3. Conspiracy Theories Across Borders
Violence, Conspiracies, and New Religions - A Tribute to James R. Lewis - Margo Kitts
Michael Barkun [+]
Syracuse University
Description
One of the most striking characteristics of conspiracy theories is their frequently transnational character. In previous centuries, such theories most frequently revolved around either the Catholic Church, the Masonic movement, or Jews. These traditional conspiracist networks were absorbed and superseded after World War II by conspiracy theories built around schemes for international cooperation. These included the United Nations, the Bilderberg conferences, the Trilateral Commission, and the World Economic Forum at Davos. All were at one time or another thought to be instrumentalities for an elite cabal seeking global hegemony. This scheme and the conspiracy theories related to it were generally referred to as the “New World Order” and appeared in both religious and secular versions. While general conceptions of a New World Order laid out plans for a takeover that destroyed sovereignty on a worldwide basis, a number of separate conspiracy theories arose at the same time that were consistent with the New World Order but were conceptually quite distinct from it. An examination of three of them is particularly instructive as a demonstration of the ability of conspiracy theories to cross borders. The three are, first, the Sovereign Citizen Movement; second, the followers of Anders Breivik; and, third, the QAnon movement. Sovereign citizens appeared in the United States as part of a highly deviant strain of legal and constitutional interpretation, according to which the state and national governments are illegitimate, a conspiracy of lawyers and judges has distorted the law, and only the individual holds legal powers. Despite its link to peculiarly American issues, sovereign citizen ideas migrated to Australia. Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass casualty killer, claimed to lead an international movement but in fact had no followers at the time of his crimes. However, subsequently lone wolves in several European countries self-identified as his acolytes. Finally, the QAnon movement began as a web-based attack on the Democratic-liberal establishment and a representation of Donald Trump as a savior figure. Yet despite its American roots, it has spread as far as European and Japan.