Conspiracy Theories And The Paranoia Of Postmodernism

In the controversial essay, which was first published in the November 1964 issue of Harper’s Magazine, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Richard Hofstadter argues how the prevalence of paranoia in American politics has dominated the country. Hofstadter asserts American politics have been governed by paranoia since the creation of the United States, and it has manifested itself into the minds of both average and intellectuals Americans. He contends that paranoia has played a pivotal role in American politics by fostering fear in citizens regarding issues such as gender, ethnicity, race, and religion—and proclaims the reason fear is heightened in citizens has more to do with the style in which panic is spread than any other factor. Furthermore, the author claims the sole issue dictating American politics is not simply paranoia, but rather a problem internationally caused, primarily, through misconceptions and false imaginations. Hofstadter also explores the affiliation paranoia has to power, to corruption, and to the government. Additionally, he examines the reasoning behind many skeptics and paranoids in the country today and describes the techniques with which they spread panic and hysteria, through methods such as books, speeches, and media. “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” by Richard Hofstadter, demonstrates the critical role paranoia plays in dictating American politics through the utilization of academic diction, anecdotal evidence, logical appeals, an explanatory tone, and chronological organization.

Conspiracy theory is one of the most noticeable phenomenon of the present time, which is permanently drawing the attention of society and gives a subject for discussions, publications in the press, popular books and movies. Having literally magic appeal and promising to tell about how everything was “actually”, conspiracies attract more and more people. Alien invasion, the Moon-landing, assassination of John F. Kennedy, chemtrails, September 11 attacks, New World Order, Barack Obama citizenship and religion conspiracy theories and numerous others conspiracies have become a part of an American culture and a public discourse .

For decades now, scholars have been trying to analyze conspiracy theories and their history and influence on modern day society. Many academic scholars from various disciplines have dissected the concept of conspiracy theories, and the different perspectives are essential for someone that is interested in researching the theories themselves. Authors Cornel Zwierlein and Beatrice de Graaf published the article “Security and Conspiracy in Modern History,” which focuses on the history discipline of conspiracy theories. Brian L. Keeley, on the other hand, focuses on the philosophical discipline when discussing conspiracy theories in his article, “Of Conspiracy Theories.” When comparing evidence between the two articles, Graaf and Zwierlein do

Some people don’t believe in conspiracy theories. However there is a certain percentage of people that do believe. Conspiracy theories don’t really have answers to them. Someone makes them up based on evidence that we already have. These theories are for your own belief and there isn’t a right or wrong answer. My theory is that there are secret reptilian creatures living among the human race.

For decades now, scholars have trying to analyze conspiracy theories and their history and influence on modern day society. Many academic scholars from various disciplines have dissected the concept of conspiracy theories, and the different perspectives are essential for someone that is interested in researching the theories themselves. Authors Cornel Zwierlein and Beatrice de Graaf published the article “Security and Conspiracy in Modern History,” which focuses on the historical aspect of conspiracy theories. Brian L. Keeley, on the other hand, focused on the philosophical approach when discussing conspiracy theories in his article, “Of Conspiracy Theories.” The articles ask questions specific to their discipline, which allows them to

Throughout history, civilizations have induced fear in their cultures through superstitions or theories of the unknown. You may knock on wood before a tense event or throw salt over your shoulder once it has spilled. This is practically ingrained into your mind to escape bad luck. Superstitions have been used for centuries to either evoke fear in one's day-to-day life or give comfort to one in stressful times, this can go along with conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are used to give insight on the unknown and try to give reasoning behind a strange phenomenon. Theories can range from everyday occurrences that can easily be disproven to unexplainable incidents that still boggle our minds. We use these superstitions to let our guard down

Given the discussion on rationality and conspiracy theories it is important to look at the benefits regarding the belief in theories. Due to the general nature of conspiracy theories, many would argue that it is irrational to believe due to the lack of significant evidence, or prevalence of counter arguments. However, this paper will explore the relevance of an individual’s emotional wellbeing, in terms of rationality and expected utility of believing in conspiracy theories. Due to the benefits that conspiracies provide emotionally, I argue that it is rational to believe in conspiracy theories for emotional purposes if it provides an individual more benefit in believing than not. To present my argument, I utilize the ideas of elation, personal

The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. They attacked the Twin Towers in New York City. There are different conspiracy theories with the 9/11 attack but the most important conspiracy theory is that the collapse of the twin towers were the result of controlled demolition by the government rather than structural failure due to impact and fire. Now the question remains, was it controlled demolition or was it terrorist attacking the World Trade Center on purpose?

Postmodernist proclaim that all worldviews have an equal claim to the truth, they refuses to allow any single defining source for truth. Postmodernist are skeptical of people, such

Postmodernism is a term which is highly contested in the sociological world, where it is used to indicate a significant detachment from modernism. It is easier to give the uses of the term; ‘to give a name to the present historical period, to name a specific style in arts and architecture and to name a point of rupture or disjuncture in epistemology’ (Buchanan, 2010). For this,

The purpose of this study is to give a better understanding on how social factors can contribute to conspiracy beliefs and to bring systematic evidence upon two questions: “Who believes conspiracy theories, and what sources of information are associated with believing conspiracy theories?” (Stempel 2007:353) There are many conspiracies that could have been used to answer these two questions, but the conspiracies that were chosen are related to the attacks on 9/11 (Stempel 353).

Astronomers in a new study have observed around 10,000 galaxies. Which are currently present in the Universe using a survey of the sky. Survey is created by the Herschel ATLAS and GAMA projects.

"Answering the question: what is the postmodern?” by Jean-François Lyotard defines postmodernism as the death of the metanarrative, the explanations created for society for everything that happens. Metanarriatives are built to make sense out of

Their belief is if something happen to you it because you made it happen. Postmodernist deem that truth is relative and truth is up to each human being to decide for himself. They view the world outside of themselves as being wrong, other people’s truth becomes indistinguishable from wrong. While is everyone have they own concept of just what postmodernism believe it seem to have become very popular anything and everything is okay and no one can give a clear answer on just what their worldview is it just seem a little complicated for illogical think, immorality as well as transitory

Postmodernism refers to a broad term used to explain movements in philosophy, art, music and critical theory. Postmodernism is viewed as a reaction to the pioneering modernist movement. In literature and art, postmodernism responds against classical ideas. With respect to post-structuralism and structuralism, there is a great difference between postmodernism