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Antíteses - Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em História Social

Articles

Vol. 18 No. 36 (2025)

The linguistic development of the Conspiracy Theory concept and its historical implications

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5433/1984-3356.2025v18n36p216-250
Submitted
March 16, 2024
Published
2025-12-18

Abstract

The present text aims to offer a broader understanding of the concept of “conspiracy theory” and its pair concepts: “negationism” and “predictive programming” – since the concepts favor knowledge production and, consequently, to expand the possibilities of understanding a particular topic. The essay was elaborated from the linguistic evolution of the concept, throughout history. Based on the construction of “conceptual trees” (Barros, 2016), on the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Norman Fairclough (1995) and on the use of big data (Google Trends), it was verified the evolution of the pejorative sense of the concept of “conspiracy theory” due to the media communicative force, to the promoters of digital content and to the governmental influence (Rankin Junior, 2017).

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