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Profs and Pints DC presents: “Conspiracy Entrepreneurs,” a look at how promoters of conspiracy theories have upended American politics and enriched themselves along the way, with Matthew Dallek, political historian and professor of political management at George Washington University’s College of Professional Studies.
Conspiracy theories have been staples of U.S. political culture since our nation’s earliest days, but the degree to which they influence today’s politics would have been tough for the founding fathers to imagine. The far right has used them especially effectively but hardly holds a monopoly on them. The leading independent party presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is best known for his anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and many on the left espouse conspiracy theories of their own. Once confined to the fringes of politics, assertions that shadowy forces plot against us now permeate the political mainstream.
How did the United States become known globally for politics based on conspiracy theories? How have conspiracy theories become so appealing and prevalent, especially on the far right? What—or who—is behind their proliferation?
Come to Washington D.C.’s Penn Social to hear such questions tackled by Mathew Dallek, a political historian whose books include Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right and who teaches about the rise of conspiracy theories as part of a course on American political culture.
Professor Dallek will unpack the social, economic, and political forces that, beginning in the 1960s, expanded the role that conspiracy theories play in American politics.
He’ll also look at many of the individuals who have helped drive this trend—the “conspiracy entrepreneurs” who treat conspiracy theories as a product they can make money selling. He’ll describe how such figures develop their offerings, research their audiences, and employ sophisticated sales techniques to reach and tap a growing customer base. Their ranks include Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, and the author John Stormer. Essential to the conspiratorial marketplace, they create and stoke demand to promote their causes, to mobilize ordinary citizens in the struggle for power, and to strike it rich.
We’ll look at why millions of Americans subscribe to beliefs that have virtually no basis in reality and why conspiracy theories have become so appealing, especially on the far right. We’ll also look at the impact of these theories on contemporary media and politics, the ways in which they corrode seasoned public debate, and their implications for the present and future of American democracy. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Steve Bannon, then Chief White House Strategist, speaks at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference. Photo by Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons.
