER MUSLIMS / AUTHORITY, SUSPICION, AND SECRECY IN THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC STATE 386
  24. 17 FLAME AND STEEL INSIDE THE CAPITOL 409
  25. EPILOGUE 425
  26. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 435
  27. REFERENCES 437
  28. CONTRIBUTORS 483
  29. CONTRIBUTORS 485
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027676-001

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS v
  3. INTRODUCTION: CONSPIRACY / THEORY 1
  4. PART I ORGANIZING FICTIONS
  5. 01 IMPASSE AND GENRE IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND LITERATURE 37
  6. 02 WHERE DID AIDS COME FROM? 61
  7. 03 A FALSE FLAG 81
  8. 04 CONSPIRACY ATTUNEMENT AND CONTEXT / THE CASE OF THE PRESIDENT’S BODY 104
  9. 05 CONSPIRACY, THEORY, AND THE “POST-TRUTH” PUBLIC SPHERE 127
  10. PART II ATMOSPHERES OF DOUBT
  11. 06 ON UNCERTAINTY AND THE QUESTION OF JUDGMENT 149
  12. 07 RESONANT APOPHENIA 174
  13. 08 THE PLAY OF CONSPIRACY IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC 190
  14. 09 AN ECONOMY OF SUSPICION / ON THE “MILITARY-CIVILIAN DIVIDE” AND THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM 210
  15. PART III THE FORCE OF CAPITAL
  16. 10 CONSPIRACIES OF THEORY / OF GOLD IN THE SHADOW OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION 235
  17. 11 ADRIAN PIPER AND ALIEN CONSPIRACIES OF BULLYING AND WHISTLEBLOWING 264
  18. 12 HUMANITARIAN PROFITEERING IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AS CONSPIRACY AND RUMOR 291
  19. 13 CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCUSED CONSPIRACY THEORIST / THE FINANCIALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION 314
  20. PART IV THE POLITICS OF ENMITY
  21. 14 CONSPIRACY AND ITS CURIOUS AFTERLIVES 341
  22. 15 COMEDY OF TERRORS / NATIONAL SECURITY FICTIONS AND THE ORIGINS OF AL-QA‘ IDA 362
  23. 16 AFTER MUSLIMS / AUTHORITY, SUSPICION, AND SECRECY IN THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC STATE 386
  24. 17 FLAME AND STEEL INSIDE THE CAPITOL 409
  25. EPILOGUE 425
  26. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 435
  27. REFERENCES 437
  28. CONTRIBUTORS 483
  29. CONTRIBUTORS 485
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