Le conspirationnisme. Archéologie et morphologie d’un mythe politique

Abstract

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Religion and Negotiation of the Boundary between Majority and Minority in Québec: Discourses of Young Muslims in Montréal CÉGEPs

“…The stigma felt, borne, or contested by several of these young people is therefore closely linked to the action of this myth. The latter, which is increasingly embodied in a secular "narrative" [28], would become for the members of the majority group, a symbolic and cognitive field of vision, "which also exerts an explanatory function, providing a certain number of keys to the understanding of the present, constituting a grid through which the disconcerting chaos of facts and events may appear to be ordered" [58] (p. 40). The vision of secularism proclaimed in the Charter was revealing for several young people interviewed in the eruption of this national myth of Quebecers who aim to exclude difference.…”

Conspiracy Theories in Political Science and Political Theory

“…Thus, due to their persistence and wide dissemination across a broad political spectrum, the study of conspiracy theories is now considered a mainstream topic. If pioneering research had originally adopted Hofstadter's conceptualisation in terms of 'paranoid style' (Davis 1971;Pipes 1997;Melley 2000;Taguieff 2013), theoretical approaches (Thurlow 1978;Fenster 1999;Goldberg 2001;Jamin 2009;Byford 2011;Barkun 2013;Giry 2015a) are well-established today. However, other research initiatives have recently renewed methodological perspectives.…”

“…Despite the different approaches, methodologies and findings, it is nonetheless possible to reach a consensus on the key features that characterise conspiracy theories as a political science subject (Giry 2015a). But, let us first remind ourselves of some seminal definitions: Fenster considers that conspiracy theories express 'the conviction that a secret, omnipotent individual or group covertly controls the political and social order or some part thereof circulates solely on the margins of society ' (1999: 1).…”

Functions and Uses of Conspiracy Theories in Authoritarian Regimes

“…Operating like a political myth (Girardet 1986;Giry 2015), conspiracism is paradoxically reassuring -symbolically at least -because it purports to identify and unmask a hidden threat. Conspiracy theories express, then, a reductionism that serves and contributes to uphold, promote and reinforce conventional behaviours, while discrediting or delegitimising inappropriate or marginal ones.…”

“…In other words, the plausibility of conspiracy theories, and their reception, is bound to communities' collective judgments (Fine 2007). What's more, people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories when they seem to relate to them, when the conspiracy theories exonerate them or their group (Waters 1997;Frampton et al 2016) and when they implicate their political opponents (Miller et al 2016).Operating like a political myth (Girardet 1986;Giry 2015), conspiracism is paradoxically reassuring -symbolically at least -because it purports to identify and unmask a hidden threat. Conspiracy theories express, then, a reductionism that serves and contributes to uphold, promote and reinforce conventional behaviours, while discrediting or delegitimising inappropriate or marginal ones.…”