to Democracy ToCONSPIRAxCY THEOi RIEcS, DEMONIZATION, & SCAPEGOATING

A publication of Political Research Associate s by Chip Berlet Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society. We expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights. PRA seeks to advance progressive thinking and action by providing research- based information, analysis, and referrals.

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Executive Summary

ven before Barack Obama was sworn in as the from belief in an apocalyptic struggle between “good” E44th President of the the Internet and “evil,” in which demonized enemies are com - was seething with lurid theories exposing plicit in a vast insidious plot against the common his alleged subversion and treachery. Among the good, and against which the conspiracist must hero - many false claims: Obama was not a proper citizen of ically sound the alarm. As seen in the aforemen - the United States (and his election as President tioned examples, this type of conspiracism can move should thus be overturned); he was a secret, funda - easily from the margins to the mainstream. mentalist Muslim; he was a tool of the New World This study challenges the validity of conspiracy Order in a plot to merge the government of the theory as a form of political analysis, and traces the United States into a North American Union with roots and dynamics of conspiracism through United and . States history. Drawing on his extensive scholarly as Hours following a flubbed inaugural oath of well as popular writing on the topic, author Chip office, the Internet circulated claims that Obama was Berlet shows that the development of modern con - not really President of the United States because the spiracism is rooted in bigotry and that the conspiracist wording of the oath of office had been scrambled by analytical model itself encourages demonization and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. A few scapegoating of blameless persons and groups. In so days after the inauguration came a warning that doing, conspiracism also serves to distract society and Obama planned to impose martial law and collect all its would-be agents of change away from ongoing, guns. structural causes of social and economic injustices. Many of these false claims recall those floated by Examining various episodes spanning more than 200 right-wing conspiracy theorists in the armed citizens years of U.S. history, Toxic to Democracy demonstrates Militia Movement during the Clinton administration how conspiracy theories have repeatedly garnered —allegations that percolated up through the media mass public followings. Throughout, the basic and were utilized by Republican political operatives dynamics of conspiracism remained the same regard - to hobble the legislative agenda of the Democratic less of the ideological leanings of the conspiracists, or Party. Assertions that President Clinton assisted drug the (often interchangeable) identity of their targets. smugglers, ran a hit squad that killed his political The resurgence of conspiracy theories — on both enemies, and covered up the of his aide the Right and the Left — since the September 11, Vincent Foster first circulated on right-wing alterna - 2001 terrorist attacks, and the tendency for antise - tive media, spread to right-wing information net - mitic conspiracies to surge during times of financial works, and eventually appeared in mainstream crisis, makes the lessons of this study particularly media outlets. urgent. What follows is a summary of key findings A similar scenario could add to the already from Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracies, Demonization & daunting challenges of the Obama administration. Scapegoating: When Obama’s “web-savvy” aides saw “conspiracy theories building up on the internet,” they staged a THE CONSPIRACIST ANALYTICAL repeat swearing in as “the fastest way to stop the MODEL: TOOLS OF FEAR speculation getting out of control.” Such events illus - trate the power and pervasiveness of conspiracism. he conspiracist narrative is built upon four key What Richard Hofstadter described as the “para - Telements, which Berlet calls “tools of fear”: noid style” in U.S. right-wing movements derives 1) Dualism; 2) Scapegoating; 3) Demonization; and

