The conventional wisdom is the epistemological strategy of rejecting conspiracy theories prior to investigation based on the presumption that such theories are almost always irrational. However, if a conspiracy theory is simply a theory which posits conspiracies and history is chock-a-block with conspiracies, then why should we generally reject conspiracy theories prior to investigation? Charles Pigden argues that precisely because conspiracies are historically common in the realm of power politics there will be conspiracy theories that are importantly true. Hence, there is a prima facie case for adopting an epistemological strategy which obligates epistemological agents to investigate conspiracy theories and believe them if that is what the evidence suggests. The paper evaluates the epistemic consequences of the conventional wisdom through the lens of Pigden’s critique and addresses if conspiracy theories are associated with specific epistemological problems that could justify the conventional wisdom. As a theoretical contribution the paper considers an argument which could undermine the intended purpose of the conventional wisdom as an epistemological strategy. If most conspiracy theories are defunct then conspiracy theoreticians must either be generally paranoid and/or be intentionally pushing ideological rather than epistemological objectives. On the conventionalist view, many conspiracy theoreticians must therefore be part of a conspiracy themselves implying that the conventionalist has constructed   a conspiracy theory as an unintended consequence of generally rejecting conspiracy theories.

This study examines the two major conspiracy theories regarding Nazi assets being taken out of Germany and moved to neutral countries, specifically Argentina: Aktion Adlerflug and Aktion Feuerland. These two conspiracy theories believe that as defeat became inevitable, the Nazi leadership moved to ensure it had the plans and resources in place to safely evacuate. The conspiracy theories rely on networks established between the Nazi leadership, led by Hitler’s secretary Martin Bormann, German industrialists and expatriates, and German foreign and intelligence service agents operating in Argentina. They all colluded in the last two years of the war to construct, and provide for, a Nazi refuge in Patagonia where Hitler and other top Nazis would escape after the war. This study will critically examine the literature by the conspiracy theorists who propose these claims, and seek to determine the validity of their claims. Through the lens of these two conspiracy theories, this project will address questions of historical objectivity and historical method. Additionally, it will seek to understand the motivations of those that propose the conspiracy theories, and why the theories continue to be so prevalent.

On January 6, 2021, America watched as thousands stormed the United States Capitol. Among the flags, shirts, and other memorabilia bearing former President Donald Trump’s visage stood a subtle symbol associated with several far-right conspiracy theories: “Q.” This qualitative study examines how the press’s coverage of the QAnon conspiracy theory shifted after the January 6 Capitol attack. The study finds that QAnon is often used as a reference point to imply negative connotations towards an individual or political party. Before the Capitol attack, news outlets were more likely to connect QAnon to political actors, whereas connections to far-right extremist groups were frequently made after the Capitol attack. / Media Studies & Production

This thesis argues that narratives about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) act as the central point of contact between conspiracist and popular millennial fields. Their confluence has come to form a field here termed ‘metaphysical conspiracism’, combining teleological narratives, the promise of soteriological knowledge and the threat of occluded malevolent agencies. I argue that metaphysical conspiracism offers a unique perspective on the interplay of knowledge, power and the construction of the other in contemporary popular discourse. Narratives about UFOs (and their extra-terrestrial occupants) have their roots in the Cold War period, but from the 1980s were increasingly constructed within a supernatural framework. Discourse analysis of popular literature from this period reveals a process of discursive transfer as the UFO narrative is contested and negotiated between conspiracist discourses concerning powerful, hidden agencies and popular millennial discourses of personal and planetary transformation, including ‘New Age’, 'Ascension' and '2012'. Using historical discourse analysis, supported by small-scale ethnographic sampling, I examine this discursive transfer in the work of three popular writers who together offer a broad overview of the field. Whitley Strieber was a central figure in the 'alien abduction' narrative in the 1980s, but his speculations on its meaning led him increasingly towards millennial and conspiratorial narratives. David Icke's well-known theory that a conspiracy of reptilian extraterrestrials has secretly seized control of the planet is demonstrated to have developed in the 1990s from a post-Theosophical narrative of benevolent UFOs as harbingers of the 'New Age'. Although less well-known, David Wilcock's work demonstrates that UFOs were also instrumental in the incorporation of conspiracist material into the recent '2012' millennial narrative. I seek to answer two questions with this thesis. Firstly, what is the common mechanism which facilitates the hybridisation I uncover between conspiracy narratives and popular millennialism? Secondly, how do the resulting metaphysical conspiracist narratives serve their subscribers? Despite a number of structural similarities, I argue that the common mechanism is the mobilisation of counter-epistemic strategies; that is, those predicated upon access to non-falsifiable sources of knowledge. The UFO narrative is particularly well-suited to suggesting sociological uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific and other strategies for the legitimisation of knowledge, encouraging its adoption by both conspiracist and millennial discourses. Secondly, metaphysical conspiracism reconciles the utopian vision of popular millennial discourse with the apocalyptic critique of modern global society announced by conspiracists. I therefore argue that metaphysical conspiracism supplies an effective popular theodicy with a Gnostic flavour in which these millennial prophecies did not ‘fail’, but were prevented from arriving by hidden malevolent others.

