Everything You Have Been Told about Conspiracy Theories Is a Lie

Lecture with Peter Knight, professor of American Studies, University of Manchester.

With Trump returning to the White House with a cabinet full of conspiracy theorists, it feels like the paranoid style has won. It’s therefore time to reconsider what we think we know about conspiracy theories—and also the question of what can be done to combat them. This talk will consider five common assumptions about conspiracy theories that are not as plausible as they might at first seem. It also discusses interventions against conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation, especially in light of the attacks by Musk and Trump on what they call the “censorship-industrial complex.”

Bio

Peter Knight is a professor of American Studies at the University of Manchester. He is the author and editor of a dozen books on the cultural histories of finance and conspiracy theories, including Conspiracy Culture (2000) and Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19 (2022). He is currently co-authoring a book (with Clare Birchall) on conspiracy theories in the age of the internet.