REVIEWS
“Conspiracies of Conspiracies is clearly written and deeply researched, a fine-grained account of American conspiracism from the earliest years of the Republic to the present day. There is scarcely a manifestation that Konda has omitted, and periods that others have merely sketched out are presented here in a detail that can be found in few other places. The times being what they are, the subject is (alas!) likely to remain of interest for many years to come."
— Michael Barkun, author of A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America
“Bridging the divide between quantitative and qualitative approaches to the topic, Konda provides a comprehensive overview of the cultural and political work that conspiracy theories have done in the United States over the past two hundred years. He explains why these theories have recently made a comeback on the political stage and dissects a media landscape that increasingly tends to detect conspiracism everywhere.”
— Michael Butter, author of Plots, Designs, and Schemes: American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present
“The theories Konda weighs and finds wanting are fascinating in their perversity, from chemtrails to climate change deniers. A book that deserves wide circulation and consideration.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“There is plenty to be discovered here. . . Konda’s survey is perhaps the most comprehensive attempt yet to record and understand the phenomenon of conspiracy theory as it applies to American politics. . . You won’t find a catalog of mad musings in Conspiracies of Conspiracies; it’s largely a sober and reflective book (although Konda exercises a sly, dry humor on occasion) on a subject that is increasingly contentious, and increasingly central, in the discourses on American politics, science and medicine in particular. . . . Konda manages to give a clear picture of a subject that is more often obscured under a deluge of intensely partisan opinions.”
— Fortean Times
“Offers insightful context for why the United States has become as obsessed with conspiracy theories as it is. . . . By weaving historical literature with contemporary studies, Konda is able to draw clear connections between the past and the present. . . . His objective and academic approach ultimately demystifies elements of alt-right media that, for many, seemed to come out of nowhere during the 2016 presidential election.”
— Ploughshares
“Highly recommended. . . Incisive and engaging. . . Konda's assessment of the “new dynamics” of conspiracy theories in contemporary US politics is a significant contribution. Written with a clarity of expression rare in academic writing, the book is accessible to a wide readership.”
— Choice
“The most comprehensive intellectual history of American conspiracy theories yet produced. . . . Konda describes the meandering but interconnected paths of American conspiracism in fascinating detail, based on his impressive work in the books and pamphlets that these theorists produced. . . . The most detailed genealogy of American conspiracy theories yet written.”
— The American Historical Review
“Humans tell narratives, including the historical narratives that root us in a place and time, and Konda shows how conspiracist narratives have proved especially resilient because of this. . . . The sheer number of conspiracies makes exploration of each impossible here, but Konda discusses some striking examples that continue to affect public life.”
— Commonweal
“The last few years have seen a tidal wave of publications about fake news, delusional politics and conspiracy theories. Most of this literature is at best purely observational and much is superficial. Thomas Milan Konda’s Conspiracies of Conspiracies is an exception, standing out from the crowd by reason of its meticulous scholarship and precise definitions and taxonomies. It is also primarily a historical work, tracing the complex strands of conspiracism and conspiracy theories in the United States since 1789. It thus provides essential context for understanding our present mess. Conspiracies is the book that the others should have waited for.”
— Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracism
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0001
[conspiracism;mental framework;authoritarianism]
Conspiratorial thinking has become widespread in America, its influence growing rapidly over recent years. While genuine conspiracies have been common for centuries, the belief system called conspiracism goes back no further than the French revolution. This belief system drives some people to apply a mental framework to events that leads them to see not just the occasional conspiracy, but a powerful overarching conspiracy that connects all the events. The approach taken here combines research in cognition with the evolution of conspiracism in the United States from a sporadic phenomenon in the nineteenth century to an integral element of todays' politics. The connection between conspiratorial thinking and authoritarianism figures prominently in this evolution and most conspiracy theories reflect this connection. The problem of definition is addressed since the term conspiracy theory has been loosely used and erroneously applied, especially in political analysis. This problem is exacerbated by conflicting schools of thought which see conspiracy theories either as a cognitive shortcoming or the salvation of democracy.
