ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 examines the contexts that need to be taken into account when approaching contemporary conspiracy theories, including those that circulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. It considers decades-long declining levels of trust in government, institutions and experts, not to berate individuals for losing that trust, but to ask what radical shifts must take place to produce institutions worthy of trust. It also charts the decimation of the welfare state, which has made it easier for people to imagine the state as a shadowy operator that does not act in their best interests rather than as a safety net for times of trouble. It also considers the financial crisis of 2007–08 and rising income inequality to consider how feelings of grievance are no longer assuaged by the myth of meritocracy. It explains how conspiracism is closely tied to the rise of different kinds of populism and a turn to ethnonationalism, as well as how these are mobilised within polarising culture wars. Finally, it argues that the current pandemic and its attendant conspiracy theories cannot be understood outside of a history of disinformation campaigns as well as the digital ecology through which they spread.
