But I like the secret handshakes of the Illuminati
But I like the secret handshakes of the Illuminati
You're viewing a single thread.
54 comments
-
As Naomi Klein said: Conspiracy theorists often get the feeling right but the facts wrong.
-
i have an ur-conspiracy theory that every elaborate conspiracy theory is a distraction from a simple and straightforward conspiracy. for every "trump is trying to uncover a vast child sex ring" there's a "trump fucks kids and our system of capital protects him"
-
That kind of sums up the difference Naomi Klein makes in Doppelganger about conspiracy theory and leftist critics: Leftists will look at the system while conspiracy theorists will assume the system is good but some people, most often Jews, have somehow corrupted it.
-
Im sure you know Cory Doctrorow already but i still wanted to share this little section from one of his recent blogposts.
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/19/systemic/
Trump's conspiratorial base are hugely and reliably animated by stories about impunity for elite sex predators. As well they should be! Elite sex predators get away with all kinds of crimes – not just Epstein, but the whole universe of powerful men, from Harvey Weinstein to Donald Trump, who systematically abused women for decades and got away with it – bragged about it, even!
But despite these very real abusers, the conspiracists in the Trump base are mostly concerned with imaginary abusers – Qanon's shadowy cabal of adrenochrome-guzzling pedophiles, tirelessly freighting trafficked children from one nonexistent pizza parlor basement to the next, packed inside of very mid Wayfair home furnishings:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/05/ideomotor-response/#qonspiracy
This is the "mirror world" of right wing conspiracism described in Naomi Klein's Doppelganger:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine
It's the world in which real suffering children (kids in cages, children rotting in Alligator Auschwitz, kids working the night-shift at a meat-packing plant) don't matter at all, while imaginary children (unborn children, Qanon victims, etc) take center stage.
-
The general difference, though unspoken, is that the kids being "trafficked" in their heads are white middle class suburban kids. A lot of conspiracy simply leads back to antisemitism, white supremacy, or both.
-
-
Good king, eeeeeeevil nobility
-
-
-
I think this sums up pizzagate. The actual evidence was woeful but some high up people got very scared and shut it down.
-
If you're into literature and willing to explore the absurdity of conspiracy theorists then Foucault's Pendulum by Humberto Eco is a great read.
And somehow prophetic regarding the post truth world...
-
54 comments