The Eurasia Network: Riding the Conspiracist Tiger in Contemporary Italy

The aim of this chapter is to describe the production and diffusion of conspiracy theories by a heterogenous network of intellectuals grouped around Prof. Claudio Mutti. The network analysed proposes a political syncretism, merging elements of the extreme right and the extreme left with epistemological syncretism, merging social sciences with religious and esoteric interpretations. The main conspiracy theories diffused by this network are those concerning: 1) contemporary migration flows; 2) Jewish ideology; 3) gender; and 4) geopolitical events. Finally, this chapter will underline the continuities between conspiracism, religion and the social and human sciences, showing that conspiracism does not correspond to irrational thinking, but rather possesses a specific form of reasoning rooted in European anti-modernism.