Le nationalisme, la xénophobie, le racisme et lantisémitisme, lopposition aux élites, la stigmatisation des étrangers, les discours anti-immigrés, mais aussi lautoritarisme, lidéologie loi et ordre (Law and order), lantiparlementarisme et lanticommunisme, entre autres traits caractéristiques, représentent quelques-uns des qualificatifs les plus souvent cités dans la littérature consacrée au populisme et à lextrême droite. En fonction des partis politiques concernés, des contextes institutionnels et des particularités nationales et géographiques, ces qualificatifs prendront une dimension centrale ou secondaire selon quil sagira de caractériser un courant populiste ou un parti dextrême droite. A lappui dune comparaison entre la France et les Etats-Unis, louvrage vise à démontrer que lensemble de ces qualificatifs entretiennent tous à des degrés divers un rapport fondamental avec un imaginaire du complot, cest-à-dire avec un monde de significations structuré et cohérent (normes, significations, images, symboles, valeurs et croyances) qui privilégie la théorie du complot pour expliquer la politique et lhistoire.

En analysant trois romans des écrivains américains, l'auteur de cette thèse examine courantes attitudes envers la notion de paranoïa et théorie de conspiration. L'auteur envisage comment cela permet de constituer une manière de dépasser le type de pouvoir centrée sur la capacité d’agir compris comme exclusivement humaine, ou plus spécifiquement, de deprivilégier la position humain dominante ce qui ouvre la possibilité pour les approches posthumaines de causalité d'émerger. Le première étape est d'établir au début que les deux conceptions (paranoïa et conspiration) provoquent la peur intrinsèque des origines de cause et de pouvoir d’agir. La croyance que ce n'est pas moi-même qui est responsable de mes propres actions, ou que c'est quelqu'un d'autre qui décide et provoque les évènements et mes actions implique le problème et l’inquiétude sur l’origine d’un action. / On the basis of a detailed and thorough study of three novels of American writers,the author of the present thesis questions the current attitudes towards paranoia andconspiracy theory and claims that challenging these, constitutes a way of going beyondhuman-centered types of agency ; or more specifically, of de-privileging human agency andallowing for post-humanist approaches of causality to emerge. The first step is to state thatboth concepts bring about the inherent fear about the origin of cause and agency. The beliefthat it is not myself who is responsible for my own actions, or that there is someone else whois pulling the strings, necessarily involves the problem of agency.

