Conspiracy and Democracy

An analysis of right-wing conspiracy thinking is essential for understanding the mind of the average right-wing reactionary in today’s context. Conspiracy theory occurs across the political spectrum, but it is in many cases considered foundational to right-wing, populist trends in politics. In this case, a number of actors and associated factors are portrayed as imminent existential threats to the foundation and well-being of a nation or group by its right-wing thinkers. The imagined risk factors vary from external threats such as immigration and international organizations to domestic political actors, structures, and demographics. The conspiratory thinking which is foundational to far right politics attempts to claim high explanatory power over the harmful causality of such factors within the nation-state.

There is no singular ingredient that can explain the emergence of conspiracy thinking: we can pinpoint socioeconomic factors, as well as psychological ones, and dynamics in elite politics - however, this emergence can be better conceptualized as a confluence of factors. The consensus among the left is that far right figures and their supporters misassign causes to certain phenomena in the absence of a dialectic, material understanding of modern issues which would hold actual explanatory power. Right-wing conspiracy thinking relies on the alienation of the political being from a lived reality, which causes the actor to oversee salient issues in contemporary politics such as increasing inequality and democratic backsliding in favour of grandiose conspiracies which require a lesser, simpler understanding of the world. Conspiracy theory, in a way, exists because people try to understand reality in a way that is easily accessible to them.

In terms of the psychological profile of the average conspiracy theory adept, we can name factors such as increasing suspicion, the idea of being a unique, persecuted victim, ignorance towards solid evidence alongside a tendency to overanalyse and interpret randomness. These traits largely feed into conspiratory thinking because they allow for erroneous interpretations of reality to be fed to the subject by right-wing politicians with relative ease. There is also the belief that people with ethnocentric beliefs (manifesting a particular commitment to their in-group and fearful of outside groups) are more likely to embrace conspiracy thinking. The idea of fear and fearful personalities plays a larger role in this context, as fearmongering is widely regarded as the key tactic deployed by right-wing politicians.

Those who choose to subscribe to conspiracies are often the individuals that are fearful of the outside world, specifically those who have been educated to view society as a dangerous arena and those who have experienced hardship in some form and thus live in perpetual fear. For such individuals, believing in conspiracies provides a quicker explanation for the phenomena they perceive as dangerous and allows the avoidance of depressing hard facts. We can thus envision conspiratory thinking as a faux understanding of the socio-political context fuelled by a fear of the outside world and a refusal to engage in a thorough understanding of realities. Is it precisely this fear that breeds hostility and leads to outright violence, such as the violence we have seen being exhibited by QAnon.

‘We can envision conspiratory thinking as a faux understanding of the socio-political context fuelled by a fear of the outside world and a refusal to engage in a thorough understanding of realities.’

It is believed that the complex psychological link between personality traits and conspiracy theories cannot be explained through the isolation of specific socioeconomic, cultural, or religious factors. It is difficult to assert there is an association of certain demographics with conspiracy thinking and apply this generalization to different societies. Afterall, these conspiracies are employed by populist figures in order to gain mass appeal among your average voter; they don’t have to target a specific demographic because their aim is to capture the attention of as many cleavages of society as possible. Instead,

I propose that the target demographic, if existent, overwhelmingly depends on the nature of the conspiracy. Ethnocentric belief-based and anti-immigrant conspiracy theories will target the majority ethnic population, which is expected to act upon fear when faced with the perceived cultural and economic threat of migration. Public health focused conspiracy theories such as Covid conspiracy theories largely target sections of the population which are less likely to engage in proper research due to their educational or socioeconomic background. Theories targeted towards political actors such as George Soros will appeal to the individuals situated on the opposite end of the political spectrum. These targeted sections of society juxtapose at times, but they ultimately represent different types of actors depending on the type of ideological instrument deployed.

As Aristotle put it, “he who has overcome his fears will truly be free”. Mass conspiracies arguably rely on those who have had a hard time overcoming these fears and facing the cold, hard facts. The contemporary tragedy of conspiratory thinking lies in the propensity of political actors to exploit one’s fear and harness this sentiment towards exclusionary and violent acts.

Ana Negut