1. The Invention of Conspiracy Theory: The French Revolution and the Bavarian Illuminati
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0002
[Illuminized Freemasonry;patternicity;hyperagenticity;cognitive leap;alternate reality;Illuminati]
The late eighteenth century origin of conspiracy theory is explored in the work of John Robison and Augustin Barruel, both of whom interpreted the French revolution as a conspiracy brought about by Illuminized Freemasonry. Barruels' conspiracy also encompassed several secret societies as well as the Jews, providing a broad framework still used by conspiracists today. Three crucial elements generally define the mindset behind this framework. Two normal mental processes, patternicity and agenticity, are exaggerated by conspiracists. Extreme patternicity leads them to detect patterns among unrelated events, and hyperagenticity leads them to attribute the patterns to some conspiratorial agents. The third element is a cognitive leap -- often an epiphany -- that allows the conspiracist to construct an alternate reality out of the pattern of events. These mental processes at work are illustrated by the twentieth century construction of the Illuminati myth.
2. Conspiracism Takes Shape in the United States
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0003
[conspiracy theories;American exceptionalism;lurid sexuality;protestant virtue;populism;Jewish financiers]
Early American conspiracy theories are described: New Englanders' fear of the Illuminati, the anti-masonic movement, the opposition to Catholic immigrants, and the secret control of government by the slavocracy. Much of this antebellum conspiratorial thinking stressed America's role as a beacon of light and hope for the world, making it a natural target for anti-republican conspiracies. American exceptionalism was moral and religious as well as political, and accordingly the conspiratorial forces attacking the nation were also portrayed as determined to wipe out protestant virtue and morality. This added a layer of lurid sexuality to nineteenth century conspiracy theories. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the populist movement generated a conspiracy of gold versus silver. By expanding the roster of conspirators from east coast bankers to the British banks and finally to Jewish financiers, the populists created a prototype of the international Jew that dominated conspiracy theories after World War I.
3. Preconditions for Modern Conspiracism: Jewish Assimilation, Premillennialism, and Aryan Occultism
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0004
[Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion;pre-millennial apocalypticsm;Manicheanism;occult;white supremacism]
Three important preconditions for modern conspiracism are discussed: changing ideas about Jews, pre-millennial apocalyptic theology, and the occult. Jewish secularization and assimilation in Europe in the nineteenth century generated an antisemitic backlash that culminated in the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by 1920. This fraudulent document portrayed Jews as a highly organized cabal with a detailed plan for world domination. This made the Jews an unavoidable target for conspiracists. Pre-millennial apocalypticism was essentially a reaction against the rise of progressive religion in America. Its early twentieth century creation provided a Manichean framework of pure good under attack from absolute evil. As used by conspiracy theorists, this framework pushed conspiracy theories -- even those not explicitly religious -- toward the right wing. The influence of the occult owes much to Theosophy and its offshoots. Theosophy's underlying racial hierarchy has been used to buttress white supremacist and Aryan conspiracies.
4. The International Jewish Conspiracy and the Secret Government
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0005
[Illuminati;Rothschilds;Federal Reserve;secret government;New Deal;Nazis]
British conspiracy theorist Nesta Webster brought the Illuminati back from obscurity and combined this group with the Jews to create an unprecedentedly powerful conspiracy. The Jews, often symbolized by the Rothschilds, had already been accused by antisemitic conspiracists for causing the Bolshevik revolution. In America, their presumed establishment of the Federal Reserve System ensured their financial control, and with the onset of the New Deal, conspiracists expanded this financial conspiracy into a broader secret government. Conspiracy theorists depicted Jews as inexorably alien to the American way of life and determined to destroy it. This notion infiltrated the isolationist America First movement with the help of German propaganda. The fight against the Nazis reduced anti-Jewish conspiracism, leaving the field more open for the Illuminati and their globalist minions.
5. The Emergence of the Hidden Hand
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0006
[self-sealing;hidden hand;degeneracy;delusional;narcissism;paranoia;authoritarianism]
An important characteristic of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing nature, by which evidence against them is declared to be the work of the conspirators to discredit the truth. In practice, this characteristic leads conspiracy theories to expand in scope. In the 1930s, the secret government conspiracy expanded to become the hidden hand: a broader conspiracy of the Jews to destroy gentile civilization entirely. The hidden hand controlled both government and news and entertainment media; it spread vice and degeneracy; and it infiltrated religion and education. The hidden hand provides an opportunity to assess the psychology of conspiracy theorists and their followers. Contemporary research, applied to theorists' writings, provides evidence of seriously delusional thinking, both political and occult. Some seem to be schizophrenic. Most also display considerable narcissism. Followers generally divide between serious and casual adherents. The more serious they are, the more they evidence bigotry, paranoia, and authoritarianism.
