Conspiracy (Rhetoric of)

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13/13 Rhetoric 2013: Conspiracy

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Rhetoric 2013Rhetoric 2013

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2013

Conspiracy

I am an amateur admirer of conspiracy. I frequently listen to conspiracy radio and watch

conspiracy movies. My interest began when I was an overnight baker (11 pm-7 am) from 2008-09.

I'd listen to a show called Coast to Coast AM in the afternoon to help me get to sleep in spite of

the sun pouring in under door frames and through the cracks in the blinds. Then in 2010, Ancient

Aliens appeared on the History Channel. Many episodes taut the idea that the gov't is in league

with alien races. In 2011, Gov. Ventura got a show called *Conspiracy Theory* where Ventura

chases down conspiracies with the help of people like Alex Jones, a hyper-paranoid radio

personality with really creative conspiracies. In 2012, National Geographic began to air a show

called *Doomsday Preppers*, a show that depicts people preparing for apocalyptic scenarios that

are either started or made worse by the gov't. The show is reportedly sponsored by Wise Food

Storage. Those are just a few examples of outlets for conspiracy theorists to voice their ideas.

I think that conspiracy is worth looking at for a couple of reasons. First , I've noticed conspiracists (Iwill not call them theorists) are getting more distribution beyond the typical newletters and badly

designed websites. They are getting their ideas to the publi c through interview-based films, cable,

the radio, and YouTube (UFO TV). Second, I've noticed that the conspiracist mindset is

materializing in places that are supposed to be a little more rigid (the 24/7 news outlets to name

one).

Conspiracists make connections. Their stock and trade is a web of

connections that suggest a version of reality. To make their

connections, conspiracists draw from a few bodies of information.

The first kind of information is typically the starting point for a good

conspiracy -- something that is commonly thought to be true. JFK

begins with the Warren report's less-than-certain account of the

circumstances surrounding Kennedy's death. Area 51 begins with

the contradiction between the Roswell Daily Record story on July

8, 1947 and July 9. Ancient alien theories begin with the

engineering problems that arise when somebody uses megalith tobuild stuff and the gaps in what we know about prehistorical

cultures and their mythologies. Secret society conspiracies begin

with the founding fathers' affiliations with masonic lodges.

After there's a starting

point, conspiracists

start to reach into other

bodies of information.

They might draw from

eye witnesses. They

might draw from

mythologies. They

might draw from other

histories. So all

together, the typicalUFO narrative is

something like: there

is a relationship

between humans and

aliens and an effort to

cover-up that

relationship. This is

known because of sightings X, event Y as it is depicted by reliable source Z. Therefore, we can say

that ABCDEFG is highly probable. That line of stuff, the therefore, is the various details of the

conspiracy. Those details often reach across the boundaries into other conspiracies, making more

connections available to the conspiracist. And in that kind of environment, the more connections

there are, the better the conspiracy is. The fuller version of the UFO conspiracy is that there is not

only a relationship between aliens and humans, but aliens have had a hand in our technological,

culturual, and biological development and continue to have a hand in our development.

Conspiracists get there by looking at ancient artifacts and mythologies, drawing from ideas by key

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figures, and using the reality of compartmentalization and specialization to deal very loosely with

probabilities in order to suggest likelihood or even certainty.

To be convincing, to make myth or fiction seem probable, conspiracists use a few strategies.

Some of the people who talk conspiracy like to begin with a dictionary definition, and they use that

definition to make their case seem like it's as closely aligned with the truth as the definition. It is a

common arrangement strategy. This one is frequently used by people who like to talk about aliens.

Somebody might say something like -- Well, a UFO is an unidentified flying object, and that's what

it was. It was an object in the air that cannot be identified. Then, they make the leap to alien

controlled craft or human-controlled alien craft, and they base that leap on the connotation that

"UFO" suggests. But because they began with a literal definition, their case seems a lit tle more

probable. Some of the people who argue for the presence of a secret or shadow gov't also use this

strategy. They'll borrow a definition of conspiracy that someone developed to talk about Caesar

(the person or play) to suggest that a global conspiracy is likely.

