Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories

Author : Eirikur Bergmann
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2024-08-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781040100004

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Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories by Eirikur Bergmann Pdf

This book analyses the discursive weaponization of conspiracy theories. In an era where truth and fiction converge, nativist populist leaders wield conspiracy theories as political weapons. This text examines the interplay between populism and conspiracism, probing their impact on democratic processes and exploring their broader political implications. The work dissects three predominant conspiracy theories: The Eurabia theory in Europe, the Deep State in the United States, and anti-Western narratives in Russia. It shows their evolution from fringe ideas to mainstream political tools and reveals the leaders’ triple strategy: Constructing external threats, demonizing internal elites, and positioning themselves as protectors of the ‘true people.’ It also examines how digital media facilitates the spread of these narratives, undermining institutional trust and fuelling extremism. Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories serves as a guide to recognize and navigate the distorted realities reshaping our world. It offers essential insights into the complex dynamics of 21st-century global politics. The author argues that to properly understand the functions of contemporary politics, into which conspiracy theories and populism are now deeply integrated, we must both examine the impact that conspiracy theories have on people’s understandings of the world and how populist politicians can appeal to these beliefs. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of conspiracy theories, populism, and contemporary politics.

Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 56 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Disinformation
ISBN : STANFORD:36105050689541

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Confronting Russia's Weaponization of Information by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs Pdf

Author : Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 668 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-05-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9798216065203

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History [2 volumes] by Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb Pdf

This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions. Unsupported theories provide simple explanations for catastrophes that are otherwise difficult to understand, from the U.S. Civil War to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Ideas about shadowy networks that operate behind a cloak of secrecy, including real organizations like the CIA and the Mafia and imagined ones like the Illuminati, additionally provide a way for people to criticize prevailing political and economic arrangements, while for society's disadvantaged and forgotten groups, conspiracy theories make their suffering and alienation comprehensible and provide a focal point for their economic or political frustrations. These volumes detail the highly controversial and influential phenomena of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in American society. Through interpretive essays and factual accounts of various people, organizations, and ideas, the reader will gain a much greater appreciation for a set of beliefs about political scheming, covert intelligence gathering, and criminal rings that has held its grip on the minds of millions of American citizens and encouraged them to believe that the conspiracies may run deeper, and with a global reach.

Author : John Bodner,Wendy Welch,Ian Brodie
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2020-11-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781476643212

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COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories by John Bodner,Wendy Welch,Ian Brodie Pdf

As the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) spread around the world, so did theories, stories, and conspiracy beliefs about it. These theories infected communities from the halls of Congress to Facebook groups, spreading quickly in newspapers, on various social media and between friends. They spurred debate about the origins, treatment options and responses to the virus, creating distrust towards public health workers and suspicion of vaccines. This book examines the most popular Covid-19 theories, connecting current conspiracy beliefs to long-standing fears and urban legends. By examining the vehicles and mechanisms of Covid-19 conspiracy, readers can better understand how theories spread and how to respond to misinformation.

Author : Ron Hirschbein,Amin Asfari
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 88 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2023-01-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000860757

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Jews and Muslims in the White Supremacist Conspiratorial Imagination by Ron Hirschbein,Amin Asfari Pdf

Jews and Muslims in the White Supremacist Conspiratorial Imagination explores how Jews and Muslims are stigmatized and endangered by the same conspiratorial template. Supremacists imagine that Jews and Muslims secretly strive to replace white, European civilization with an unspeakable tyranny. The authors, a Jew and a Muslim, analyze the nature of the conspiracism that targets their communities. They historicize the supremacist conspiratorial imagination, narrating the paranoia on a continuum, from modernity to the postmodern. They begin with the texts of modernity, following them through to the dark areas of the Internet and examining their violent denouement in synagogues and mosques. The book investigates the classic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and neoclassic variations such as QAnon. It turns to Islamophobic responses to 9/11 such as paranoia regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and the doppelgänger of The Protocols, namely The Project. The authors conclude by questioning how "ordinary" people, prompted by paranoia and recognition hunger, resort to violence and murder. Admittedly, the authors are not certain—certainty is for conspiracists. But they may have a piece of the puzzle. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of conspiracy theories, antisemitism, Judeophobia, Islamophobia, political science, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and criminology.

