A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy

by Nancy L. Rosenblum, Russell Muirhead

Overview

How the new conspiracists are undermining democracy—and what can be done about it

Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government with the election of Donald Trump. In A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum show how the new conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory, why so few officials speak truth to conspiracy, and what needs to be done to resist it.

Classic conspiracy theory insists that things are not what they seem and gathers evidence—especially facts ominously withheld by official sources—to tease out secret machinations. The new conspiracism is different. There is no demand for evidence, no dots revealed to form a pattern, no close examination of shadowy plotters. Dispensing with the burden of explanation, the new conspiracism imposes its own reality through repetition (exemplified by the Trump catchphrase "a lot of people are saying") and bare assertion ("rigged!").

The new conspiracism targets democratic foundations—political parties and knowledge-producing institutions. It makes it more difficult to argue, persuade, negotiate, compromise, and even to disagree. Ultimately, it delegitimates democracy.

Filled with vivid examples, A Lot of People Are Saying diagnoses a defining and disorienting feature of today's politics and offers a guide to responding to the threat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691188836
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	782,046
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Russell Muirhead is the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College and the author of The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age and Just Work. He lives in Hanover, New Hampshire. Nancy L. Rosenblum is the Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University. Her books include Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America and On the Side of the Angels: An Appreciation of Parties and Partisanship (both Princeton). She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Preface xiii

Introduction 1

Section I The New Conspiracism 17

1 Conspiracy without the Theory 19

2 It's True Enough 42

3 Presidential Conspiracism 59

Section II Delegitimating Democracy 79

4 Political Parties 81

5 Knowledge 101

6 Who Owns Reality? 122

Section III Defending Democracy 139

7 Speaking Truth 141

Conclusion: The Crisis of Democracy 166

Notes 177

Acknowledgments 201

Index 203

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"If there is one industry that has increased its productivity in recent years, it is the manufacture and marketing of conspiracies. Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum brilliantly analyze how this happened and why it is a problem for our democracy—and also our capacity to build and sustain community. A Lot of People Are Saying offers a bracing diagnosis and thoughtful remedies. It's time, they insist, to speak truth to conspiracy."—E. J. Dionne Jr., coauthor of One Nation After Trump

"This is a groundbreaking book that should define the current era of presidential malfeasance. With rigorous argumentation and excellent examples, it shows why Trump's words, as well as his actions, threaten American democracy."—Corey Brettschneider, author of The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents

"In A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum, two first-rate democratic theorists, argue that 'conspiracy thinking,' long a staple of American political discourse, has risen to new heights with the ascendancy of Donald Trump, endangering the pluralism at the heart of liberal democracy. Their book comes none too soon, and I highly recommend it."—Jeffrey C. Isaac, author of #AgainstTrump: Notes from Year One

"Muirhead and Rosenblum have written the defining account of the stakes in the battle over misinformation and fake news in Western democracies. 'The new conspiracism' they identify does not simply distract and mislead us. As they convincingly argue, this style of discourse undermines the legitimacy of democratic government, the institutions we depend on to create knowledge about the world, and ultimately our shared understanding of reality itself. We ignore their warnings at our peril."—Brendan Nyhan, University of Michigan

Editorial Reviews

"[The authors] insist that there is a meaningful difference between believing in a conspiracy theory and committing conspiracism, without any theory at all."—-Jill Lepore, Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

"Both terrifying and hopeful — and maybe the best book I’ve read recently on the rise of conspiratorial thinking in the Trump era. (The section on “enacting democracy” is vital)."

Carlos Lozada on Twitter

2019-01-16

An analysis of how the nature of conspiracy charges and the possibility of confirming and refuting them have changed so radically in the Trump era.

Muirhead (Democracy and Politics/Dartmouth Coll.; The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age, 2014, etc.) and Rosenblum (Ethics in Politics and Government/Harvard Univ.; Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America, 2016, etc.) note that the Declaration of Independence was a call for the Colonies to unite in resistance against a conspiracy of British subjugation and that Americans have continued to feed on conspiracy theories since the nation's founding. Occasionally, those theories have even proven true, confirmed by a process that resembles detective work as well as journalistic enterprise. One of the things that distinguishes "the new conspiracism" is that it is "conspiracy without theory. It sheds explanation, and it sheds political theory." These ever present conspiracies, often launched or spread by the current president, are more like viral rumors on how everything and everyone—Democrats, the press, the "deep state," the FBI, the special prosecutor—are conspiring to thwart the will of the people and undercut the authority of the elected official. The authors' closing warning quotes Trump: "There's something going on that's really, really bad. And we better get smart, and we better get tough, or we're not going to have much of a country left." Where they disagree is on the problem and the solution. So much of the new conspiracism is "sheer absurdity" and an "assault on reality." They see the strength of the two-party system as essential to that process. When the president is a member of one party in name only and consistently demonizes what is usually considered the loyal opposition, we are left with a "malignant normality."

Some might disagree with the authors' disparagement of populism and idealism toward two-party politics, but they are convincing in their argument that there is something different afoot in the world of conspiracy and that danger lies ahead if we don't confront it with truth and action.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More