Things Just Don’t Make Sense”

Global Conspiracy Theories and Fascist Social Reality

Bibliographic Data

ID8251998
AuthorsAlexander D Barder (0000-0002-9914-923X, Florida International University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume6
Issue1
Publication date2026-01-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2634-3797 • E-ISSN: 2634-3797
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/isagsq/ksaf122
OpenAlexW7124455197
LanguageEN
References cited10

This research note explores how global conspiracy theories contribute to the formation of fascistic representations of social reality. Instead of dismissing fascist worldviews as merely irrational or pathological, I focus on how their nonsensical form actively generates meaning. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of sense developed in The Logic of Sense, I show that nonsense is not the absence of meaning but a creative and productive force that reshapes how the world is understood. I further argue that nonsense-objects—such as global cabals, hidden elites, and racialized enemies—function as quasi-causes: incorporeal forces that reorganize perception, affect, and political behavior. In this light, conspiratorial imaginaries should not be seen simply as products of epistemic breakdown or legitimacy deficits, but as engines for inventing new forms of meaning, identity, and political attachment

Focus (optics) · Irrational number · Legitimacy · Meaning (existential) · Politics · Social force · Social reality · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Populism, Right-Wing Movements