John Birch Society

Bitcoin is promoted as an alternative to currency, and even at times as an alternative to money, but neither Bitcoin’s development nor its promulgation emerge from thoughtful analyses of money or currency as they currently exist, let alone the thought and history that have figured in their development. The grounding problems that Bitcoin advocates consider central are not the ones that major thinkers about money or currency, from the Right or the Left, have deemed important. On the contrary, those grounding problems are largely ideological: the desire to bypass the (apparently lawful) credit card and PayPal “blockade” of WikiLeaks, on the one hand (usually mentioned as the instigating event in the widespread use of Bitcoin), and the desire to bypass central and/or commercial banks for either the creation of money (as many of the more rabid advocates insist) or the provision of financial services (the main interest of Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin paper), on the other. The former ideas emerge from a libertarian, anti-state politics familiar from much of the WikiLeaks story. The latter ideas emerge from the profoundly ideological and overtly conspiratorial anti-Central Bank rhetoric propagated by the extremist Right in the US, and which despite its overt “anti-bank” rhetoric, on most thoughtful analysis, serves rather than resists the interests of banks and big finance (much as despite its anti-bank rhetoric, Bitcoin itself is now promoted by banks, investors, and venture capitalists). Scholars of money like Mary Mellor and Ann Pettifor have suggested meaningful alternatives to the current money system, but Bitcoin has very little in common with their proposals, which would require societal assent as well as technical innovation. The lack of any thorough, non-conspiratorial analysis of existing financial systems means that Bitcoin fails to embody any true alternative to them. The reasons for this have little to do with technology and everything to do with the existing systems in which Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies are embedded, systems that instantiate the forms of social power that cannot be eliminated through either wishful thinking or technical or even political evasion: the rich and powerful will not become poor and powerless simply because other people decide to operate alternate economies of exchange. Lacking a robust account of transforming these systems of power, even without Bitcoin’s flaws, a “perfect” cryptocurrency would exacerbate, rather than address, the existing serious problems with our monetary and financial systems. Because it operates without such an account, Bitcoin’s real utility and purpose (and that of the cryptocurrency movement in general) can be better understood as a “program” for recruiting uninformed citizens into a neoliberal anti-government politics, understanding the nature and effects of which requires just the attention to political theory and history that Bitcoin enthusiasts rail against.

Du 11 septembre aux extraterrestres, des camps de concentration américains à l'assassinat de Kennedy, cette thèse a pour objectif d'éclairer sous un angle sociopolitique les fondements, les mécanismes et les enjeux de la pensée conspirationniste aux États-Unis depuis la révolution jusqu'à nos jours. S'il ne s'agit pas de dresser un catalogue exhaustif de toutes les théories du complot en vogue, le but demeure de démontrer que le conspirationnisme est un véritable fait social aux États-Unis, un élément de culture politique et populaire. Cette thèse se propose alors d'étudier les rouages et les origines du conspirationnisme sous trois aspects différents et complémentaires qui forment un triangle. D'abord, sous l'angle factuel, c'est-à-dire en étudiant les thèses du complot relatives à un événement extraordinaire (9/11, assassinat de JFK, etc.). Ensuite, sous l'angle des acteurs du conspirationnisme : les leaders conspirationnistes (LaRouche, Icke, etc.), les citoyens enquêteurs et les boucs-émissaires (communistes, juifs, illuminatis, etc.). Enfin, sous l'angle culturel en mettant en perspective le conspirationnisme avec la culture américaine : l'anti-étatisme, la présence de mafias ou encore le cinéma de masse

From 9/11 to UFOs, from American concentration camps to the Kennedy's assassination, this dissertation aims to enlighten, through a sociopolitical analysis, the grounds, the mechanics and the goals of the conspiratorial thought in the United States since the Revolution. Even Though it is no question to draw an exhaustive catalog of each and every conspiracy theory, I would stress that conspiracism is part of the American political and popular culture. Then, this dissertation studies the origins and the developments of conspiracism through three complementary focuses. First, a factual approach which dwells on specific conspiracy theories such as the 9/11 attacks or the assassination of Kennedy. Secondly, I will come on the actors of conspiracism : the conspiracist leaders (LaRouche, Icke) the citizens sleuths and the scapegoats (Communists, Jews, Illuminatis). Finally, under a cultural angle, I will outlook conspiracism and the American culture of anti-statism, the presence of mafias or the role of mass-medias

Original Subtitle:
Allegations of a Freemason Conspiracy and Other Scapegoating Conspiracist Theories Within the Catholic Right, Protestant Right, Anti–Abortion Movement, Patriot Movement, and Armed Militia Movement - Including a discussion of statements by John C. Salvi, 3d

This study was continuously updated for several years at the request of activists and researchers studying the armed  militia movement and the increase in anti-abortion violence and organized white supremacy.

Portions appeared in revised form in several scholarly papers and then in:.

Chip Berlet, ed. 1995. Eye’s Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash. Boston, South End Press.

Chip Berlet, Dances with Devils: How Apocalyptic and Millennialist Themes Influence Right Wing Scapegoating and Conspiracism

Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons. 2000. Right–Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. New York: Guilford Press.

Du 11 septembre aux extraterrestres, des camps de concentration americains a l'assassinat de Kennedy, cette these a pour objectif d'eclairer sous un angle sociopolitique les fondements, les mecanismes et les enjeux de la pensee conspirationniste aux Etats-Unis depuis la revolution jusqu'a nos jours. S'il ne s'agit pas de dresser un catalogue exhaustif de toutes les theories du complot en vogue, le but demeure de demontrer que le conspirationnisme est un veritable fait social aux Etats-Unis, un element de culture politique et populaire. Cette these se propose alors d'etudier les rouages et les origines du conspirationnisme sous trois aspects differents et complementaires qui forment un triangle. D'abord, sous l'angle factuel, c'est-a-dire en etudiant les theses du complot relatives a un evenement extraordinaire (9/11, assassinat de JFK, etc.). Ensuite, sous l'angle des acteurs du conspirationnisme : les leaders conspirationnistes (LaRouche, Ick...

This paper investigates the John Birch Society (JBS), which was the largest national group of conservative anticommunists during the 1960s. The aim of the study is to historicize this right-wing organization in the 1960s from the perspectives of political participation and organizational structure. After Robert Welch founded the group in 1958, the JBS increasingly emerged throughout the 1960s. However, Welch's strong leadership made it hard for the JBS to adapt to changing political situation in the late 1960s. As a result, the JBS lost its political influence by the end of the decade.

This paper argues that the status of conspiracy theory changed from legitimate to illegitimate knowledge in the mid-20th century. By tracing the scientific, cultural, and political discourses of the early Cold-War era I show that World War II, the Red Scare of the 1950s, and the rise in political extremism in the 1960s significantly contributed to the delegitimization of conspiracy theory.