Final Paper from Senior Year of High School
Conspiratorial Thinking and the Foundation of America
American Politics and Technology’s Effect on American Conspiracism
In Hofstadter’s famous essay - “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” - he referred to the paranoid style as “a way of seeing the world and viewing oneself” (Hofstadter 4). He defined a paranoid spokesman or politician as someone who believes that conspiracism is directed towards a whole nation or way of life and believes that their political aspirations are righteous and unselfish, thus linking paranoia to American politics (Hofstadter 4). Furthermore, he attributed the spread of conspiracies in the US to this American paranoia, hereby defining conspiracism as a widespread belief, regardless of falsity, that the underlying paranoia in American politics helped spread throughout the US (Hofstadter).
While many people automatically discredit conspiracy theories and view conspiracy theorists as nutjobs or crazy people, there have been a good amount of conspiracy theories proven to be true, like Watergate and Mkultra (“Why Do So Many…”, 00;00;30 - 00;00;50). As for the rest of the conspiracy theories, well, there’s no proof that they aren’t true. After all, that’s how conspiracy theorists wrap people in - they ask questions that inspire a sense of doubt in your mind, like “How do you know that the United States was not involved in the events of 9/11?” (Rielly). This question gets peoples’ minds racing and drives people to conclude that they can’t be 100% sure, so there’s a chance these ‘nutjobs’ are correct.
Another essential component of conspiracy theories and how people view them relates to 9/11 and the recent growth of the internet in the past two decades preceding 9/11. Immediately after the fateful day in early September 2001, rumors started spreading of government involvement in the attacks on American soil. At approximately 3 pm on 9/11, Jay Coupe, a former captain of the US Navy, said in an interview that “it seemed like the World Trade Center buildings were caused by some sort of internal explosion, but it was too early to speculate” (Coupe). Later in the same interview, Jay Coupe also questioned why the planes did not show up on the radar and why people weren’t alerted because the area around the Pentagon is a “No Fly Zone” (Coupe). These quotes show just how immediate the conspiracy theory around 9/11 started. As more and more information continued to come out concerning the attacks, the number of questions only grew. Why did the hole in the Pentagon not have wing marks? Why was little to no plane wreckage found around the Pentagon, and why was no one notified when it was clear that the Vice President at the time, Dick Cheney, knew about the attacks beforehand? (Rielly). These questions about 9/11 eventually grew into a conspiracy theory called the Truther Movement, which is very well known today and maybe the most popular conspiracy theory ever. In fact, many people credit the Truther Movement for making conspiracy thinking prevalent in the US in the 21st century, as it was the first conspiracy theory formed through the internet (Jones 362).
Technologies’ effect on conspiratorial thinking is apparent in several recent surveys, such as one taken in 2021 that shows that around 50% of Americans believe John F. Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, did not act alone (Seide) (See Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1: Percent of people who believe in different conspiracy theories.
This recent surge of conspiratory thinking raises several questions - “Is the constant stream of conspiracy theories a side effect of social media? Are conspiracy theories a product of the increasing polarization of politics? Or have they always been around, and for some reason, we just notice them more now?” (Konda). Although 9/11 and the rise of the internet changed conspiracy thinking and shaped it into what it is today, 9/11 alone cannot be credited for the popularity of conspiracy thinking in America. Conspiracy thinking and conspiracy theories have been a part of America since the very beginning when the colonies declared independence from England, and these theories give a great insight into the values that America was founded on and the “American psyche.”
America’s Foundation on Conspiracy Theories
When many people think about the factors that led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of America, they think about the Stamp Act and the Boston Massacre. However, in reality, there was an underlying factor that pushed American independence like no other. The Stamp Act and the Boston Massacre were just cover-ups for England’s real intentions with the colonies, according to Samuel Adams (Arablouei). Samuel Adams pushed the belief that the increase in taxation and surveillance towards the colonies after 1763 wasn’t simply a break from salutary neglect, but it was also England’s first step towards political enslavement of the American colonies (Cleves). Like most conspiracy theories, this idea spread through fear, which Sam Adams was a master at creating. During that same period, Adams said, “the plan of slavery seems nearly completed. Save our country from impending ruin. Let not the iron hand of tyranny ravish our laws and seize the badge of freedom” (Arablouei). Here he targeted vital aspects of life in America now, such as the threat of losing freedom. He also used phrases like “impending ruin” and “ravish” to strengthen the sense of fear in the colonists.
