University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2014 The ethos of conspiracy argument : "character" as persuader in conspiracy rhetoric. Michael James Sobiech University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Sobiech, Michael James, "The ethos of conspiracy argument : "character" as persuader in conspiracy rhetoric." (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1359. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1359 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. 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THE ETHOS OF CONSPIRACY ARGUMENT: “CHARACTER” AS PERSUADER IN CONSPIRACY RHETORIC By Michael James Sobiech B.S., Indiana University, 1988 M.A., Western Kentucky University, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky May 2014 Copyright 2014 by Michael James Sobiech All rights reserved THE ETHOS OF CONSPIRACY ARGUMENT: “CHARACTER” AS PERSUADER IN CONSPIRACY RHETORIC By Michael James Sobiech B.S., Indiana University, 1988 M.A., Western Kentucky University, 2008 A Dissertation Approved on April 14, 2014 by the following dissertation committee _______________________________ Debra Journet Dissertation Director _______________________________ Bronwyn Williams _______________________________ Carol Mattingly _______________________________ Susan Griffin _______________________________ Marilyn Cooper ii DEDICATION To my parents, Margaret and Andrew Sobiech. I am thankful that God let me be your son. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is not a perfect dissertation, but it has been made so much better by the help of so many. A very special thanks to my wonderful director, Debra Journet, who has been helping graduate students through the challenges of dissertations for over twenty years. I am so thankful that she took me on as one of her last students. Thank you to all the members of my committee, Debra Journet, Bronwyn Williams, Carol Mattingly, Susan Griffin, and Marilyn Cooper. Although I can be verbose (see the following dissertation), I am at a loss to adequately state how much I appreciate all your time, insight, encouragement, support, and help throughout this long project. Had I done it by myself, it would have been an utter wreck—picture the Hindenburg landing on the deck of the Titanic. I hope, some day, to emulate your qualities in my own teaching and research. Thank you to all those at Western Kentucky University who helped set me on this path through their help in my receiving my MA, including Dale Rigby, who served as the director for my thesis, and Jane Olmsted, who helped me get a start in studying conspiracy rhetoric by letting me teach a class on conspiracy theories and pop culture. Thank you to the University of Louisville’s libraries, in particular the Interlibrary Loan department and Robert Detmering—both have been invaluable in doing this project. Thank you, also, to Joanna Wolfe (for whom I worked as an assistant director of composition), Susan Griffin (for whom I worked as a research assistant), and Joanne Webb (for whom I worked as an editorial assistant at the Henry James Review). iv Thank you to Karen Kopelson and Susan Ryan, who have been so helpful to me (and so many others) during their time as the director of graduate studies, and thank you to Beth Boehm, who has served as the dean of graduate studies. Thank you to Linda Baldwin and the English department staff. Thank you to my students here at the University of Louisville. And thank you to my friends here at school, upon whom I could always depend in so many ways during the beautiful slogfest that is graduate school. This is not an exhaustive list, but special thanks to Chris Alexander, Lisa Arnold, Nancy Bou Ayash, Alicia Brazeau, Laura Detmering, Jason Dietz, Matthew Dowell, Harley and Gabi Ferris, Lauren Hall, Becky Hallman, Brittany Kelley, Carrie Byars Kilfoil, Tika Lamsai, Brice and Abby Nordquist, Rodrigo Martini Paula, Kathryn Perry, Caleb Pittman, Melissa Ratliff, Vanessa and Mike Sohan, Ryan Trauman, Simon Sangpukdee, Stephanie Weaver, Ben Wetherbee, Matthew Wiles, and Caroline Wilkinson. I would also like to thank my church family here in Louisville, in particular Larry and Joan Coffey, Paul and Wilma Earnhart, Brock and Brittany Henry, Mark and Teresa McCrary, and the members of the Wednesday night supper club. Additionally, thanks to David and Ann Moses of Nashville, Tennessee. And finally, a special thanks to my siblings, nieces, and nephews: Steve, Kathleen, Helen, Joseph, and John Paul Sobiech; Mary Ann, Brad, Drew, and Erin Barrett; Paul, Karin (McGowan), Anya, Eli, Ian, and Mila Sobiech. One of God’s best gifts is taking those whom parents have to separate on long car rides and turning them into friends you wouldn’t want to live without—and I have been so blessed. v ABSTRACT THE ETHOS OF CONSPIRACY ARGUMENT: “CHARACTER” AS PERSUADER IN CONSPIRACY RHETORIC Michael James Sobiech April 14, 2014 Conspiracy theory has, as Timothy Melley states in Empire of Conspiracy (2000), “animated our political culture from the early Republican period to the present, at times powerfully swaying popular opinion” (vii). Though it has attracted attention from a wide range of disciplines, conspiracy theory has not received significant notice within rhetoric and composition. My dissertation adds to the interdisciplinary body of scholarship concerning conspiracy theory by examining it as rhetoric, focusing on how the construction of a conspiracy proponent’s ethos/character affects the persuasiveness of a conspiracy theory. I argue that ethos construction plays a much more significant role in conspiracy persuasion than typically considered. In “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (1964), Richard Hofstadter describes the importance played by “the figure of the renegade from the enemy cause” (such as an ex-Mormon or ex-nun) in American conspiracy argument. This dissertation examines the ethos of one prominent “renegade”— Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899), an ex-Catholic priest whose conspiracy charges were extensively used by anti-Catholics during America’s Gilded Age and into the twenty-first century. I use as a case study Chiniquy’s 1885 autobiography Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, in which he claims that President Lincoln spoke with him about the Catholic Church’s covert working for the Confederacy and the Church’s desire to assassinate Lincoln. With Lincoln as witness, Chiniquy’s conspiracy was widely circulated to promote anti-Catholicism. vi Belief in Chiniquy’s tale about the dead president ultimately depended on belief in the ex-priest; thus, my dissertation uses Chiniquy’s ethos construction as a means of examining the role ethos plays in persuading people to accept extreme claims. Chapter One reviews scholarship concerning ethos, anti-Catholicism, conspiracy rhetoric, and Chiniquy, my dissertation’s principal historical and theoretical approaches. Chapter Two explores how Fifty Years constructs ethos for Chiniquy. Chapter Three examines how the purported Catholic plot against the president and the Union were constructed in Fifty Years to support an anti-Catholic message, concentrating on three themes which have implications concerning ethos in conspiracy narratives. And Chapter Four describes the reception of Chiniquy’s conspiracy from the Gilded Age to the age of the World Wide Web. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: ETHOS, CONSPIRACY ARGUMENT, ANTI-CATHOLICISM, AND CHARLES CHINIQUY: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .............................. 8 Ethos ........................................................................................................................ 9 Anti-Catholicism ................................................................................................... 28 Conspiracy Theory ................................................................................................ 54 Charles Chiniquy ................................................................................................... 67 Endnotes ................................................................................................................ 83 CHAPTER TWO: THE ETHOS OF A RENEGADE: CHINIQUY’S SELF CONSTRUCTION IN FIFTY YEARS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME ............................. 88 External Ethos Via Printed Paratext .....................................................................