Det finns en pågående samhällsdebatt om spridning av desinformation på internet och vilka samhällskonsekvenser det kan innebära. På internet, exempelvis YouTube, möjliggörs spridandet av information till en stor publik, utan att någon granskar eller reglerar dess innehåll, vilket i sin tur gör det lättare att sprida desinformation. I studien analyseras en konspirationsteoretisk video på YouTube med hjälp av metoden narrativanalys. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för uppbyggnaden av en konspirations- teoretisk video utifrån de narrativa drag som uppvisas, vilket görs med hjälp av teorier inom narratologi och konspirationsteori. Vi har som mål att utreda vilken betydelse de aktörer som verkar inom videon har för att skapa ett övertygande narrativ. Utifrån syftet har studiens frågeställningar formulerats: Vilken funktion fyller aktörerna i videon? Vilka narrativa hjälpmedel använder sig producenten av för att ifrågasätta tidigare forskning? Studien besvarar syfte och frågeställningar genom att i analysen undersöka videomaterialet med hjälp av narrativanalysmetoden aktantmodellen för att söka efter narrativa strukturer,  generella teorier om konspirationsteorier samt hur den litterära berättarformeln mysterium uttrycker sig i videon. Resultatet visade att aktantmodellen underlättade struktureringen av materialet och att berättarrösten inom videon besitter en omfattande kontroll över innehållet och den narrativa strukturen. Vi upptäckte att materialet inte uppnådde samtliga klassiska narrativa drag och mysterieformelns kännetecken, men vi kom fram till att producenten till viss del använder sig av en narrativ struktur och mysterieformel för att skapa en konspirationsteori. Avslutningsvis upptäckte vi att videon är uppbyggd av sammankopplade händelser vilka bygger upp konspirationsteorin till en helhet som ämnar att väcka uppmärksamhet och möjligen förändra den nuvarande etablerade teorin kring att Cheopspyramiden var en gravkammare. / There is an ongoing public debate regarding desinformation on the internet and what consequences it might cause to society. On the internet, for example on YouTube, dissemination of information is possible to an wide audience without anyone reviewing or regulating the content which makes it easier to circulate desinformation.    This study analyses a conspiracy theory on YouTube through narrative analysis. The purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of a conspiracy theory and research how the narrative is constructed within the video, this is executed with theories from narratology and conspiracy theories. The study also wants to investigate the function of different actors within the video and their roles in the creation of a persuasive narrative. From this purpose we formulated our research questions, which are: What functions does the different actors within the video fulfill? Which narrative instruments does the producer use to question former developed research within the field? To approach the purpose and the formulated questions we research our empiric material with actantial model to look for narrative structures, usual characteristics of conspiracy theory and how mysteries is manifested in the video. The result of the study showed that the actantial model eased our structuring of the video and that the storyteller did possess an comprehensive control over the video. Through the analysis we discovered that all of the usual narrative characteristics of a narrative was not met and that goes for the formula of mystery as well. We did however conclude that the producer uses parts from both narrative and mystery to develop the conspiracy theory. Finally we identified that the video is created with connected events which are constructed to a whole that becomes a conspiracy theory which intend to raise attention and possibly change the current understanding of the function of the Cheops pyramid.

<p>The main purpose of this study was to examine if, and how, persons with psychological impairments have worse living conditions than the population average. The papers intention was to investigate and describe these conditions and to analyze them based on theories of stigma, and systems theory. This paper was composed on a qualitative study in which god men have been interviewed, in addition to accomplish the purpose. This study has highlighted the four individual areas of economy, employment, housing conditions and social relations. Results have shown that people with mental disabilities tend to live in worse living conditions than the population average. The conclusion of this study is that social service should make more attention to living conditions and social problems that people with mental health difficulties have. This would enable the social worker to his authority in making correct and fair assessments, and increased opportunities to design interventions in a satisfactory manner.</p>

The main purpose of this study was to examine if, and how, persons with psychological impairments have worse living conditions than the population average. The papers intention was to investigate and describe these conditions and to analyze them based on theories of stigma, and systems theory. This paper was composed on a qualitative study in which god men have been interviewed, in addition to accomplish the purpose. This study has highlighted the four individual areas of economy, employment, housing conditions and social relations. Results have shown that people with mental disabilities tend to live in worse living conditions than the population average. The conclusion of this study is that social service should make more attention to living conditions and social problems that people with mental health difficulties have. This would enable the social worker to his authority in making correct and fair assessments, and increased opportunities to design interventions in a satisfactory manner.

Though it is a centuries old practice, anti-vaccination has become a growing trend since the rise of the internet. Anti-vaccination rhetoric complicates neoliberal beliefs about public health and systems of medical knowledge-making. This study follows 100 Twitter accounts which advance anti-vaccination beliefs. Studying these accounts reveals that anti-vaccination is part of a larger moral and epistemological universe of belief. Anti-vaccination advocates on Twitter use a digital activist identity to create affective networks which draw from epistemologies of conspiracy theory and connect to current political events. Anti-vaccination advocates on Twitter are not uninformed. Rather, they ascribe to their own process of information legitimization. Anti-vaccination advocates on Twitter draw from their complex epistemologies and affective networks to build an alternative immunology which focuses on maintaining the purity of the individual body as a metaphor for protection of the state and of humanity