What role do conspiracy theories play?

[Mr. Piccolo]

What role do conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists play in a capitalist society? Are they a total hindrance to truly understanding how the capitalist system works, or can they be useful in leading people away from mainstream, bourgeois politics?

I am interested in seeing what comrades here think of this issue.

[Geiseric]

Conspiracy theories (such as Bakuninist Anarchism) are worse for its adherants in terms of uselessness than anything else.

[RedKobra]

They're unhelpful for lots of reasons. Firstly if sections of the working class are standing outside Area 51 and wasting their energy trying to get the US government to open up its files about alien landings, then not only is it an utter waste of time, effort and resources for the protestors but it also enables the government to indulge that controversy rather than the more significant issues.

Secondly most of the main conspiracy theories rest on some of the grossest illogic you're likely to come across (Chem trails, vaccines, moon landings, aids denialism, illumanti.etc) and I don't think we're stronger for swathes of the working class to be engaging in that kind of irrationality. We want educated, rational and critical proletarians.

Thirdly there is an anti-materialism behind many conspiracy theories. It perpetuates a variation of the "great man of history" fallacy. It attributes entirely uncapitalistic collaboration between what are actually competing capitals. It creates paranoia and mistrust where the believer sees agents of the enemy everywhere.

[The Idler]

They're produced by the alienation from class consciousness and a feeling of powerlessness. They generally unquestioning of liberal democracy's claimed ideals and generally the theories function to disempower adherants. If the conspiracy theorists have internalised the irrational methods of reaching them, then they are a waste of time.

[Fakeblock]

Conspiracy theories are generally of a reactionary, petty bourgeois nature. The petty bourgeois, who sees himself and his comrades disappear into the ranks of the proletariat, constructs a monolithic entity onto which he can transplant his fears. For him, the struggle, is between himself, the individual, and the "invaders" - the Jew, the aliens, the government, the banks, the New World Order - who seek to rob him of his very individuality, everything that makes him a "free" petty bourgeois, rather than one of the robotic masses. He is frightened, because he know that, in the proletariat, he sees the vision of his own future.

[Rafiq]

The petite-bourgeois subject, disillusioned with the degenerate (Degenerate here is meant in the sense of exponential decay in legitimacy, not some kind of cheap conservatism) nature of ruling ideas, unable to find legitimacy in them and formally constituting himself as a force of reaction in the midst of the turbulent effects of capital revolutionizing its means of accumulation (Globalization, neoliberalism) - adopts conspiracy theories as a means of self-defense against the onslaught of changes in capitalism, be they 'progressive' in nature or degenerate.

Conspiracy theories can be widespread among proletarian or precariat populations as a means of hijacking, indirectly at least, spontaneous forms of petty consciousness as a result of things like unemployment, waning quality of life etc.. The sentiments of the working classes then become identified with that of the petite bourgeoisie in their opposition to the ruling order. For the proletariat, and I say this stemming solely from personal experience, conspiracy theories are articulated as a form of displacement of the logic of class struggle - with the enemy ultimately being the Jew, or whatever, against the people - the nation, or people in a civic sense. The petite bourgeoisie, meanwhile, is much more "cynical" in constantly taking into account the effects of crazy fluctuations of currency, stemming from the federal reserve, on his business and so on. The petite bourgeois does not constitute the heart and sole of the petite bourgeois movement, the dispossessed do - the petite bourgeoisie cannot constitute themselves as a movement without either an agrarian dispossessed or a working class of whom have nothing to lose already. The petite bourgeoisie values comfort and order, naturally.

Conspiracy theories, in whichever degree, manifest much of the faux-cynicism of neoliberalism today in general wherein an understanding of the world is assumed as a given, with ruling ideology unable to account for it properly (as a result of the radical changes of capitalism being constant). This dissonance becomes part of ruling ideology in the form of cynicism.

[newdayrising]

Conspiracy theories (such as Bakuninist Anarchism)

I don't think this is correct.
I believe what the OP meant by conspiracy theories are explanations of particular events or reality as a whole that involve supposed conspiracies, real or imagined, such as the Illuminati, Reptilians, 9/11 hoaxes, Elvis being alive and so on.

And if I understand what you mean, "Banuninist Anarchists" would not be conspiracy theories, but instead endorse by default a conspiraTORIAL theory/practice, because they uphold the ideas of Bakunin, who wanted to create a secret organization that would lead the revolution.
I don't think the majority of Bakunin's followers favor this particular part of his oeuvre though. I've never seen any anarchists defending anything similar, at least. I'm no anarchist, let alone a fan of Bakunin, by the way.

[BIXX]

I admit I am no scholar in regards to Bakunin, however I would like to comment on what it appears to me that would be meant by his secret organizations.

Basically, I think he meant something more akin to an action group who perform actions and raise antagonisms to the current society, and in effect lead the revolution much like a vanguard. But I could be wrong. I'm not into the idea anyway but its not what folks try to imply it is.

[Thirsty Crow]

Conspiracy theories (such as Bakuninist Anarchism) are worse for its adherants in terms of uselessness than anything else.
What's even more useless is totally missing the meaning of "conspiracy theory" in OP.

