Name: Anonymous 2007-08-30 11:47 ID:ogNyVRpp
"Conspiracism" is a term used by social scientists and scholars to refer to adherents of conspiracy theory and their way of looking at history and the world around them. The term was popularized by academic Frank P. Mintz in the 1980s.
According to Mintz, conspiracism denotes: "belief in the primacy of conspiracies in the unfolding of history" (1985: p.4):
"Conspiracism serves the needs of diverse political and social groups in America and elsewhere. It identifies elites, blames them for economic and social catastrophes, and assumes that things will be better once popular action can remove them from positions of power. As such, conspiracy theories do not typify a particular epoch or ideology" (1985: p.199).
Throughout human history, political and economic leaders genuinely have been the cause of enormous amounts of death and misery, and they sometimes have engaged in conspiracies while at the same time promoting conspiracy theories about their targets. Hitler and Stalin would be merely the most prominent examples; there have been numerous others (Arendt). In some cases there have been claims dismissed as conspiracy theories that later proved to have some basis in facts (Fenster, Dean). But the idea that history is controlled by grandiose or long-standing conspiracies is dubious. As historian Bruce Cumings has put it:
"But if conspiracies exist, they rarely move history; they make a difference at the margins from time to time, but with the unforeseen consequences of a logic outside the control of their authors: and this is what is wrong with 'conspiracy theory.' History is moved by the broad forces and large structures of human collectivities."
The term has also been used by other authors including Michael Kelly, Chip Berlet, and Matthew N. Lyons, among others.
According to Berlet and Lyons, "Conspiracism is a particular narrative form of scapegoating that frames demonized enemies as part of a vast insidious plot against the common good, while it valorizes the scapegoater as a hero for sounding the alarm" (2000: p. 9).
"Conspiracy nut" is a pejorative term sometimes used to describe a conspiracist. It is based upon the perception that such beliefs are unfounded, outlandish, or irrational, or are otherwise unworthy of serious consideration.
The term Judeophobia refers to fear or irrational hatred of Jews. It was invented by Leon Pinsker and first appeared in his pamphlet Autoemancipation, published anonymously in German in September 1882.
As a professional physician, Pinsker preferred the clinical-sounding term Judeophobia to antisemitism (introduced three years earlier by Wilhelm Marr), which he regarded as a misnomer. Pinsker was convinced that pathological, irrational phobia may explain this millennia-old hatred:
"Judeophobia is a variety of demonopathy... this ghost is not disembodied like other ghosts but partakes of flesh and blood, must endure pain inflicted by the fearful mob who imagines itself endangered... To sum up then, to the living the Jew is a corpse, to the native a foreigner, to the homesteader a vagrant, to the proprietor a beggar, to the poor an exploiter and a millionaire, to the patriot a man without a country, for all a hated rival."
According to Mintz, conspiracism denotes: "belief in the primacy of conspiracies in the unfolding of history" (1985: p.4):
"Conspiracism serves the needs of diverse political and social groups in America and elsewhere. It identifies elites, blames them for economic and social catastrophes, and assumes that things will be better once popular action can remove them from positions of power. As such, conspiracy theories do not typify a particular epoch or ideology" (1985: p.199).
Throughout human history, political and economic leaders genuinely have been the cause of enormous amounts of death and misery, and they sometimes have engaged in conspiracies while at the same time promoting conspiracy theories about their targets. Hitler and Stalin would be merely the most prominent examples; there have been numerous others (Arendt). In some cases there have been claims dismissed as conspiracy theories that later proved to have some basis in facts (Fenster, Dean). But the idea that history is controlled by grandiose or long-standing conspiracies is dubious. As historian Bruce Cumings has put it:
"But if conspiracies exist, they rarely move history; they make a difference at the margins from time to time, but with the unforeseen consequences of a logic outside the control of their authors: and this is what is wrong with 'conspiracy theory.' History is moved by the broad forces and large structures of human collectivities."
The term has also been used by other authors including Michael Kelly, Chip Berlet, and Matthew N. Lyons, among others.
According to Berlet and Lyons, "Conspiracism is a particular narrative form of scapegoating that frames demonized enemies as part of a vast insidious plot against the common good, while it valorizes the scapegoater as a hero for sounding the alarm" (2000: p. 9).
"Conspiracy nut" is a pejorative term sometimes used to describe a conspiracist. It is based upon the perception that such beliefs are unfounded, outlandish, or irrational, or are otherwise unworthy of serious consideration.
The term Judeophobia refers to fear or irrational hatred of Jews. It was invented by Leon Pinsker and first appeared in his pamphlet Autoemancipation, published anonymously in German in September 1882.
As a professional physician, Pinsker preferred the clinical-sounding term Judeophobia to antisemitism (introduced three years earlier by Wilhelm Marr), which he regarded as a misnomer. Pinsker was convinced that pathological, irrational phobia may explain this millennia-old hatred:
"Judeophobia is a variety of demonopathy... this ghost is not disembodied like other ghosts but partakes of flesh and blood, must endure pain inflicted by the fearful mob who imagines itself endangered... To sum up then, to the living the Jew is a corpse, to the native a foreigner, to the homesteader a vagrant, to the proprietor a beggar, to the poor an exploiter and a millionaire, to the patriot a man without a country, for all a hated rival."