In a very similar fashion to the Fake News that has caused many conflicts in the 21st century, Adams also made up several grievances against England to incite even more anger and fear in the colonists (Arablouei). In fact, days before the Boston Massacre, Adams faked documents that detailed the British plan to attack the colonists in Boston, even going as far as to forge the signatures of British soldiers (Arablouei). This tension, not the tension caused by the increase in taxes, led to the Boston Massacre. Thus, not only was the Boston Massacre a cover for the conspiracy behind the Revolutionary War, but this conspiracy also caused it. Not even a year before the Boston Massacre, British officials had made plans to withdraw troops from the area, but that’s not what Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the powerful men of America wanted, and per the definition of conspiracy theories, power drives America’s decisions, not right v. wrong. (Arablouei).
Another conspiracy theory at the beginning of America’s existence that had many correlations to America and post-9/11 American conspiracy theories was the Bavarian Illuminati. The Bavarian Illuminati was a secret society located mainly in Europe founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt. It consisted of intellectual elites who wanted to promote Enlightenment and rational thinking (Hofstadter 10). A short while after Weishaupt founded this group, a popular Scottish scientist named John Robinson published a paper that highlighted the existence of the Illuminati and stated that Weishaupt founded it “for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments and overturning all the existing governments of Europe” (Hofstadter 11). This article also criticized the Illuminati for orchestrating the French Revolution, which was an unproven claim. However, British politicians needed someone to blame for the French Revolution, so they joined John Robinson in pushing the idea that the Illuminati was responsible for the conflict (Bligh).
At around the same time, Abbe Barruel, a Jesuit who recently departed from France because of the Illuminati, published a book in the US and England that expressed similar ideas as Robinson (Hofstadter 12). His book was essentially a “triple conspiracy theory” involving anti-Christians, Freemasons (another group of social elites that many of America’s founding fathers were in), and the Illuminati’s plan to destroy all order and religion (Hofstadter 12). Barruel wrote concerning the cause of the French Revolution - “Although among the day-by-day events there were some circumstances which hardly seemed the effects of conspiracies, there existed nonetheless one cause with its secret agents, who called forth these events, who knew how to profit by circumstances or even how to bring them about, and who directed everything towards their main end” (Hofstadter 12).
It is clear from this short excerpt by Barruel and the information provided by Robinson that there are many correlations between conspiracy theories now and the Illuminati conspiracy theory. Namely, the Illuminati conspiracy theory involved a war and the idea that a higher group or organization deliberately started the war for their personal gains, which is very similar to many current conspiracy theories, including 9/11 itself, as many people believe in the Truther movement because of America’s heavy involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11. Furthermore, the Illuminati theory involved the power and fear elements, which have been in almost every single conspiracy theory since 2001. Lastly, and maybe even more importantly, the Illuminati conspiracy theory that spread from Europe to the US in the late 1700s created a domino effect and directly led to several other critical US conspiracy theories. It fueled anti-communist witch hunts during the Cold War, and more recently, it fueled the belief that the Illuminati still exists and controls the world (Bligh). This belief has led to present-day America, where many people have accused celebrities and pop stars such as Jay Z of ruling the world with the other Illuminati members, even though there’s no actual proof that this society has existed since the 1700s (Bligh).
Both the conspiracy theory regarding the separation of the colonies from England and the conspiracy theory regarding the Bavarian Illuminati have many similarities with current conspiracy theories in the US, further proving that conspiracy thinking isn’t a new aspect of life post 9/11. To take it a step further, the strong correlation between the Illuminati conspiracy theory and many of the current conspiracy theories proves that ideas from the beginning of America’s existence continue to influence America’s thinking. This connection also further exemplifies the extent to which America’s foundation was built on conspiracy thinking, which raises an important question. Why have Americans always believed in conspiracy theories, and why do they continue to believe in conspiracy theories?
