Introduced by political theorist Michael Waltzer, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Harvard University Senator Joseph Clark Emerita Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, gave the Irving Howe Memorial Lecture last night at The Graduate Center on November 20. She shared theories of her recent book, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (co-authored with Russell Muirhead).
Conspiracism, Rosenblum argued in front of a full house, warps democratic norms. It is disorienting because it distorts reality. It is not new, but the current presidential conspiracism is unique. With President Trump, who has the capacity to impose his own sense of reality onto the world, Rosenblum alleges, conspiracism moved from the fringes into the center. One of its hallmarks is repetition, which promotes its spread.
One prominent example, according to Professor Rosenblum, is the fact-free assertion that Democrats conspired with Ukrainian officials to “frame” Russia for hacking DNC emails prior to the 2016 election. The example demonstrates the erosion of two cornerstones of democracy: a shared sense of truth, and the acceptance of political opposition. The loose relationship between fact and reality erodes a shared understanding of what is true. Conspiracism is corrosive, Professor Rosenblum contends, because democracy relies on evidence and argument – a shared sense of what constitutes a fact, a willingness to listen, and a capacity for self-correction. Conspiracists reject these values, turning political opposition and opponents into enemies instead of good-faith actors with different views.
Beyond a mere critique of unfair or ineffective democratic decision-making, conspiracism leads to delegitimization of democratic institutions. Conspiracism encourages aggression as emotional release, feeds on repetition and rests on vagueness. “Subscribers to charges don’t have to believe the particulars. They just have to believe it’s ‘true enough’”, argues Rosenblum. As a result, conspiracism immunizes itself and its practitioners from criticism and debunking. The overriding effect is proliferating disorientation in an increasingly absurd public discourse.
Co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities.
Please stay tuned for a full-length video recording of the lecture, in case you missed it.