Issue 49: The Internet Speaks
They’re plotting against us. So our ear is to the ground.
19236 Articles by: Agathe Dorra
Agathe Dorra is a PhD researcher in political aesthetics at King’s College London
The People’s Cult
Over 900 died at Jonestown in 1978 in a murder-suicide that shook the world. How did Peoples Temple go from emancipatory project to disaster?
The Conspiracy of the Algorithm
People aren’t wrong to feel like their lives are increasingly out of their control. Twenty-first-century technology guarantees it.
When Sinatra Sang for His Life
The Kennedys, the Mob, and the FBI — the Rat Pack’s legendary 1962 residency at the Villa Venice brought the secret power structure of postwar America under one roof.
Did Punk Start as a Situationist Stunt?
In Britain, punk is often seen as a reaction to national decline, coming up from the streets, while its roots in Situationist political pranking have been discredited. Maybe it’s time to look again at Malcolm McLaren and his ten-point plan.
The Manson Murders May Have Something to Do With CIA Mind-Control Experiments
Journalist Tom O’Neill’s book CHAOS uncovered undeniably bizarre facts— and high-profile lies — about the 1969 murders that we still can’t stop thinking about.
Too Good to Be True
Publishers love a good story. And some of the best ones are completely bogus.
Robert Redford Knows Too Much
In the 1970s, the public flocked to movies about the US government’s shadowy misdeeds.
Futurist Forgeries
No art movement has ever been so comprehensively faked as the revolutionary “Russian avant-garde” of the 1910s and 1920s.
Iconoclashes
Conspiracy theories are rife with esoteric motifs. But what do those symbols actually represent?
The Vichy Conspiracy
In 1940, did French elites roll out the welcome mat for Nazi Germany?
Help Jacobin Hire a Rising Star of Journalism
I have ten vital projects ready to go. I need your help to bring them to the world.
Is QAnon Destroying American Democracy?
Conspiracy theories are common and dangerous, but they probably can’t explain why Americans don’t trust the government.
The X-Files: The Truth Was Out There
The classic show The X-Files celebrated and satirized America’s love of conspiracy theories before they became an all-consuming obsession. When the show returned to the air after a long gap, it had to confront a culture of paranoia that made Fox Mulder’s imagination look tame.
Aliens Built the Pyramids
Some people suspect that humanity’s greatest achievements aren’t human achievements at all. Some people suspect that humanity’s greatest achievements aren’t human achievements at all.
Urban Legends, Urban Truths
The 1998 B-list slasher film Urban Legend unleashes on its protagonists a host of horrors from the American folk canon. Some have their roots in real life.
The Family That Slays Together Stays Together
The Manson Family left a trail of bodies in 1969. No one should have been surprised.
The QAnon Shaman Speaks!
And he sounds like . . . a hippie?
Havana Syndrome Can’t Be Cured
Even the CIA has debunked “Havana syndrome” — the belief that hypersonic weapons are making American diplomats sick — but diehards in the media and Congress won’t let it go.
Conspiracy Theory Is Dead
It’s now impossible to distinguish “conspiracy theories” from the day-to-day hysteria of our era of hyperpolitics.