Les théories du complot

Implausible, devoid of evidence, resistant to criticism, conspiracy theories proliferate. The popularity they enjoy is an indication that something is not right in the political culture of our contemporary societies. But how can we understand such success? In this brief and incisive essay, Quassim Cassam argues that we cannot simply explain why people adhere to conspiracy theories. We must also question their function: they are smokescreens masking the political objectives of their promoters. What if conspiracy was politics continued by other means? Since these theories constitute a major problem for democracy, we can neither ignore them nor allow them to flourish.