Regimes of (Un)Truth: Conspiracy Theory and the Transnationalization of the Algerian Civil War
Author(s)
Silverstein, Paul A.
Abstract
Conspiracy theories are profoundly ambivalent: They desire final truth while questioning its very possibility; they seek ultimate agency and intentionality while doubting others’ credibility and search for unmanipulated knowledge while wondering if its very existence is not fabricated. Or, to use an all too familiar trope: The truth is out there; we just can’t quite get it. In the context of contemporary Algeria, conspiracy theories are the primary means through which information is exchanged and personal posturing accomplished in a “game of hermeneutic one-upmanship.” Though a game, it has serious implications: While conspiracy theories may function as a marginalized critique, they can also serve as a prop for existing structures of political and economic inequality.
