Conspiracy theories about vaccination and passionate speech

What is it about?

The experts on disinformation consider conspiracy theories as false or unverifiable factual statements. However, conspiracy theories are also expression of passion. The rules of passionate speech are different; in contrast with constative acts, a passionate utterance is not true or false but rather successful or unsuccessful, and it is successful if it elicits a response. The article illustrates the mechanism of passionate speech by a Bulgarian debate on the hidden risks of vaccination.

Featured Image

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It is widely acknowledged that conspiracy theories are invulnerable to factual counterarguments. The article argues that this is because the debunkers do not take into account that conspiracy theories are passionate addresses, and not merely descriptions of states of affairs. Since the debunkers respond to passionate addresses, their responses resonate with passion; in effect, the factual counterarguments elicit unintended messages undermining the claims of the debunkers to state only the facts.

Perspectives

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The article suggests an alternative approach to conspiracy theories, more efficient than debunking. The analysis of the discursive mechanisms of passion contributes to the development of a strand in pragmatics focusing on how speech transforms the speaking subjects.

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