Author : Anastasiya Astapova,Onoriu Colăcel,Corneliu Pintilescu,Tamás Scheibner
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2020-10-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000214796

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Conspiracy Theories in Eastern Europe by Anastasiya Astapova,Onoriu Colăcel,Corneliu Pintilescu,Tamás Scheibner Pdf

This collection of state-of-the-art essays explores conspiracy cultures in post-socialist Eastern Europe, ranging from the nineteenth century to contemporary manifestations. Conspiracy theories about Freemasons, Communists and Jews, about the Chernobyl disaster, and about George Soros and the globalist elite have been particularly influential in Eastern Europe, but they have also been among the most prominent worldwide. This volume explores such conspiracy theories in the context of local Eastern European histories and discourses. The chapters identify four major factors that have influenced cultures of conspiracy in Eastern Europe: nationalism (including ethnocentrism and antisemitism), the socialist past, the transition period, and globalization. The research focuses on the impact of imperial legacies, nation-building, and the Cold War in the creation of conspiracy theories in Eastern Europe; the effects of the fall of the Iron Curtain and conspiracism in a new democratic setting; and manifestations of viral conspiracy theories in contemporary Eastern Europe and their worldwide circulation with the global rise of populism. Bringing together a diverse landscape of Eastern European conspiracism that is a result of repeated exchange with the "West," the book includes case studies that examine the history, legacy, and impact of conspiracy cultures of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, the former Yugoslav countries, and the former Soviet Union. The book will appeal to scholars and students of conspiracy theories, as well as those in the areas of political science, area studies, media studies, cultural studies, psychology, philosophy, and history, among others. Politicians, educators, and journalists will find this book a useful resource in countering disinformation in and about the region.

Author : Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780735234512

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Weaponized Lies by Daniel J. Levitin Pdf

Winner of the National Business Book Award Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies We’re surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get our minds back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories. This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like "fringe theories," "extreme views," "alt truth," and even "fake news" can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.

Author : Mark R. Cheathem
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 247 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2018-08
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781421425979

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The Coming of Democracy by Mark R. Cheathem Pdf

"In The Coming of Democracy, Mark R. Cheathem examines the evolution of presidential campaigning from 1824 to 1840. Addressing the roots of early republic cultural politics―from campaign biographies to songs, political cartoons, and public correspondence between candidates and voters―Cheathem asks the reader to consider why such informal political expressions increased so dramatically during the Jacksonian period. What sounded and looked like mere entertainment, he argues, held important political meaning. The extraordinary voter participation rate―over 80 percent―in the 1840 presidential election indicated that both substantive issues and cultural politics drew Americans into the presidential selection process." -- Publisher's description

Author : J. Byford
Publisher : Springer
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2011-10-12
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780230349216

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Conspiracy Theories by J. Byford Pdf

Through a series of specific questions that cut to the core of conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon this book deconstructs the logic and rhetoric of conspiracy theories and analyses the broader social and psychological factors that contribute to their persistence in modern society.

Author : Thomas Sowell
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1995-07-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : STANFORD:36105012407917

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The Vision Of The Annointed by Thomas Sowell Pdf

A critique of the failed social policies of the past thirty years.

Author : Kisha C. Bryan,Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2023-12-04
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110799521

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The Weaponizing of Language in the Classroom and Beyond by Kisha C. Bryan,Luis Javier Pentón Herrera Pdf

In this edited volume, language weaponization — or the weaponization of language — is used to describe the process in which words, discourse, and language in any form can be used to inflict harm on others. The term harm is of vital importance because it refers to how specific groups of people are affected by ideologies and practices that normalize inequity and injustice in their environments. The contributions in this book explore how language ideologies, practices, and policies can physically, emotionally, socially, and/or economically disadvantage or harm minoritized individuals, as well as their cultures and languages.

