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Short abstract:

In this contribution, we consider a recent and troubling phenomenon: the convergence of several controversial theories around the same narrative model. This dynamic turns conspiracy theories into "conspiracy memes" and makes them more likely to thrive and propagate across digital media.

Long abstract:

Investigating the convergence of conspiracy theories during and around the Covid19 pandemic (Tuters & Willaert, 2022), we observed a troubling phenomenon. Rather than the creation of a "super-theory" combining arguments from different conspiratorial delusions, we observed a restricted set of concepts and actors gaining traction across conspiratorial communities. Over the course of 2020, hashtags such as “#deepstate”, “#newworldorder”, “#agenda21”, “#billgates” emerged across different discursive communities, imposed themselves as central discursive node and reshaped previously separated controversy theories around as single narrative template.

In this narrative template, the main antagonist is almost always a public and private transnational organizations, the main hero is Donald Trump or other alt-right celebrity, the damsels in distress national citizens and their traditional way of life, and the bone of contention is the original object of the conspiracy theory (vaccines, 5Gs, climate change…).

Intrigued by this phenomenon, we collected all the tweets associated not only with established conspiracy theories, but also to a series of issues that we thought we might have been influenced by the narrative template described above (e.g., transhumanism, cryptocurrencies, vegetarianism, transgender rights, smart cities). The results confirmed our suspicion. At about the same time, the same narrative of distrust seems to take hold in all these issues.

Our hypothesis is that the fortune enjoyed by this narrative derives from its capacity to serve as an expedient template for conspiratorial memes. Not unlike the image, video or sound templates that Internet users endlessly repeat and adapt to create recognizable yet ever-changing contents, the narrative architecture we described above offers a convenient way of turning different matters of concern into simple but effective conspiracy memes.