Conspiracism

Conspiracy / Theory

Author Q&A with Lisa Wedeen and Joseph Masco

a person holding a sign saying "wake up ppl"

PRA’s Annie Wilkinson interview authors Lisa Wedeen and Joseph Masco about their new book, Conspiracy / Theory, which asks its readers to critically consider the stigma around conspiracy theories and conspiratorial thinking in a world of growing…

Q&A

Sentimentalizing Resentment

How Taylor Caldwell Set the Mood for the Far Right

Three books overlapping each other: Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings, Taylor Caldwell's Dynasty of Death, and Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings

If you were a middle-class White mom in 1976 with copies of lifestyle magazines piled in the corner of a green shag-carpeted room designed by a Dorothy Draper protégé, you probably also had a few thick Taylor Caldwell novels tucked in the bookshelf…

Article

More of the Same, but More of It

The Conspiratorial Legacy of 9/11

A group photo in BW of protestors holding signs that read 911 Truth Now

One of the lasting legacies of 9/11 is the growth and mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, across the U.S. and the world. Within hours of the attacks, theories cropped up online to identify culprits, explain their motives, and uncover their…

Article

Red Pill, Blue Pill

Q&A with author David Neiwert

A woman holding a sign saying "Wake up! Ppl"

Conspiracy theories can be many things to different people. For some, it’s fun: the entertainment value of outlandish “alternative facts,” the promise of secrets revealed, the thrill of envisioning oneself a detective, scouring the internet for…

Q&A

Crowd wearing winter clothes holding colonial American flag

In late June, anti-vaccination groups planned to hold two events in New York, in the towns of Ghent and Akron. While…

Article

A Storm is Coming

Horror and Hope in QAnon Apocalypticism

A woman in front of the U.S. Capitol building, wearing a red hat, holding an image of Jesus wearing a Make America Great Again hat, and WWG1WGA on his shirt

On October 28, 2017, the now infamous “Q” posted for the first time on 4chan in a chat thread titled “Calm before the Storm.”^{^[1]} The thread’s title seemed to reference a puzzling statement President Trump…

Article

Technologies of the Right: Disinformation, Mobilization, and Surveillance

Watch Now: A PRA Roundtable Discussion

Writing on SUV rear window that reads "Wake Up! You are in the Matrix WWG1WGA"

There is no question that social media has been a meteoric tool of the Right: propelling Donald Trump to office in 2016, mobilizing his supporters to mount a nationwide resistance to the outcome of the 2020 election, and fueling the growth of far-…

Webinar

Class of 2020

Far-Right Candidates Reveal Where the GOP is Headed

A collage of Warren Hamilton, Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Greene

While the Trump administration is over, part of its legacy is helping carve a place for 21^st Century far-right movements and ideologies in the halls of government and within Republican ranks that look more like 19^th Century…

Article

Conspiracy for the Masses

Mapping a QAnon Lockdown Network

A big black flag that has a Q on the middle with red and black stripes and the words Where We Go One We Go All around it.

In late April 2020, Jessica Prim left her home in Peoria, Illinois, and headed east to New York Harbor, where the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Comfort was docked. She arrived at midday on April 29. Although the Comfort was serving as a field hospital for…

Article

Enemy in the Making

The Language of “Anti-Sorosism” in the U.S. and Hungary

“I really feel that Soros, in many ways, is the biggest danger to the entire Western world.” So argued British right-wing populist Nigel Farage in 2018 on the U.S. right-wing TV network Fox News.^{^[1]} Though…

Article

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Covid!

ReOpen Protestors Turn to Constitutional Sheriffs to Defy State Policies

Coronavirus lockdown protestors hold American flag and gun, April 21, 2020 (Credit: Becker1999/flickr)

In May 2020, a leader of the recent wave of anti-Lockdown protests against government issued Covid-19 directives and ReOpen America founder, Suzzanne Monk,…

Article

The Globalist Within

Antisemitism and Anti-China Nationalism In the Era of Coronavirus

Cover image of Der Spiegel: "Made in China"

As the coronavirus crisis deepens, voices across the Right are mobilizing a politics of resentment to distract from the Trump administration’s botched response, and to advance an exclusionary nationalist agenda. Their antagonist is China and their…

Article

On February 19, a 43-year-old man shot and killed eleven people, including himself, in Hanau, Germany, a small city some 15 miles east of Frankfurt. The victims are Ferhat Unvar, Gökhan Gültekin, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nessar El Hashemi, Mercedes…

Article

Anti-Semitic flier distributed by the Daily Stormer

On Monday, October 22, reporting that someone had placed a bomb in the mailbox of billionaire George Soros dominated news coverage.¹ Similar devices were subsequently discovered to …

Article

Conspiracy / Theory

Sentimentalizing Resentment

More of the Same, but More of It

Red Pill, Blue Pill

Anti-Vaxx Events in New York Highlight Alignment Among Far-Right Militias, Alternative Health Promoters, and Local Politicians

A Storm is Coming

Technologies of the Right: Disinformation, Mobilization, and Surveillance

Class of 2020

Conspiracy for the Masses

Enemy in the Making

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Covid!

The Globalist Within

Hanau and the Rise of Right-Wing Terrorism in Germany

The Violent Consequences of Antisemitic Bigotry

Research

Search

Conspiracism

Research