Conspiracy theorism: A sickness without a cure

Recent years have seen a number of French authors wade into the topic of conspiracy theorism. We might start with Edgar Morin and his 1969 book La rumeur d’Orléans. Morin sought to shed light on the strange psychosis that came over the city of Orléans in the 1960s, convincing many that young girls were being abducted by Jewish merchants to be sold into the “white slave trade.” Yet, not one girl was ever reported missing. In our own century, we can point to La société parano, by Véronique Campion-Vincent (2005), La foire aux illuminés and L’imaginaire du complot mondial, by Pierre-André Taguieff (2005 and 2006), Le complot cosmique, by Stéphane François and Emmanuel Kreis (2010), Mysteries and Conspiracies, by Luc Boltanski (2014), and La démocratie des crédules, by Gérald Bronner (2013).
In this dossier, we decided to focus on articles published after 2013 that are true to the interests of these authors while also bringing new perspectives to the discussion, exploring recent events (such as the conspiracy theories that have developed around the COVID-19 pandemic) and reflecting a desire on the part of French journals to give a platform to voices from around the world.
The Spanish sociologist Alejandro Romero Reche highlights an interesting paradox: despite our living in a “transparency society,” conspiracy theories are more rampant than ever. Meanwhile, France’s Yves Pagès reveals how the myth of the Illuminati has gained traction among both the black population in the United States and recent artists on the French music scene…