Feelings Over Facts: Conspiracy Theories and the Internet Novel
June 29, 2024 2:16 PM Subscribe
"Political disagreements were framed as tragic misunderstandings, easily solved with a shared understanding of the facts. This obsession with the facts, Klein and Gogarty argue, has failed." (Celine Nguyen in the Cleveland Review of Books)
"This belief is what brings together “respectable liberalism and its garish, populist cousin,” Gogarty writes. Liberals believe that systemic problems are caused by secret forms of corruption and solved with exposés. Similarly, conspiracy theorists imagine an omnipotent cabal of individuals, quietly pulling the strings of power and yet vulnerable to a grand reveal. Both groups assume that, by bringing the right information into public awareness, we’ll be able to build a better world. In reality, Klein argues in Doppelganger, our liberal democratic societies are characterized by “unmasked plutocracy;” there’s no secret to reveal. Instead of the Illuminati, we have the attendees of the annual Davos conference, where the politicians and capitalists most responsible for climate change and capitalist extraction pretend to be our heroes, solving the world’s hardest problems for the greater good. Our world might be more corrupt than the conspiracy theorists realize."
"This belief is what brings together “respectable liberalism and its garish, populist cousin,” Gogarty writes. Liberals believe that systemic problems are caused by secret forms of corruption and solved with exposés. Similarly, conspiracy theorists imagine an omnipotent cabal of individuals, quietly pulling the strings of power and yet vulnerable to a grand reveal. Both groups assume that, by bringing the right information into public awareness, we’ll be able to build a better world. In reality, Klein argues in Doppelganger, our liberal democratic societies are characterized by “unmasked plutocracy;” there’s no secret to reveal. Instead of the Illuminati, we have the attendees of the annual Davos conference, where the politicians and capitalists most responsible for climate change and capitalist extraction pretend to be our heroes, solving the world’s hardest problems for the greater good. Our world might be more corrupt than the conspiracy theorists realize."
This 1000x this!
posted by Wretch729 at 3:34 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]
posted by Wretch729 at 3:34 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]
"Both writers are committed to taking conspiracy theories seriously—not what they claim about the world, but why they exist—and what feelings and subjective experiences they reveal. "
Cogito ergot sum.
posted by clavdivs at 4:44 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]
Cogito ergot sum.
posted by clavdivs at 4:44 PM on June 29 [1 favorite]
We absolutely do not need more facts, but better and more appealing myths. Society is not a rational enterprise.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:55 PM on June 29 [3 favorites]
posted by ryanshepard at 7:55 PM on June 29 [3 favorites]
journaling–pilled after reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way [gbooks]
*sees self, really sees self, for the first time, & will never be the same again*
posted by HearHere at 9:24 PM on June 29 [3 favorites]
*sees self, really sees self, for the first time, & will never be the same again*
posted by HearHere at 9:24 PM on June 29 [3 favorites]
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posted by chavenet at 2:20 PM on June 29