PODCAST. Apocalyptic prophecies from the complosphere

The complosphere regularly takes hold of the great fears that run through our societies, reactivating the theme of the “end of the world”. Each time, the conspiracy theorists rushed into the breach with erroneous prophecies, predictions of “thermonuclear war” or “vaccine genocide” ultimately contradicted by reality.

“Our country is in disarray, our borders are open and insecure. Nine months is a long time. During that time there is a good chance that World War III will break out, because we have someone who doesn’t not doing his job properly.” Interviewed by the American television channel Fox NewsDonald Trump predicted, on February 4, a global conflict before the next presidential election next November.

A “a real gimmick for Donald Trump, a rope that he will pull many times during his mandate and even afternotes Tristan Mendès France. It’s a technique that aims to stun your audience and radicalize opinions.” The ex-president is not his first attempt: “He has done this many times, notably in November 2023, where he explained that he had already predicted everything and that he was planning a Third World War”. According to Tristan Mendès France, a conflict cannot be ruled out, but Donald Trump’s speech “often has a blatant conspiratorial charge”.

The theme of World War III is very strong in the conspiracy imagination. At the time of the assassination of General Soleimani, who died in an American raid on January 3, 2020 at the international airport of Baghdad, Iraq, “it’s a real explosion”remembers Rudy Reichstadt. “Of course, all this will be covered up fairly quickly by the arrival on the media agenda of the coronavirus pandemic but, at the moment, many are predicting the imminent outbreak of the Third World War”. Conspiracy commentators then explained that the next step would be a “false flag attack” against America allowing a war against Iran to be started.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a rather exceptional moment of predictive conspiracy in the world. In the United States, some conspiracy theorists predicted the death of more than 50 million people from the coronavirus vaccine, in the United States alone. “We are still on one of these absolutely blatant conspiracy predictions, and apocalyptic announcements like this, we have had myriads, in the United States but also in France”, estimates Tristan Mendès France. From the “Great Reset” to “camps for unvaccinated people”some theories were brought to light at this time.

From the use of the “cliffhanger”, a narrative technique used by many conspiracy accounts on social networks, to the broadcast of countdowns in order to capture the attention of those who follow them, the rhetorical techniques of the complosphere are well known.

Finally, the episode also returns to the millenarian references of the complosphere. “Apocalyptic predictions that flop, the whole story is punctuated by itnotes Tristan Mendès France. Without going back to Nostradamus, we have a myriad of examples, but what strikes me is the way in which the complosphere seizes these stories and tries to surf on them when it does not itself take up the codes or the phraseology of his apocalyptic predictions, mixing conspiracy and spirituality”. Rudy Reichstadt concludes: “We kind of want to tell the conspiracy theorists to clean up their house because they were wrong about everything, with incredible systematism. I can’t find an example of predictions on their part that came true. And what is extraordinary , is that those who are, today, the most “vocal”, in claiming that they were right about everything from the beginning are generally those who have the most to blame.”