imagine if I told you that since the
very first day you were born you were
tricked into believing that someone was
watching you around the clock 24 hours a
day seven days a week all year long
imagine if I told you that since the
very first day the books you enjoy the
TV you watch and the people you trust
the most even your own parents are
covering up for a big lie in order to
control you and many others like you you
would certainly call me a conspiracy
theorist and you would be right but wait
a second
then you would also have to call most of
the people in this room conspiracy
theorists as well for most of us we had
our first experience as conspiracy
theorists when we started to question
the official account of one of the
biggest conspiracies ever known to
mankind Santa Claus to solve a few to
whom this story apply try to remember
you were 6 years old maybe 7 who was
ridiculous back then the ones who denied
the existence of Santa are the ones who
still believed that one single
individual could visit every house on
the planet in a single night
in Western culture ceasing to believe in
Santa is one of the first indicator that
a child has reached the age of rational
thinking to doubt what people tell you
even those you trust even those in a
position of authority
your parents is the very marker of
critical thinking so why is it that now
the ones who challenge the official
truth are the unreasonable ones why is
it that now the ones who believe at face
value what they are being told are the
rational ones if you doubt then you’re
labeled a conspiracy theorist and you
must either be cured as if you have a
mental disease or you must be excluded
because you’re too dangerous most of the
time booth last week an amazing singer
appeared on the show The Voice in France
she chose the song hallelujah by Leonard
Cohen and she sang it so perfectly well
that within a couple of seconds all the
four members of the jury just pressed
the red button to turn their seats
around and gaze upon the face of such an
angelic voice and she does really look
like an angel she’s very young she’s 22
years old French media praised her
beauty and talents many agreed that she
had to be the winner of this year’s
competition until the next day one of
her old tweets was exhumed from the
graveyard of Twitter it referred to the
terrorist attacks that took place in
France in the South of France in 2016
and she wrote quote I find it weird that
terrorists always leave their ID cards
behind them for the police to find
unquote the French media was outraged
this is not acceptable she’s not an
angel she’s a conspiracy theorist she
should be excluded from the show now
well she wasn’t excluded because she
quit she apologized for her tweet and
quit for good now in her case
apologizing was probably the best option
my own experience with being labeled a
conspiracy theorist is a little
different first of all as you may have
noticed unfortunately not twenty-two
years old anymore but fortunately I’ve
been able to leave all those additional
years without ever ever ever having my
own Twitter account I am a political
scientist I study military cooze I focus
on constitutions those Constitution that
entrench the power of the military for
good so I try to look for words that
would capture this power that remains
even when officially a civilian
government has taken back over after a
coup and I thought the words deep state
were pretty good it was not one of my
brightest moves because actually the
word deep states are associated with
conspiracy theories why well maybe
because it reminds us of one of the most
famous conspiracy theories ever a
conspiracy theories that turned out to
be true the Watergate as you may know
the main informant was nicknamed deep
throat now those two words together have
since had quite a successful career over
the internet but it was also used
to name the main character in the series
x-files the plot was simple
it’s about aliens the American
government has found out that there are
aliens on earth and he’s trying to cover
it up so that’s why when I say deep and
state or deep politics or deep
government it’s may bring back scary
images of aliens and David Duchovny as
well so you look all worried now so I’m
wondering if I haven’t ruined your
belief in Santa okay there’s a day I
always remember I was invited to speak
at a conference in a very fancy room
just like this one or this one
hi Celine marble statues and wooden
floor I was sitting next to an academic
a reknowned
senior academic whom I dearly admired he
had earlier praised my work and even
published it but for some reason on that
day as I was speaking he interrupted me
and said is the CIA involved as well
well I bet it is because the CIA is
always responsible for everything that
goes wrong in the world isn’t it miss
Millie oh now the room immediately went
quiet in German we call that a touch
slug argument a killer argument because
it just killed the discussion it’s not
about what I’m saying it’s about me as a
person
it’s about denying me the right to be
here in this room excluding me from the
community of scientists
it’s very brutal symbolic violence now
what he didn’t like was the idea that
sometimes deep structures actually
matter more than the visible workings of
the
daily government in fact in the social
sciences structural lists are usually
mistaken for conspiracy theorists
because they reason on the principle
that structural reasons explain way
things unfold the way they do the
opposite view is the cock-up theory
whereby everything is random and happens
by accident
the result is cows well first of all let
me tell you something it’s very very
difficult to organize a military coup by
accident and second it’s not because
there is cows that there was not a
lengthy process of planning involved
just think of the typical family reunion
weeks and weeks of planning and then
cows so let’s get back to my original
metaphor you might object well center
this is not a real conspiracy because
it’s harmless a real conspiracy has an
unlawful means and unlawful ends as well
well that’s right the center close
example does not fit actually it’s what
we call a quasi conspiracy which is