6. The Rise and Fall of the Hidden Hand
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0007
[hidden hand;persecution;authoritarianism;paranoia;Zionist Occupation Government]
The hidden hand conspiracy is examined in detail as set forth by prominent conspiracists both before and after World War II. Most of these conspiracists are not genuine theorists, but spread the idea of theorists, often making a career of it. Less delusional than theorists, these professionals typically added a vicious and paranoid edge to the conspiracies they passed along. They created a narrative featuring themselves as patriots constantly victimized by Jewish aggressiveness. Hidden hand conspiracists were strongly rightwing in a way that has been described as pseudo-conservative for its rejection of traditional conservative values in favor of authoritarian politics. After World War II hidden hand conspiracism declined precipitously, but the few who survived with their views intact kept the conspiracy alive. Their ideas later formed the core of rightwing anti-federal conspiracism and the belief in the Zionist Occupation Government.
7. From Neo-Nazi to White Supremacist Conspiracism
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0008
[neo-nazi;occult fascism;misogynistic;white male victimization;Alt-right]
In the 1950s, neo-nazi ideology gained a foothold among some conspiracists. Based on the notion of a lost Aryan utopia and the ideas of occult fascism, neo-nazi conspiracism found its nemesis in Jewish democracy. As a weak and feminine form of government, democracy was the centerpiece of the conspiracy against Aryans. The neo-nazis' tough guy image and misogynistic streak also appealed to those who found Christianity too soft and forgiving, some of whom created their own Aryan religions. While short on followers, neo-nazi conspiracism has always attracted disaffected self-described intellectuals. Boosted by the civil rights movement, neo-nazi thinking became entrenched in the emerging conspiracy of white male victimization, most recently embodied in the Alt-Right movement. It has also shaped the thinking of violent conspiracists from Dylann Roof, perpetrator of the South Carolina church massacre, to Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer.
8. The Emergence of the New World Order
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0009
[globalist conspiracy;United Nations;eastern establishment;global elite;Council on Foreign Relations;New World Order]
America's increased international involvement after World War II generated a new menace: the globalist conspiracy fomented by one-worlders in America and abroad. The immediate threat was the United Nations, but conspiracists feared everything from the World Court to NATO. These were all manifestations of the globalists' determination to destroy America's sovereignty and the freedom of Americans along with it. The globalist conspiracy was openly orchestrated by America's eastern establishment in concert with its British allies, the Fabian socialists. This new group of conspirators, essentially a wealthy global elite, took over from the Jews, making the new conspiracy markedly less antisemitic. Conspiracists devoted their efforts primarily to exposing various elements of the globalist conspiracy such as the Council on Foreign Relations and Rhodes Scholars. This conspiracy evolved directly into the New World Order.
9. The Conspiracy of Personal Destruction
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0010
[experts;intellectuals;fluoridation;psychopolitics;antisemitism;mind control]
The political climate in the 1950s led many rightwing conspiracists to feel marginalized and ridiculed, especially by the mainstream media. The increased role of experts in public affairs -- symbolized by Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal's influence in the Brown v. Board supreme court decision -- added to this feeling. The mistrust conspiracists already harbored about government spilled over to include experts and intellectuals generally, contributing to new conspiracy concerns such as water fluoridation. Much of this sentiment was focused on mental health. Often referred to as psychopolitics, mental health recommendations and practices were portrayed as part of a conspiracy to persecute anyone opposed to America's leftward drift. The prominence of Jews in the fields of medicine and psychology helped reintroduce antisemitism into the conspiracy, which was later rebranded as mind control.
10. The Planners Take Over
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0011
[civil rights;mongrelization;social engineers;executive orders;world government;regional planning;white race]
By the 1960s, anti-communist entrepreneurs were using conspiratorial rhetoric to promote their various crusades. They attacked the federal government as a conduit for the demands of internationalists. Foremost among these demands was civil rights, the linchpin of the conspiracy by global communists and their Jewish allies against whites. Conspiratorial racists hammered away at the planned mongrelization of the white race, which was destroying the purity of its blood to reduce humanity to malleable drones. Anti-federal sentiment at this time focused on the efforts of planners and social engineers to eliminate local sovereignty. Metropolitan areas and regional planning were decried as a plot to kill off the states. The states rights stance of segregationists played into this sentiment, and by the end of the decade conspiratorial attention was fixed on the federal government's plan to replace the states with regions run by appointees willing to carry out presidential executive orders to place Americans under a world government.