Conspiracy Thinking and the American Psyche
One trait seen in conspiracy theorists is their general lack of trust in the government and large corporations (Simmons and Parsons 582). This characteristic is especially problematic for the United States because ever since Christopher Columbus took his first steps on the soon-to-be American soil in 1492, the US government has done nothing but give reasons to distrust them. After all, the US killed thousands of Native Americans and forced all of them out of their own land. They also used Africans as slaves to help out their struggling economy, and once slavery ended, the US then created laws to ensure that former slaves would not have a say in their democracy. Since then, there has also been the Chinese Exclusion Act, the AIDS/HIV crisis, and the use of Guantanamo Bay to ‘legally’ detain refugees after 9/11 (Jones and Calleja). These examples of the government’s mistreatment of Americans or people, in general, reveal why there has always been a certain lack of faith in the US government, and these examples also convey why specific groups or cultures believe in conspiracy theories more than others (Oliver and Wood 952). According to a poll taken in New Jersey in 1994, black people reportedly believe in conspiracy theories 17 % more than white people, and Hispanics 6% more than white people, which further displays the correlation between trust and conspiracy theories (Goertzel 737).
Another constant factor of Americans’ distrust of the government is the secrecy behind the US government’s operations. The confidentiality of the Pentagon and the US government is virtually what started the Truther movement in the first place. Immediately after the “plane” hit the Pentagon, government officials confiscated all footage of the event and released as little information as possible concerning the event that took place that day (Loose Change 48;28 - 48;32). In an interview on Loose Change regarding 9/11, one man said that “when you are led to believe what you think you saw, you begin to buy into it, but the more you dwell on it and the more the evidence comes forward, the questions get larger and larger and larger… I’m just astounded they don’t share more of the information that’s available… If the government was 100% forthcoming and wanted to squelch any doubt as to what happened, why have they controlled the evidence so strongly” (Loose Change 00;50;46 - 00;51;23). The fact that the US hides ideologies from their citizens only makes Americans more curious and more willing to question what the government is doing, leading to conspiracy theories.
Sometimes, though, conspiracies move past general distrust of government and involve fears of larger, more secretive plots (Oliver and Wood 952). In these cases, paranoia and fear drive the conspiracy theories. In addition to the prior definitions of the paranoid style, Hofstadter also used the paranoid style to describe the profound amount of suspicion within US politics because, at times, this suspicion leaned towards paranoia (Hofstadter 25). Furthermore, Hofstadter used the term paranoid style to describe the rationalistic, coherent thinking behind most conspiracy theorists, and he attributed many American conspiracy theories to this style of thinking, such as the Red Scare and the Lavender Scare (Hofstadter 36). Another prevalent example of a paranoia-driven conspiracy theory concerns JFK’s assassination. Eleanor Heartney, a published author, wrote that “Conspiracy theories are a grand old American tradition - the mother of them all being the speculation surrounding President John. F. Kennedy’s assassination… paranoia sells” (Husting and Orr 136). This quote infers that the JFK theory was so popular and mainstreamed mainly because of the paranoia that surrounded it. It does this by hinting at the panic and paranoia of the world order that was so widespread in the US after JFK’s death, as many citizens began wondering that if one single man could kill the President of the United States, what else was possible?
Now that it’s clear that there is a strong correlation between paranoia and conspiracy theorists, another question arises; why does this form of paranoia seen throughout conspiracy theorists specifically affect Americans? In a similar fashion to Hofstadter, another author named Peter Knight wrote in 2002 that “the kind of low-level everyday paranoia that sees a hidden hand everywhere is more prominent in the United States than elsewhere because it taps into the traditional American obsession with ruggedly individual agency… the influence of larger social and economic forces in determining the lives of individuals is often regarded as a paranoia-inducing encroachment on the self-reliance of individuals” (Husting and Orr 143). In other words, this level of conspiracy-inducing paranoia is more common in America than elsewhere because of the values that the founding fathers instilled in the country that still stand today.