I think conspiracy theories play a debilitating role in general. When certain of these don't work like barely disguised anti-semitism for instance, they usually represent a very distorted notion of just how bad things are in this world, which can't work as a basis for productive collective action. The basic move here is to imagine a monolithic and shadowy center of power which is nearly indestructible. And that's, as a minimum, self-defeating reasoning (especially if there is some vague call for action along with the ideas presented). But yeah, I take them as symptoms which feed back into the illness, figuratively speaking. Some more sceptical promoters of some not altogether blatantly reactionary conspiracy theories might come to a more adequate understanding of our world though.

[Collective Reasons]

And if I understand what you mean, "Banuninist Anarchists" would not be conspiracy theories, but instead endorse by default a conspiraTORIAL theory/practice, because they uphold the ideas of Bakunin, who wanted to create a secret organization that would lead the revolution.
I don't think the majority of Bakunin's followers favor this particular part of his oeuvre though. I've never seen any anarchists defending anything similar, at least. I'm no anarchist, let alone a fan of Bakunin, by the way.

There are a few speculations about his enemies that might be called conspiracy theories with some justice, but Bakunin's organizational proposals were a mix of what we might now just call good security culture and the realization that if revolution is to come through means other than large-scale armed struggle, those involved unite their aims and forces.

[STALINwasntSTALLIN]

Here is a conspiracy theory for you all:

RevLeft purposely chooses the most annoying pop-up ads imaginable in order to get people to pony up the monthly donations.

[La Guaneña]

Too much talk about these 'conspiracy theorists'. What we need to talk about are these 'coincidence theorists'.

[Jimmie Higgins]

What role do conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists play in a capitalist society? Are they a total hindrance to truly understanding how the capitalist system works, or can they be useful in leading people away from mainstream, bourgeois politics?

I am interested in seeing what comrades here think of this issue.

I don't know if it plays a role, like I think capitalism could work just fine with shitty rationalizations and "false consciousness", but I think it's a pretty regular phenomena of capitalism. In the u.s. It has a strong historical precedence which might be related to the schism of democratic ideals or pretensions or myths colliding with hierarchical and unequal realities.

But basically the alienation and semi-hidden forms of oppression and exploitation of capitalism make fertile ground for conspiracy theories of all sorts.

Things don't actually work like how the surface might imply they work and so conspiracies fill the void. So the middle class (in general but not solely) who think our society should function fine as-is, blame the interference of hidden groups of rebellious people or secret elites (sometimes both)... Jews, anarchists/Bolsheviks, Mexican/Arab immigrants stealing social benifits all undermine perfect capitalism; aluminti who throw-off and corrupt otherwise meritocritous capitalism.

Of course tons of workers also blame conspiracies for things and this is also an expression of powerlessness and the invisibility (and often systemic rather than actual induviduals) of real power. Corporations hiding cures for cancer; plots by rich white supremacists to poison cigarettes typically associated with black folks, etc. these kinds are also unproductive imo, but they are a little more understandable since elites have used blacks and women for testing, corporations and governments do keep secrecrets and use shadowy plots. but workers can also believe conspiracies that might have their social origins in middle class views.

But even at best, conspiracies are rationalizations of superficial inconsistencies and this can blur things. Revolutionaries need to uncover the roots of powerlessness and expose the basic functioning of things, not look for potential plots. Governments or elietes do have conspiracies, but this is the symptom of unequal power and the need to control and exploit populations.

[Counterculturalist]

Conspiracy theories are fascinating to study as folklore. The most common of them stem from a powerful myth of a group of "others" secretly manipulating world events and at the root of everything that has gone wrong in history. Their counterproductive character has been well documented by various posts above. I will just add that, considering that the original villain in these stories was the figure of the Jew, they are reactionary and bigoted at their core - even when espoused by the left.

Something I find fascinating is how similar the classic conspiracy of the secret cabal that runs everything is to the typical paranoid schizophrenic thought process. I have spoken extensively with a couple of friends who suffer from this condition and they speak of secret societies with access to unlimited resources that exist solely to fuck with them - in a way their delusions are personalized versions of the typical "Jew/illuminati" myth. I have no desire to play armchair psychiatrist, but I wonder if anyone more well versed in psychology than myself has ever explored this link.

The absolute bottom of the conspiracy theorist barrel is the false flag spotter. Nothing in the history of time has ever actually happened according to these assholes.

[Mr. Piccolo]

I don't know if it plays a role, like I think capitalism could work just fine with shitty rationalizations and "false consciousness", but I think it's a pretty regular phenomena of capitalism. In the u.s. It has a strong historical precedence which might be related to the schism of democratic ideals or pretensions or myths colliding with hierarchical and unequal realities.

But basically the alienation and semi-hidden forms of oppression and exploitation of capitalism make fertile ground for conspiracy theories of all sorts.

Things don't actually work like how the surface might imply they work and so conspiracies fill the void. So the middle class (in general but not solely) who think our society should function fine as-is, blame the interference of hidden groups of rebellious people or secret elites (sometimes both)... Jews, anarchists/Bolsheviks, Mexican/Arab immigrants stealing social benifits all undermine perfect capitalism; aluminti who throw-off and corrupt otherwise meritocritous capitalism.

Yes, I think you are correct. I just finished listening to an audiobook version of Milton William Cooper's Behold a Pale Horse, one of the classics of American conspiracy literature, and the main theme seems to be that things were great when the U.S. Constitution was followed and we had "liberty" (some vague idea of "liberty" is always at the heart of most of these theories) but when the secret elite and the aliens started to work together after Roswell we were put on the road to slavery and the New World Order.