Daily conspiracy

[The Grand Nudger]

What appears to be central, then, in the approach of my Pagan interlocutors to conspiracies is not the descriptive “objectivity” of facts but the “magical” power of the stories (see Magliocco 2012; Greenwood 2009) that conspiracy-narratives, with their repetitive and formulaic structures, enact and the effects they have on their lives. This is what “participatory knowledge”—one in which the contingent protagonists of individual conspiracies have only a secondary role—is capable of triggering. Such a reading can help explain why some moderate Pagans could adopt extreme conspiracy theories while oblivious to their practical and political consequences, to the reliability of the sources quoted, and to the formulaic rhetoric. My Pagan interlocutors do not “believe in” conspiracies, in fact, their adoption of conspiracies should be considered as a form of conspiracy-believing, one that is contextual and positional and that is adopted since it enhances “participation.” In doing so, it allows for the political emergence of a community of sense.

Keep in mind, his definition of a moderate pagan is an italian person who would go to an ashram, cheifly and uniformly concerned with social justice and environmentalism - but were not active protestors. The question he was trying to answer was how so many of the people he studied..like that....came to swallow far right us conspiracies like qanon.

His answer was that the two seemingly different demographics were at least linked, kindred spirits as you'd say, by their emphasis on participatory knowledge. They don't necessarily believe in the contents of the conspiracy, but what it can do, up to and including community building and just generally effecting change in the world. No matter how nutty the contents might be, the latter expectation is credible. For better and for worse, conspiracies and conspiracy theories are all around us and have always been effective agents.