Epistemic Populism, Conspiracy and Complex Truths

Abstract

Scholars introduced a variety of concepts – such as I-pistemology – to point out how populism contests traditional or well-established epistemic authorities, proposing alternative epistemologies. Populist epistemologies are not necessarily anti-science or post-truth ideologies: they are indeed form of counter-knowledge. In addition, populism, while promoting the anti-elitist and traditional conservative worldview, also forms an epistemology, that is, a specific theory of knowledge. This is also the reason why, in political debates, fact-checking has limited utility: what is at stake are in fact the implications of how scientific knowledge is constructed, and for what purposes. Scholars working on conspiracy theories argue that they can be framed in fact as ‘populist theory of power’. Indeed, populist actors can also be conceived of as “hegemony challengers”. Galanopoulos and Stavrakakis introduced the concept of politicized epistemology to point out the growing interconnections between political positions and specific theories of knowledge, which touch upon shared understandings of reality and truth. Alternative epistemologies and truths brought about by populist actors to counter mainstream are circulated and amplified by mainstream and new media platforms like news, blogs, YouTube videos, Twitter and Facebook posts – which also contribute to the polarization of the discourse. Stemming from the upcoming book project ‘Populism and Science’, coordinated by Hande Eslen-Ziya and Alberta Giorgi, this panel explores populist epistemology and its theory of power, by discussing the cases of alternative truths and conspiracy theories, and the role of social media platforms in their circulation.

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