11. Pan-Ideological Conspiracy Theories: Denialism and Cover-Up
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0012
[ad hoc conspiracism;conspiracy meme;denialism;cover-up;moon landing;UFOs]
Mistrust of government grew in the 1970s as events such as Watergate and revelations of FBI spying disillusioned more and more people. In this climate pan-ideological conspiracism expanded into popular culture, creating a meme that allowed almost any event to be interpreted conspiratorially. Most of the resulting conspiracy theories were ad hoc creations that fell into one of two categories: denialism and cover-up conspiracism. Denialism is passive form of conspiracy theory based on a mistrust of authorities. Its original defining conspiracy was the notion that NASA's moon landing was a hoax. Reflecting denialism's general lack of substance, this conspiracy was sold through visuals accompanied by leading questions -- an approach that has grown dramatically in the internet era. Cover-up conspiracism grows out of the belief that the authorities are actively hiding some vital truth. Originally UFO conspiracies defined this type, but medical conspiracies have taken over.
12. Conspiracism Proliferates: Some Anomalies
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0013
[ad hoc conspiracism;New Age movement;shape-shifting human-reptile hybrids;symbolism;Lyndon LaRouche;Black genocide]
As ad hoc conspiracism took hold, new conspiracies recombined and repackaged previously unrelated conspiratorial ideas. Five late twentieth century conspiracy theories are singled out to illustrate something of the resulting diversity. The New Age movement was seized on by conspiracists who, depending on their predisposition, found it to be a cover for the conspiratorial activities of occultists, Satan, humanists, or environmental elitists. Then David Icke's shape-shifting human-reptile hybrids became the latest villains behind the New World Order. Third, a free ranging symbolic approach to conspiracism was grafted onto Masonic and Illuminati lore. Conspirators used their symbols to communicate with one another and, in some conspiracies, as mind control devices. Fourth, Lyndon LaRouche's Platonic versus Aristotelian conspiracism invariably pointed to the British royal family as the head of the global conspiracy. And last, the career of the Black genocide conspiracy is explored from its origin in the King Alfred Plan through its interpretation of the AIDS epidemic.
13. Christian Identity and the White Race
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0014
[British Israelism;seedline theology;Christian Identity;RaHoWa;federal tyranny;Aryan Nations;Posse Comitatus]
Nineteenth century British Israelism, according to which Anglo-Saxons were the true descendants of the Biblical Israelites, was adapted by antisemites and racists to support seedline theology around the middle of the twentieth century. The purpose of seedline theology was to prove that Jews were the literal children of Satan whereas whites were God's chosen people. A coterie of rightwing west coast preachers based used seedline theology as the basis of their religion: Christian Identity. An overtly conspiratorial doctrine, Christian Identity combined antisemitic hidden hand conspiracism with premillennial apocalyptic thinking to declare a Racial Holy War (RaHoWa) on both Jews and Blacks. Christian Identity was embraced by southern racists fighting civil rights in the 1960s and soon became the ideological basis for resistance to federal tyranny. Christian Identity has provided a conspiratorial underpinning for movements ranging from the Aryan Nations to the Posse Comitatus.
14. The Government Conspiracy against “Us”
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0015
[patriot movement;martyrdom;Zionist Occupation Government;Sovereign Citizens;organic constitution;fourteenth amendment;debt peonage]
The patriot movement, with its many militias, embodied Christian Identity conspiracism during the 1990s. Militia members saw themselves as the last line of defense against the conspiracy to subjugate the white race. Across rural America armed compounds sprang up devoted to the struggle. Violent attacks, including the murder of law enforcement officers and Jews, became relatively commonplace. Some of the attackers were killed when government agents tried to arrest them, giving rise to a culture of martyrdom that fueled conspiratorial thinking. High visibility government fiascos like the Branch Davidian siege reinforced the belief in a Zionist Occupation Government. One offshoot of the militia movement created a distinctive and original conspiracy theory. The Sovereign Citizens, picking up pieces of conspiracies going back to the populists, maintained that the government had betrayed the organic constitution, created bogus citizens with the fourteenth amendment, abandoned common law in favor of a commercial code, and used the Federal Reserve System to place true citizens into debt peonage.