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4) Apocalyptic Aggression. THE TERROR ATTACKS ON Dualism is an overarching theme or SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 MOVED “metaframe” in which people see the world as divid - TO CENTER ed into forces of good and evil. Scapegoating is a STAGE IN THE UNITED STATES. process by which a person or group of people are wrongfully stereotyped as sharing negative traits and mmediately following the attacks, stories began to are singled out for blame for causing societal prob - Icirculate about 4,000 Jews being warned to avoid lems, while the primary source of the problems is the twin towers on 9/11. Reporters traced the con - overlooked or absolved of blame. Demonization, a tention back to a series of rumors and claims by process through which people target individuals or unnamed sources that bounced around the Internet, groups as the embodiment of evil, facilitates scape - becoming more elaborate with each retelling. Within goating. Even the most sincere and well-intentioned weeks of the 9/11 attacks, some on the Left circulated conspiracy theorists contribute to dangerous social claims that government officials were “Guilty for 9- dynamics of demonization and scapegoating. 11.” This has turned into a “9/11 Truth Movement” Apocalypticism, also a metaframe, involves the expec - where conspiracists debate whether then-President tation that dramatic events are about to unfold during Bush and Vice President Cheney allowed the attacks which a confrontation between good and evil will to happen to gain political advantage, or actually change the world forever and reveal hidden truths. planted explosives to collapse the World Trade Center Apocalyptic Aggression occurs when scapegoats are and sent a missile into the Pentagon. Outlandish con - targeted as enemies of the “common good,” and this spiracies fingering then-Vice President Dick Cheney can lead to discrimination and violent acts. and “the neoconservatives” have been injected into mainstream anti-Iraq War venues and documents. INTERCHANGEABLE Sometimes these claims carry the baggage of anti - TARGETS/BROAD APPEAL semitism. he way in which the tools of fear are employed CONSPIRACISM’S BIGOTED ROOTS Tallows for scapegoat targets to change along with historic circumstances, even as the process by which he roots of contemporary conspiracism can be these targets are vilified using the “Tools of Fear” Ttraced back more than 200 years to the French remains the same. Revolution. Conspiracists claimed the French A central motif of the 1950s Red Scare was that Revolution was not due to long simmering public the enemy — communists, both at home and abroad resentment due to poverty and despotism, but was — threatened the common good. Today Arabs and orchestrated by the , a Muslims are portrayed in a similar demonizing way evolved from the ranks of Freemasonry, who were as an alien force conspiring to destroy Western cul - allegedly scheming to turn contented peasants into ture from without and within. It is not that threats do violent rebels. not exist; it is that these threats are hyperbolized in a In the early 1900s, the merger of Freemason and way that harms civil society and weakens homeland Jewish scapegoats took hold in the United States with security. the publication of the influential hoax, entitled the The Christian Right, which in the 1960s mobi - Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The Protocols lized to battle “Godless Communism,” now battles purports to be the minutes of secret meetings of a “Godless Secular Humanism” which they see as sup - Jewish ruling clique conspiring to take over the porting sinful abortion and gay rights. Since these world. It incorporates many of the core conspiracist views are often wrapped around conspiracist theories themes outlined in the Freemason attacks, and over - claiming liberal sedition or satanic collaboration, the lays them with antisemitic allegations. A common ability to resolve disputes through civic compromise conspiracist interpretation of the Protocols is that, is hobbled. peeling away the layers of the Freemason conspiracy, past the Illuminati, exposes a rotten Jewish core. Some contemporary conspiracy theorists directly mention the Protocols and claim they are an authentic document. This is easily found on Far Right websites,

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especially those affiliated with Neonazis and cerned a series of allegations of CIA misconduct Christian Identity. However, mentions of the Protocols involving covert action and gunrunning in Central cut across the political spectrum. America to assist the overthrow of the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Christic soon RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACISM wrapped the case in conspiracy stories dating back to the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War — n the 1960s the (JBS) and other diverting attention from the illegal activities of the IPatriot Movement groups peddled the anti- Reagan administration. The case was dismissed, but Freemason ideology from the 1790s, using it to the conspiracist claims lived on. explain the communist threat. Communists allegedly were just one guise of the Mason’s Illuminati leader - TRACKING FROM RIGHT TO LEFT ship. Later the Illuminati were variously said to con - trol Wall Street, Hillary Clinton, and Dick Cheney. In eftist conspiracy theories of the ’60s and ’70s terms of public discourse, when the JBS blamed the Lestablished conspiracism as a form of discourse secret elites and plutocrats for the vast conspiracy, the and analysis on the Political Left as well as some left- organization was not covertly blaming the Jews. of-center countercultures, thereby facilitating the Instead a favorite theme of the JBS continues to be migration of (somewhat sanitized) right-wing con - that the liberal globalists are planning a New World spiracy theories from Right to Left Order run by a totalitarian One In its signature Avirgan v. Hull lawsuit (men - through the United Nations. Nonetheless, the JBS tioned above) the left-leaning Christic Institute incor - cites books and other works that perpetuate stereo - porated the central, conspiracist claims of The Secret types about Jews, banking, and global power. Team , a book by right-wing populist L. Fletcher The right-wing group Populists American takes a Prouty. Christic’s investigators maintained back step further toward antisemitism. For this group, the channel communications with right-wing groups problem is not all Jews. Rather, its website explains known to purvey antisemitic conspiracy theories. that the real “enemy of all mankind” is the “Zionist Christic inadvertently took conspiracy allegations Jews” who are “not to be confused with other Jews.” rooted in the Protocols, sanitized the antisemitic ref - The website then posts the text of the Protocols with a erences, and peddled the results to the Political Left disclaimer typical of this genre. and gullible liberal funders. Out on the fringes of conspiracism are organized The 9/11 conspiracy theory alleging 4,000 Jews White supremacist groups and neonazis who are were warned of the attacks is a clear case of antisemitic mad about what they call ZOG: the Zionist conspiracism peddled by certain Political Right groups Occupational Government (their name for the U.S. as a recruitment tool. Their ultimate goal is mobilizing government in Washington, D.C.). The National people to oppose progressive social and economic jus - Alliance, Aryan Nations, and Christian Defense tice campaigns by targeting vulnerable communities as League are White racist groups that cite the Protocols. scapegoats. The progressive version of the 9/11 con - spiracy generally avoids blatant antisemitic references. LEFT-WING CONSPIRACISM Some on the Left, however, picked up phrases such as “international bankers,” “globalist elites,” “secret gov - ontemporary Leftist conspiracism gained a sig - ernment,” “international bankers,” and “banksters,” Cnificant foothold as a response to blows suffered that historically have been used as coded references to by social justice movements, starting with the assassi - alleged Jewish power. While their target was Bush and nation of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Cheney, the accusations and catchphrases employed increasing after the 1968 of the Rev. were laden with antisemitic bigotry. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Conspiracism percolated at the margins of SEEMINGLY UNBIGOTED the Political Left until the mid 1980s. In 1986 the lib - eral Christic Institute filed a lawsuit, Avirgan v. Hull CONSPIRACISM ENCOURAGES (known in the popular press as the La Penca bombing SCAPEGOATING AND DEMONIZATION case), which unwittingly helped pull at the seam of hile some theories reject overt bigotry, as in what would soon unravel into the Iran-Contra scandal. the main branch of the “9/11 Truth The Christic Institute charges originally con - W

