Conspiracy theories are often dismissed as the humorous, yet mainly harmless preserve of a lunatic ‘whacky’ fringe. Bizarre they can be, but they are no laughing matter. They are a serious, widespread and influential cultural habit, and in certain social contexts they can be harmful.
Our guest writer is Carl Miller, co-author, The Power of Unreason
Conspiracy theories are often dismissed as the humorous, yet mainly harmless preserve of a lunatic ‘whacky’ fringe. Bizarre they can be, but they are no laughing matter. They are a serious, widespread and influential cultural habit, and in certain social contexts they can be harmful.
In The Power of Unreason, a Demos report released on Sunday, we looked at the role of conspiracy theories in extremist groups, violent ideologies and radical doctrine. We analysed over 50 extremist groups from across the spectrum, and frequently found conspiracies at the heart of their propaganda and ideology.
Conspiracy theories seem to have an important functional value across a wide smorgasbord of extremism, intolerance and violence. They create demonologies – ‘the other’ – that the group defines itself against. They are used to discredit moderating and dissenting voices, and are an important rhetorical device in the legitimization of violence. Moreover, they harm trust in government in ways we don’t yet fully understand.
So, what to do? Obviously government is hamstrung: if it gets involved, it may inadvertently fan the flames of conspiracy theories even further. The best response is to open up, and make sure young people have the skills to tell truth from falsehood. Easier said than done, but some things can help.
First, government, and yes this especially includes the counter-terrorism community, needs to move a little more towards the light of the public domain. Conspiracy theories thrive in the dark. They fill the vacuum that a lack of credible, frank information leaves. Obviously there are limits to what can be published, but the culture of the security services must change.
Putting information into the public domain cannot be seen purely as a threat to security work that might nevertheless have other incidental merits: it actually has an important security function itself. More openness could be achieved through more availability of counter-terrorism trials’ transcripts, explicit, regular and apolitical intelligence announcements, and greater sharing of information at a local level
But more broadly conspiracy theories live on the net. Today, people are bombarded with ‘counter-knowledge’, false information packaged to look like fact. People do not have the critical skills to discriminate between credible truth claims and its many imposters. This needs to change. Much of the government’s Preventing Violent Extremism effort has been met with huge distrust, cynicism, and even open hostility.
Government cannot tell people what to think, but it can promote standards of how to think: what is the source, what is the evidence, how good is the evidence and what credible evidence is being ignored?
The issue of conspiracy theories is an important one for progressives. In an important sense, conspiracy theories are a reaction to structural inequality. Even if the conspiracy the theory purports to uncover is not true, they arise from a felt sense of being controlled by elites. They are indeed very often ‘insurrectionary’ – a tool for pushing against an establishment of peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and government spokesmen. In a real sense they are empowering.
We all have a responsibility to speak out against intolerance and bigotry, and also to speak out and confront conspiracy theories when we encounter them. Especially given the difficulty of direct governmental intervention, this is a problem civil society must take by the horns.
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24 Responses to “Conspiracy theories are an issue progressives can no longer ignore”
aacogz
LftFoot4Wards pc on ConspiracyTheories http://bit.ly/a4j4Jn has a pt BUT lets not4get wht happened2 @Wikileaks & GarethWilliams #GCHQ #MI6
Tom Hewitson
RT @leftfootfwd: Conspiracy theories are an issue progressives can no longer ignore: http://bit.ly/djK8xG
andrew
Conspiracy theories are an issue progressives can no longer ignore …: Conspiracy theories are often dismissed as… http://bit.ly/9XGntV
Constance
Harming trust in government is a good thing. Guy Aitchison says that elites sometimes lie. If you independently fact-check what governments and mainstream media say about, say, the Israel-Palestine conflict, you’ll find that they lie ALL THE TIME.
Crackpot denizens of 9/11 and JFK conspiracy theories are NOT the same as ordinary dissenting citizens. Governments are appointed by the people, and the burden of proof for any of its claims lies with the government. You SHOULD distrust your government. You should hold your government accountable for everything it says.
This article doesn’t know which way it’s going. It says that we need critical skills to discriminate between the credible and the false, but almost in the same breath, it underhandedly labels dissenters as conspiracy theorists. It says that government should “promote standards of how to think” (critical thinking skills?). This is terribly wrongheaded. Governments are power centers. They are not going to give their subjects the tools to dispel their own FUD.
We, the people, need to promote critical thinking and fact-checking skills and an independent press. Confronting our own government’s claims is just as important as confronting conspiracy theories.
The article says that conspiracy theories are “a tool for pushing against an establishment of peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and government spokesmen.” How is holding the “establishment” accountable not a good thing?
One good point was made: Governments should open up. The people should demand transparency.
James
Every morning journalists on listservs talk to each other about what to write. By the text book definition, they conspire. Then they go in to work and have a editorial meeting where they will, by the textbook definition, conspire. Everyone on Wall Street does the exact same thing. Everyone in Government does the exact same thing. So conspiracies happen by the thousands every single day. That’s fact.
And if I theorize about what they’re plotting, that makes me the crazy one?
Wake up, each side demonizes others for listening to reason under the guise of “crazy conspiracy theories”. There’s nothing crazy but the powerful who plot in the shadows.