15. Conspiracism Rebounds: Truthers, Birthers, and the New Militias
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0016
[New World Order;9/11 truthers;MIHOP;Israel;Barack Obama;Birthers]
Different conspiracy theories with a wide variety of presumed conspirators have used New World Order rhetoric. Even the conspiracy theories spawned by the 9/11 attack, which were at first spontaneous and idiosyncratic, have fallen in line. The original made-it-happen-on-purpose, or MIHOP, conspiracy broadened into a deep politics narrative centered on the Bush family but also involving the Kennedy assassination. This narrative evolved into a New World Order conspiracy with a prominent Zionist version blaming Israel for the attack. The upsurge in conspiratorial thinking brought about by 9/11 was kept going by the election of Barack Obama, with some 9/11 Truthers promoting the Obama-as-Muslim Birther conspiracy. Obama policies from health care to trade were painted as conspiratorial attacks on American freedom.
16. Conspiracism Enters the Mainstream
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0017
[Tea Party;government betrayal;birtherism;conspiracy meme;Donald Trump;Hillary Clinton;pedophilia]
Conspiracism flooded into mainstream politics with the rise of the Tea Party movement. Conspiracy entrepreneurs rescued Christian Identity's organic constitution from its apocalyptic and antisemitic context, and used it to build a narrative of the abandonment of America's Christian Constitution. Combined with the birtherism conspiracy about Obama, this reinforced the conspiracy of federal government betrayal and even tyranny. The conspiracy theory meme became so ubiquitous in this context that the term conspiracy theory began to lose its meaning. Journalists and political commentators of all stripes applied it as a catch-all term for odd beliefs and sometimes as a pejorative label. Despite the confusion over the term, conspiracy theory began to dominate the political right, boosted by the Trump campaign for president. This has reached the point where Hillary Clinton's imaginary pedophilia ring is an issue for some people.
17. The Attack on Science
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0018
[science;GMOs;chemtrails;vaccines;climate change;eco-tyranny;population reduction;Alex Jones]
Besides its effect on politics, conspiracism's deleterious effect on science has emerged as a serious concern. Seemingly unrelated topics such as Lyme disease, genetically modified organisms, and the CERN supercollider have been subject to conspiracy theories. While the conspiracies differ, many of them depict a plot by the elite to kill off most of the earth's population for self-serving environmental reasons. Alex Jones' version of this conspiracy includes the claim that elite globalists have inoculated themselves against the toxins spread by chemtrails. Medical science has been particularly hard hit by conspiracies. Some still believe that AIDS was created purposively to wipe out non-white races; the notion that vaccines are used to spread autism has not disappeared; and most recently, pandemics such as Ebola and the Zika virus have been folded into the population reduction conspiracy. Probably the most cynical conspiracy campaign is the one waged against climate change. Energy industry-backed organizations have created a narrative of eco-tyranny in which craven scientists parrot Al Gore's ideas to continue receiving their lavish government funding.
18. Democracy and Civil Society
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226585932.003.0019
[lone-wolf;violence;assassination;democracy;authoritarianism;social media]
Conspiracy thinking has contributed to more violence than is commonly realized. Many lone-wolf attacks have grown out of conspiracy beliefs: the shootings at the Atlanta Olympics, the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the attack on the Holocaust Museum, and many others. Such attacks are rare, but many conspiracists find violence appealing. The prospect of a confrontation with government forces led hundreds of armed conspiracists to Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch for the Battle of Bunkerville. A wealth of conspiratorial revenge novels reinforce this thinking. Beyond the individual violence, conspiracism is increasingly blamed for undermining democracy. A preference for authoritarianism over democracy is common among conspiracists, and the Manichean good versus evil framework does not lead to cooperation or compromise. The absoluteness of conspiracy theories makes normal political discourse difficult, and their self-sealing quality makes evidence-based arguments ineffective. Many fear these problems are exacerbated by social media -- in which filter bubbles and information silos generate information to reinforce one's beliefs rather than for understanding.
