The High Cabal and the Lynch Mob: Exploring Conspiracism Through René Girard’s Scapegoating Theory

Abstract: Conspiracy theories (CTs) and the communities who espouse them share several similarities with high-control (i.e., “cultish”) religious groups. CTs also serve as powerful vehicles for the disempowered and disenchanted to “speak truth to power”. However, conspiracists frequently indulge in various forms of disinformation to assert their moral outrage and vindicate their feelings of victimhood, namely through distorting and mythologizing the past and scapegoating their perceived enemies. This presentation will explore the relationship between political paranoia, “stigmatized knowledge”, and feelings of helplessness, and will address some of the causes and solutions that might help conspiracy believers avoid the traps of cultish epistemology.

Presenter bio: Michel Jacques Gagné is a philosophical historian and the author of Thinking Critically About the Kennedy Assassination (Routledge, 2022). He teaches critical thinking, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and ethics in the Humanities Department of Champlain College Saint-Lambert (Montreal, Canada). His writings have appeared in Skeptic, the National Post, Quillette, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Violence, and History Studies. He is the creator and host of the Paranoid Planet podcast (www.paranoidplanet.ca).

Presenter affiliation: Champlain College Saint-Lambert https://www.champlainsaintlambert.ca/