Down the Rabbit Hole and Out Again
5:30pm - 7:30pm /
Wednesday 4th March 2026
/ Venue: SLSJ Events Space (Ground Floor) School of Law & Social Justice
Type: Seminar /
Category: Department
- SLSJ Marketing, Recruitment and Events Team
- Admission: Free Admission
- Event website
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Down the Rabbit Hole and Out Again: Conspiracy Theories, Techno-Pessimism, and the Crisis of “Reason” in the “Post-Truth” Age.
Speaker: Dr Joseph Mcauley, University of Oxford, UK
Conspiracy theories returning to public prominence. They appear in the mouths elected officials and heads of state all the while conspiratorial social movements have taken root both on and offline and are mobilising in the public sphere in pursuit of often reactionary social goals. In response, a strain of criticism bemoans that we live in a so-called “Post-Truth” era where reasonable expert authority has been undermined by viral sensationalism primarily driven by social media. This genre of Techno-Pessimism tends to stigmatise conspiracy theories as a failure of reason and pathologize believers as being merely misguided dupes. However, such a view ignores the much wider socio-economic and political crisis that precede the re-emergence of conspiratorial thinking, and in blaming technological development, ignores the real social and emotional needs conspiratorial communities provide their constituents. Instead of relying on comfortable answers we must face the real crisis of hope gripping our society and acknowledge that conspiracy theories succeed in gaining adherents by providing compelling and emotionally satisfying answers to the unprecedent poly-crisis sweeping the globe. It is only by acknowledging and grappling with these hard questions, that we can safely enter the rabbit hole, and come back out again.
Speaker: Dr Joseph Mcauley, University of Oxford, UK
Conspiracy theories returning to public prominence. They appear in the mouths elected officials and heads of state all the while conspiratorial social movements have taken root both on and offline and are mobilising in the public sphere in pursuit of often reactionary social goals. In response, a strain of criticism bemoans that we live in a so-called “Post-Truth” era where reasonable expert authority has been undermined by viral sensationalism primarily driven by social media. This genre of Techno-Pessimism tends to stigmatise conspiracy theories as a failure of reason and pathologize believers as being merely misguided dupes. However, such a view ignores the much wider socio-economic and political crisis that precede the re-emergence of conspiratorial thinking, and in blaming technological development, ignores the real social and emotional needs conspiratorial communities provide their constituents. Instead of relying on comfortable answers we must face the real crisis of hope gripping our society and acknowledge that conspiracy theories succeed in gaining adherents by providing compelling and emotionally satisfying answers to the unprecedent poly-crisis sweeping the globe. It is only by acknowledging and grappling with these hard questions, that we can safely enter the rabbit hole, and come back out again.