something quite different it’s when
people cooperate without even noticing
it just because their interests coincide
it’s like an invisible hand no planning
involved let me give you an example
there is currently this worldwide and
planned conspiracy that tend to spread
the idea that menstrual blood is in fact
blue
less trivially the mechanism of quasi
conspiracies has enabled governments
with the help of businesses scientists
and intellectuals to advance throughout
history the dominance of one specific
gender one specific race without those
involved knowing what they were being a
part of now in politics people conspire
all the time and they very much know why
just think of the Roman Empire and the
assassination of Julius Caesar by his
closest aides you would call that a
Machiavellian tactics and that would be
anachronistic but that’s ok
Machiavelli led the foundations for the
way we think about politics today his
book was published in the 16th century
and he mentions the word conspired 20
times out of 40 pages he basically told
us that the art of politics is the art
of conspiracy and counter conspiracy now
there is something he forgot to mention
is that the art of politics is also the
art of inventing false conspiracies in
order to justify an illegal or immoral
action this is the only way you can
legitimize a military coup or a war of
aggression the founding father of the
technique of the coup Napoleon did just
that
if you texted there was a conspiracy
that was about to overthrow the
government and that’s how he seized
power and he was able to rule for 15
years in France and much of Europe a
century later Hitler
sorry Adolf Hitler made an extended
power grab after blaming the fire at the
parliaments on the communists as part of
a communist conspiracy and closer to us
think about the war in Iraq
and how the Bush administration lied at
the UN about the existence of weapons of
mass destruction and the threat it posed
to international peace not to mention
the fact that still today many people
believe that Saddam Hussein was somehow
involved in the 9/11 and that this is
the justification for the war now the
French philosopher Michel Foucault said
there are three ways to control speech
first you repress it second you label
its advocates as irrational crazy people
untrustworthy third you label the
content as unscientific today do we
label the government’s who engage in
conspiracies as conspiracy theorists no
we do not because this label special
function is to attach a stigma to a
specific discourse the popular discourse
not the official discourse today
conspiracy theories aren’t scientific
and conspiracy theories are irrational
so will tomorrow
conspiracy theories be criminalized who
controls speech controls truth so if
we’re serious about freedom of
expression if we cherish the plurality
of truth we should resist as much as we
can the creation of the Ministry of
Truth
we are here because we are
narration why or the millennial
generation so we were born in the late
1980s but there’s something sure we
don’t want to live in 1984 thank you
very much
[Applause]
very first day you were born you were
tricked into believing that someone was
watching you around the clock 24 hours a
day seven days a week all year long
imagine if I told you that since the
very first day the books you enjoy the
TV you watch and the people you trust
the most even your own parents are
covering up for a big lie in order to
control you and many others like you you
would certainly call me a conspiracy
theorist and you would be right but wait
a second
then you would also have to call most of
the people in this room conspiracy
theorists as well for most of us we had
our first experience as conspiracy
theorists when we started to question
the official account of one of the
biggest conspiracies ever known to
mankind Santa Claus to solve a few to
whom this story apply try to remember
you were 6 years old maybe 7 who was
ridiculous back then the ones who denied
the existence of Santa are the ones who
still believed that one single
individual could visit every house on
the planet in a single night
in Western culture ceasing to believe in
Santa is one of the first indicator that
a child has reached the age of rational
thinking to doubt what people tell you
even those you trust even those in a
position of authority
your parents is the very marker of
critical thinking so why is it that now
the ones who challenge the official
truth are the unreasonable ones why is
it that now the ones who believe at face
value what they are being told are the
rational ones if you doubt then you’re
labeled a conspiracy theorist and you
must either be cured as if you have a
mental disease or you must be excluded
because you’re too dangerous most of the
time booth last week an amazing singer
appeared on the show The Voice in France
she chose the song hallelujah by Leonard
Cohen and she sang it so perfectly well
that within a couple of seconds all the
four members of the jury just pressed
the red button to turn their seats
around and gaze upon the face of such an
angelic voice and she does really look
like an angel she’s very young she’s 22
years old French media praised her
beauty and talents many agreed that she
had to be the winner of this year’s
competition until the next day one of
her old tweets was exhumed from the
graveyard of Twitter it referred to the
terrorist attacks that took place in
France in the South of France in 2016
and she wrote quote I find it weird that
terrorists always leave their ID cards
behind them for the police to find
unquote the French media was outraged
this is not acceptable she’s not an
angel she’s a conspiracy theorist she
should be excluded from the show now
well she wasn’t excluded because she
quit she apologized for her tweet and
quit for good now in her case
apologizing was probably the best option
my own experience with being labeled a
conspiracy theorist is a little
different first of all as you may have
noticed unfortunately not twenty-two
years old anymore but fortunately I’ve
been able to leave all those additional
years without ever ever ever having my
own Twitter account I am a political
scientist I study military cooze I focus