Author : Peter Warren Singer,Emerson T. Brooking
Publisher : Eamon Dolan Books
Page : 421 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : SOCIAL SCIENCE
ISBN : 9781328695741

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Likewar by Peter Warren Singer,Emerson T. Brooking Pdf

Social media has been weaponized, as state hackers and rogue terrorists have seized upon Twitter and Facebook to create chaos and destruction. This urgent report is required reading, from defense experts P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking.

Author : Michael Butter
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-10-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781509540839

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The Nature of Conspiracy Theories by Michael Butter Pdf

Conspiracy theories seem to be proliferating today. Long relegated to a niche existence, conspiracy theories are now pervasive, and older conspiracy theories have been joined by a constant stream of new ones – that the USA carried out the 9/11 attacks itself, that the Ukrainian crisis was orchestrated by NATO, that we are being secretly controlled by a New World Order that keep us docile via chemtrails and vaccinations. Not to mention the moon landing that never happened. But what are conspiracy theories and why do people believe them? Have they always existed or are they something new, a feature of our modern world? In this book Michael Butter provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the nature and development of conspiracy theories. Contrary to popular belief, he shows that conspiracy theories are less popular and influential today than they were in the past. Up to the 1950s, the Western world regarded conspiracy theories as a legitimate form of knowledge and it was therefore normal to believe in them. It was only after the Second World War that this knowledge was delegitimized, causing conspiracy theories to be banished from public discourse and relegated to subcultures. The recent renaissance of conspiracy theories is linked to internet which gives them wider exposure and contributes to the fragmentation of the public sphere. Conspiracy theories are still stigmatized today in many sections of mainstream culture but are being accepted once again as legitimate knowledge in others. It is the clash between these domains and their different conceptions of truth that is fuelling the current debate over conspiracy theories.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Jeffrey Frank Jones
Page : 498 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2018-09-06
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Publications Combined: Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, and Lies: Information Laundering In the 21st Century by Anonim Pdf

The purpose of this research, broadly speaking, is to expose the threat that fake news poses to our national security. This thesis answers the question: Can the information laundering model, or a modified version of it, be used to explain how the internet is exploited to spread fake news, and the resulting threat to the United States? I assert that a well-crafted narrative, whether true or false, can be spread rapidly online due to the accessibility and interconnectedness of the internet ecosystem. I then articulate how these narratives can be further accelerated and disseminated when propagandists take advantage of existing processes that improve the customization, ease of access, and availability of information online. I do this by modifying the information laundering model, and then using the new model to examine the interconnectedness of search engines, blogs, social networking platforms, and media/academic outlets, and how these connections can be exploited to launder false or purposefully misleading information into public discourse. Finally, I demonstrate how this process allows adversarial nations, criminals, and malicious actors to increase public discord, undermine democracy, and threaten Americans physical and cognitive security. Contains the following studies: 1. Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, and Lies: An Information Laundering Model for Homeland Security 2. THE COMMAND OF THE TREND: SOCIAL MEDIA AS A WEAPON IN THE INFORMATION AGE 3. PUTIN’S PROPAGANDA WAR: IS HE WINNING? 4. Cyber-Terrorism and Cyber-Crime: There Is a Difference 5. CYBERDETERRANCE IN 2035: REDEFINING THE FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS 6. Countering Russian Active Measures

Author : Lance deHaven-Smith
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-04-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780292743793

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Conspiracy Theory in America by Lance deHaven-Smith Pdf

Asserts that the Founders' hard-nosed realism about the likelihood of elite political misconduct—articulated in the Declaration of Independence—has been replaced by today's blanket condemnation of conspiracy beliefs as ludicrous by definition.