Conspiracy interpretations are becoming an everyday frame of perception in Russia | Argument

“One of the sources of belief in conspiracy theories is powerlessness and inability to change one’s life and the state of things in the world around us,” writes Candidate of Historical Sciences and PhD Ilya Yablokov in his monograph “Russian Culture of Conspiracy.”

In April, members of the initiative group “Agrarian Council” began protests against the resettlement of 50 families of farmers from South Africa to the Vladimir region. This idea was proposed by Errol Musk, the father of billionaire Elon Musk, during a meeting with the governor.

Protesters said that “our villages are dying” and “the death rate is 2.6 times higher than the birth rate.” Against this background, they called the transfer of land to foreigners “betrayal” and demanded the resignation of the governor.

“Errol Musk belongs to the world elite. These are not people in essence, in their inclinations, and it is unacceptable for such foreigners to come to our country. Are we really going to allow strange people with specifically satanic inclinations to appear next to our shrines, as Epstein’s files testify to this?” the protesters said .

With the beginning of the war, conspiracy theories in Russia reached a new level and took the place of political ideologies. However, the paradox is that conspiracy thinking is not targeted - you cannot teach people to see conspiracies only where they are profitable, writes DOXA.

If earlier the hermeneutics of suspicion, supported and institutionalized by the state itself, became a tool for legitimizing government decisions (“external enemies who spoil everything,” “biological laboratories” and “Ukronazis”), now such narratives become a form of interpretation of any internal problems.

Covid, fuel oil in Anapa, floods, destruction of livestock, blocking of the Internet - all this is read by Russians as the result of hidden decisions beneficial to the elites, and not as an accident or a technical failure, which leads to radicalization and permanent distrust of state institutions.

“Russian conspiracy culture is closest to American culture. Both of them are hypercritical of the federal government and suspect it of “anti-people” policies. Both associate all the problems with the malicious plans of the ruling elites, and the mysteries of recent history are tended to be explained by the omnipotence of the special services working to hide the truth from ordinary citizens,” Yablokov notes.

Conspiracy interpretations are becoming an everyday frame of perception in Russia | Argument

“Errol Musk belongs to the world elite. These are not people in essence, in their inclinations, and it is unacceptable for such foreigners to come to our country. Are we really going to allow strange people with specifically satanic inclinations to appear next to our shrines, as Epstein’s files testify to this?” the protesters said .

“Russian conspiracy culture is closest to American culture. Both of them are hypercritical of the federal government and suspect it of “anti-people” policies. Both associate all the problems with the malicious plans of the ruling elites, and the mysteries of recent history are tended to be explained by the omnipotence of the special services working to hide the truth from ordinary citizens,” Yablokov notes.