on constitutions those Constitution that
entrench the power of the military for
good so I try to look for words that
would capture this power that remains
even when officially a civilian
government has taken back over after a
coup and I thought the words deep state
were pretty good it was not one of my
brightest moves because actually the
word deep states are associated with
conspiracy theories why well maybe
because it reminds us of one of the most
famous conspiracy theories ever a
conspiracy theories that turned out to
be true the Watergate as you may know
the main informant was nicknamed deep
throat now those two words together have
since had quite a successful career over
the internet but it was also used
to name the main character in the series
x-files the plot was simple
it’s about aliens the American
government has found out that there are
aliens on earth and he’s trying to cover
it up so that’s why when I say deep and
state or deep politics or deep
government it’s may bring back scary
images of aliens and David Duchovny as
well so you look all worried now so I’m
wondering if I haven’t ruined your
belief in Santa okay there’s a day I
always remember I was invited to speak
at a conference in a very fancy room
just like this one or this one
hi Celine marble statues and wooden
floor I was sitting next to an academic
a reknowned
senior academic whom I dearly admired he
had earlier praised my work and even
published it but for some reason on that
day as I was speaking he interrupted me
and said is the CIA involved as well
well I bet it is because the CIA is
always responsible for everything that
goes wrong in the world isn’t it miss
Millie oh now the room immediately went
quiet in German we call that a touch
slug argument a killer argument because
it just killed the discussion it’s not
about what I’m saying it’s about me as a
person
it’s about denying me the right to be
here in this room excluding me from the
community of scientists
it’s very brutal symbolic violence now
what he didn’t like was the idea that
sometimes deep structures actually
matter more than the visible workings of
the
daily government in fact in the social
sciences structural lists are usually
mistaken for conspiracy theorists
because they reason on the principle
that structural reasons explain way
things unfold the way they do the
opposite view is the cock-up theory
whereby everything is random and happens
by accident
the result is cows well first of all let
me tell you something it’s very very
difficult to organize a military coup by
accident and second it’s not because
there is cows that there was not a
lengthy process of planning involved
just think of the typical family reunion
weeks and weeks of planning and then
cows so let’s get back to my original
metaphor you might object well center
this is not a real conspiracy because
it’s harmless a real conspiracy has an
unlawful means and unlawful ends as well
well that’s right the center close
example does not fit actually it’s what
we call a quasi conspiracy which is
something quite different it’s when
people cooperate without even noticing
it just because their interests coincide
it’s like an invisible hand no planning
involved let me give you an example
there is currently this worldwide and
planned conspiracy that tend to spread
the idea that menstrual blood is in fact
blue
less trivially the mechanism of quasi
conspiracies has enabled governments
with the help of businesses scientists
and intellectuals to advance throughout
history the dominance of one specific
gender one specific race without those
involved knowing what they were being a
part of now in politics people conspire
all the time and they very much know why
just think of the Roman Empire and the
assassination of Julius Caesar by his
closest aides you would call that a
Machiavellian tactics and that would be
anachronistic but that’s ok
Machiavelli led the foundations for the
way we think about politics today his
book was published in the 16th century
and he mentions the word conspired 20
times out of 40 pages he basically told
us that the art of politics is the art
of conspiracy and counter conspiracy now
there is something he forgot to mention
is that the art of politics is also the
art of inventing false conspiracies in
order to justify an illegal or immoral
action this is the only way you can
legitimize a military coup or a war of
aggression the founding father of the
technique of the coup Napoleon did just
that
if you texted there was a conspiracy
that was about to overthrow the
government and that’s how he seized
power and he was able to rule for 15
years in France and much of Europe a
century later Hitler
sorry Adolf Hitler made an extended
power grab after blaming the fire at the
parliaments on the communists as part of
a communist conspiracy and closer to us
think about the war in Iraq
and how the Bush administration lied at
the UN about the existence of weapons of
mass destruction and the threat it posed
to international peace not to mention
the fact that still today many people
believe that Saddam Hussein was somehow
involved in the 9/11 and that this is
the justification for the war now the
French philosopher Michel Foucault said
there are three ways to control speech
first you repress it second you label
its advocates as irrational crazy people
untrustworthy third you label the
content as unscientific today do we
label the government’s who engage in
conspiracies as conspiracy theorists no
we do not because this label special
function is to attach a stigma to a
specific discourse the popular discourse
not the official discourse today
conspiracy theories aren’t scientific
and conspiracy theories are irrational
so will tomorrow
conspiracy theories be criminalized who
controls speech controls truth so if
we’re serious about freedom of
expression if we cherish the plurality
of truth we should resist as much as we
can the creation of the Ministry of
Truth
we are here because we are
narration why or the millennial
generation so we were born in the late
1980s but there’s something sure we
don’t want to live in 1984 thank you
very much
[Applause]
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