The Big Hoax: Social Media: Contagion and Conspiracy

Aidan Moir and Andrew Woods

The Big Hoax: Social Media: Contagion and Conspiracy

Aidan Moir and Andrew Woods

3:00pm

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Join Aidan Moir and Andrew Woods to analyse how social media feeds the contemporary contagion of conspiracy theories. How is a contemporary conspiracy theory attempting to demonize (literally) the work and ideas developed by the Frankfurt School? Finally, despite his apparent “progressiveness,” Joe Rogan’s lucrative brand is shown to be reliant on the kind of anti-intellectualism that helped propel Donald Trump to power in the United States.

This event is part of the annual interdisciplinary Humber Liberal Arts Conference. This year’s focus is The Big Hoax: The Anatomy of Anti-Intellectualism, Denialism and Conspiracy Theories, Past and Present. Tune in to plenary sessions, free and open to the public, October 22–23.

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Panel Discussion

Join Aidan Moir and Andrew Woods to analyse how social media feeds the contemporary contagion of conspiracy theories. How is a contemporary conspiracy theory attempting to demonize (literally) the work and ideas developed by the Frankfurt School? Finally, despite his apparent “progressiveness,” Joe Rogan’s lucrative brand is shown to be reliant on the kind of anti-intellectualism that helped propel Donald Trump to power in the United States.

This event is part of the annual interdisciplinary Humber Liberal Arts Conference. This year’s focus is The Big Hoax: The Anatomy of Anti-Intellectualism, Denialism and Conspiracy Theories, Past and Present. Tune in to plenary sessions, free and open to the public, October 22–23.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

Humber Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Innovative Learning Logo

Panel Discussion

Featured Authors

Aidan Moir
Aidan Moir received a PhD in Communication & Culture from York University in 2021. Her dissertation, "Punk, Obamacare, and a Jesuit: Branding the Iconic Ideals of Vivienne Westwood, Barack Obama, and Pope Francis" analyzes how the discourse of brand culture shapes the circulation of global leaders operating within the institutions that govern everyday life, such as fashion, politics and religion. Her work more broadly encompasses the areas of brand and promotional culture, advocacy campaigns, celebrity, public relations and popular culture on topics ranging from fashion, poverty and anti-consumption movements to fracking and the environment.

Read more about Aidan Moir

Andrew Woods
Andrew Woods is a PhD candidate at the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario, a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right and a co-host of the Radical Thoughts Podcast. He has written several articles about conspiracy theories and right-wing politics for openDemocracy, RanttMedia, Commune Magazine, Public Seminar, and Fair Observer. His scholarly writings have been included in Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right, the forthcoming book Conspiracy Theory: Representations of the Political in the Age of Populism and the forthcoming encyclopedia Anti-Intellectualism and Elitism in America: An Encyclopedia of Conflict.

Read more about Andrew Woods

3:00pm

Saturday, October 23

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