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Movement,” they fail to appreciate that the analyti - tutes “proof” for a conspiracist is often more accu - cal model of conspiracy thinking normalizes the rately described as circumstance, rumor, and hearsay; process of demonizing a scapegoated group. Once and the allegations often use the tools of fear—dual - researchers embrace the conspiracist mindset in ism, demonization, scapegoating, and aggressively which a vast global conspiracy is effectively an ana - apocalyptic stories—which all too often are comman - log of the allegations about conniving secret elites deered by demagogues. found in the Protocols, the step from a Secret Team Thus conspiracism must be confronted as a to a Secret Jewish Team is a very small one. Even flawed analytical model, rather than a legitimate when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, mode of criticism of inequitable systems, structures, homosexuals, people of color, immigrants, or other and institutions of power. Conspiracism is nearly scapegoated groups, they still create an environment always a distraction from the work of uprooting hier - where racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xeno - archies of unfair power and privilege. phobia, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice, bigotry, and oppression can flourish. CONSPIRACISM IS PERILOUS TO IGNORE GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACISM: COUNTERSUBVERSION onspiracist theories are attractive in part because Cthey start with a grain of truth embedded in pre- onspiracy theories are not confined to the mar - existing societal beliefs. Cgins of the political spectrum. Conspiracist theo - Conspiracy theorists are correct about one thing: ries have been used by governments to preserve the the status quo is not acceptable. Conspiracists have status quo against those they characterized as subver - accurately understood that there are inequalities of sive alien outsiders and their sympathizers. power and privilege in the worl d— and threats to the Countersubversive conspiracy theories can be uti - world itsel f— that need to be rectified. What conspir - lized by governments to build mass support for the acy theorists lack is the desire or ability to follow the surveillance, disruption, and crushing of dissident basic rules of logic and investigative research. social and political movements in the U.S., as was Conspiracy theories spotlight lots of fascinating ques - done during the McCarthy era and again with the tion s— but they seldom illuminate meaningful backlash against the social justice movements of the answers. 1960s and ’70s. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, anti - While conspiracists tell compelling stories, they communists both inside and outside government frequently create dangerous conditions as these moved away from conspiracy theories about global stories can draw from pre-existing stereotypes and communist subversion and embraced a new targe t— prejudices. Cynical movement leaders then can terrorists. These conspiracy-based fears are present hyperbolize false claims in a way that mobilizes dan - in hardline U.S. foreign and domestic counterterror - gerous forms of demonization and scapegoating. ism policies that undermine First, Fourth, and People who believe conspiracist allegations some - Fourteenth Amendment protections for dissidents times act on those irrational beliefs, and this has and religious and ethnic minorities whose views concrete consequences in the real world. Angry alle - span the political spectrum. This could have poten - gations can quickly turn into aggression and tially far ranging implications for how the United violence targeting scapegoated group s. States prosecutes the “war on terror” abroad. Anti- Conspiracist thinking and scapegoating on a terrorism policies based in hyperbolic conspiracy the - mass scale are symptoms, not causes, of underlying ories reduce the effectiveness of homeland security. societal tensions; and while conspiracism needs to be opposed, the resolution of the grievances themselves THE (IL)LOGIC OF CONSPIRACISM is necessary to restore a healthy society. Whether conspiracist claims are circulated by onspiracism is neither a healthy expression of angry populists or anxious government officials, the Cskepticism nor a valid form of criticism; rather it dynamics generated by conspiracy theories are toxic is a belief system that refuses to obey the rules of to democracy. logic. These theories operate from a pre-existing premise of a conspiracy based upon careless collec - tion of facts and flawed assumptions. What consti -

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