People who create, explore, and talk about conspiracies often treat conspiracy as an area of

study. They refer to popular methods, key figures, key events, popular narratives, and sets of data.

The way that conspiracists reference, use, and misuse these various elements is pretty

interesting. To add something to the body of conspiracies c irculating around in the community, a

conspiracist will discredit a person's opinion or a popular narrative to supplant a popular narrative.

They will make connections between two narratives, mixing the methods of gathering data. The

fuller version of the UFO conspiracy will make use of eye witness accounts by civilians, reports

filed by government personnel that contain measurements, coordinates, and Geiger counter

readings. They will use images. They will draw from history and historical accounts. When making

connections, conspiracists will draw from different conspiracies, t reating them as s table bodies of

knowledge in order to make a tighter web of connections between people, ideas, events, and data

sets. This is the work of conspiracy.

Conspiracy theorists will often acknowledge that they sound crazy at the end of their speech,

work, or interview. To get past this, they will suggest that conspiracies or the phenomenon that

they are talking about can and almost must be experienced in some way first hand. "If you've seen

An "ancient astronaut"

This is Bob Lazar , a f requently cited and rhetorically discredited f igure in ufology. He claims to have been an Ar ea

51 employee with significant clearance. He reports to have w orked as a physicist that w orked on reverse

engineering a UFO.

Begin in the Dictionary/with the Literal

Treating Conspiracy like a Field of Study

Nodding to Subjectivity/Mixing Belief and Fact
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Posted by Jacob at 12:12 PM

what I've seen, then..." They will also state that they had not believed prior to experiencing or

learning something or being proven right by an event that came to pass after they began hatching

their ideas. In these moments, they deviate from the area of study model, a model that suggest

rigor and objectivity, to suggest that conspiracies must be believed rather than proven. This works

in the conspiracist's favor, because when deferring to their definition of conspiracy, they have the

framework to say that these events cannot be known, only knowable.

The conspiracy could be a fairly useful ground for the study of rhetoric. Conspiracies often have a

general shape (beginning with fact and moving out from that fact by using connections between

mythologies, other conspiracies, and facts using probabilities and reason that could be invalid

and/or valid). Depending on the medium through which the conspiracy is being communicated,

there may be some conventions that suggest the presence of genre. For example, movies will usereenactments, interview, a host, archival footage, creepy music, and visual argument. Books rely

heavily on style and appeals.

Conspiracy also serves as a nice illustration of the slippery nature of knowledge. Conspiracists

taut their ideas as something like knowledge, but they admit that what they study cannot be

known. St ill, they also make the case conspiracy is knowable. The debate between true/false

rhetoric is interesting in the case of conspiracy. For most people, conspiracies are not true, but for

these people conspiracies are true. And conspiracists are not trying to make the lesser argument

the stronger. They are trying to convince the public that there is an urgent need to believe in a

specific conspiracy, because disbelief has dire implications. Usually, the implication is doom for

humanity. So for these people, the conspiracy is political and public, because it is the result of

politics and effects the public.

Because there is a common set of data, narratives, figures, and ideas, I see those as something

like the topoi that a conspiracist might use to make the connections that will allow the conspiracist

to situate his/her conspiracy within the community for vetting, clarification, and circulation.Because conspiracists typically believe themselves (it would seem), I would not say that they are

generating arguments as they are seeking to situate their argument. Because there are some

common strategies and common s tarting points, there are some arrangement patterns (I think).

Conspiracies have began to materialize in the public in a couple of interesting ways. First, there

seems to be an idea that secrets are being kept from the people that they effect most . Those

secrets include agendas, ideologies, and plans. For example, in 2010, a large group of people

seemed to think that the gov't had a communist agenda that it was working to see come to pass.

Second, there seems to be a feeling of general suspicion in the air, a paranoia or a fear that

something is coming. At the end of the day, that is the tone of the conspiracy. Conspiracies are

efforts made to better explain the present and the future in order to preserve our humanity.

Conspiracy as Rhetorical

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Conspiracy (Rhetoric of)