Episode 88: The Medieval Roots of Modern Conspiracy Theories, Part One
Digital image created by Barbara using Dall-E.
Hello again my friends.
I’m going to say right now that this is a heavy episode. We’re going to talk about all sorts of ugly, violent and horrifying lies from history that have relevance to many of the conspiracy theories of the present day. And there’s no real way to bring light or levity to this episode, so we didn’t even try.
We’re going to talk about the Medieval roots of Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Morganna is on lead on this episode, because it was her idea and she did most of the research for it during her history classes this past semester. She asked if we could do this episode and part two, and I was all for it.
She realized as she studied the history of anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages/Medieval Period that the allegations and accusations made against Jewish people at that time sounded awfully familiar. And there’s a reason for that—the same accusations are made against Jewish people in modern conspiracy communities. They might change the details, a little bit here and there, but truthfully—it’s a case of “same shit, different century.”
And yes, there is a part two. But instead of posting it next week, we’re posting our episode about Jordan Peele’s film, “Nope.” We decided to break up the heavy episodes with something new—book nerds movie nerding. (I’m officially a movie nerd as well since I have a hefty minor in film from back in the day.)
I know that at the end of this episode, I say we’re going to post part two right away, but I hadn’t had the “Nope Idea” yet. So, part two will be posted the week after the “Nope” episode.
Ok, so here are the sources we used in researching this episode:
”Anti-Jewish Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories in Historical Context.” Dr. Manfred Gersetenfeld. pp 275-280 in The Covid-19 Crisis, Impact, and Implications ed. Efraim Karch, published by The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. July 1. 2020.
”Stochastic Terrorism: A Linguistic and Psychological Analysis.” Molly Aman and J. Reid Meloy. pp 2-13 in Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 15, No. 5, October 2021, published by Terrorism Research Initiative.
”Q-Anon Builds on Centuries of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories that Put Jewish People at Risk” by Rachel E. Greenspan. October 24, 2020 Insider.com
The Devil’s Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past. Amy S. Kaufman and Paul B. Sturtevant. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London 2020. (This is a REALLY good book if you want to see how Medievalist nonsense can wreck a society.—Barbara.)
Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial by R. Po-chia Hsia. Yale University Press 1996.
”What is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?: Explaining the big-tent conspiracy theory that falsely claims that former President Trump is facing down a shadowy cabal of Democratic pedophiles.” by Kevin Roose. Sept 3. 2021. New York Times.
The Lie That Will Not Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hadassa Ben-Itto published by Vallentine Mitchell July 31, 2020
