Конспирация и уязвимост: #Окупирай, Zeitgeist и легитимирането на бунтовното знание
Conspiracy and Vulnerability: #Occupy, Zeitgeist, and the Legitimation of Rebellious Knowledge

Summary/Abstract: In the fall of 2011, one of the working groups of #Occupy Wall Street discussed the idea to endorse the concepts of the Zeitgeist films as an official ideology of the movement. The idea was ultimately dismissed, but since the Zeitgeist films were heavily influenced by Alex Jones, in order to do that, the working group needed to draw a dividing line between conspiracy theories and the rebellious knowledge about the injustice of the 1%, which had inspired #Occupy. As the dividing line was to be drawn in discussion, which foreclosed any argument founded on authority, in fact, any argument that implied asymmetrical distribution of knowledge, the theories of conspiracy theories turned out to be useless. Therefore the working group developed a concept of conspiracy theory suitable for its practical purposes,and shaped by what the participants perceived as strategic vulnerabilities. The concept claimed that conspiracy theory was any theory that could be accused of being one, and as this concept could be extended to any theory of injustice, the working group ultimately decided to recommend that #Occupy should not have any ideology. Later, the lack of ideology was widely criticized as a crucial vulnerability of the movement. Of course, the paper does not attribute this vulnerability to the rejection of the Zeitgeist films. Yet I will claim that the discussion of the films exemplifies a risk brought about by the concept of conspiracy theory, the risk of making anydissent vulnerable to accusations of irrationality.

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