America was founded on the fundamental rights of freedom and individual independence. When the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776, the founding fathers gave three rights to all humans, which is where the famous phrase - “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” comes from. Moreover, about two decades later, when the founding fathers signed the Bill of Rights, even more rules to protect one’s freedom were put into place, such as the freedom of speech amendment and the freedom from unreasonable search and seizures amendment (“Bill of Rights”). The founding fathers made all of these amendments and rules to protect the rights of the people from the federal government, so when Americans feel that these rights are at risk, paranoia usually sets in. This paranoia typically leads to questions concerning the recent change, subsequently leading to a developed conspiracy theory with facts and proof to back it up, as described by Hofstadter (Hofstadter 36). This process, along with America’s obsession with freedom, explains why conspiracy theories have always been so popular in the United States. This obsession also emphasizes the fact that American’s are even allowed to express these negative opinions about their government in the first place, as many countries censor negative viewpoints of themselves.
Exhibit 2: Image describing traits of conspiracy theorists and the path towards forming a conspiracy theory.
Conclusion
The aftermath of 9/11 and the fast growth of the internet increased the range and widespread belief of conspiracy thinking in the US, but by no means did these effects of 9/11 introduce American conspiracy thinking. Conspiracy theories have existed in America forever and have played an enormous role in what America has become today and how American citizens think and react within the ideals of the government and the country. From Sam Adams theory of England wanting to turn the colonists into slaves to the spread of the Illuminati and its embodiment from Europe to America, to more recently, the conspiracy theories regarding Covid-19, there hasn’t been a time in the US when conspiracies weren’t whirling around the publics’ minds. The only difference now is that there exists grand technology at the palm of Americans’ hands to tweet and post anything they would like, which begins the process of conspiracies as described by Hofstadter.
Furthermore, after a person builds a strong sense of belief in one conspiracy theory, they are much more likely to believe in the next one presented to them (Seide). This relationship has to do with the traits and characteristics of conspiracy theorists that make them more susceptible to believe in crazy theories over what the government tells them (See Figure 2). Such traits include the need to belong, the need for control, and, most importantly, the need for understanding (Correa). The need to belong stems from people’s low self-esteem, and low amounts of trust in other people, so to counteract that, they boost their own perceptions of the world to make themselves seem more in the know than others. To make themselves feel more intelligent than others. The most common phrase by a hardcore conspiracy theorist is often - “Oh, you didn’t know that x, y, z…“. Moreover, the need for control and understanding involves what Hofstadter would call the “paranoid style,” which includes basic fear and anxiety concerning the unknown. These traits of conspiracy theorists all come together to convey the main principle that the founding fathers created America on - freedom. Both the ability to express freedom and the fear of losing freedom play major roles in the prevalent conspiratorial mindset in the United States and make up the center of the “American psyche.”
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Acknowledgments
I would like to first thank Dr. Kane for organizing and teaching the 9/11 class this term. I would also like to thank Mr. Rielly for giving me the idea of America being founded on conspiracism and for first referring me to Hofstadter’s work. He also helped me connect this idea with the American psyche and helped me organize these thoughts into my final paper. Furthermore, I want to thank my Aunt for giving me some insight into conspiracy theorists, my roommate for allowing me to keep my lamp light on late at night, Beckett for inspiring me, and Harrison for supporting me. Lastly, I want to thank all of the coffee and pure leaf tea that have fueled my late-night writing sessions this past week.
I enjoyed researching and writing about this topic! It was fascinating, and I learned a lot about the founding of America and why conspiracism is so popular. I also really enjoyed the 9/11 class in general, as I learned a lot about 9/11 that contradicted my prior understandings of the event - like how 9/11 did not actually bring Americans together; it separated the Americans.
Thanks again for the great term Dr. Kane and thanks to Mr. Rielly for helping me so much on my research paper!
