Conspiracy: The Limits of Belief and the Case for Empathy
by Marina Cantacuzino, Founder
‘Doubt unites people whereas conviction divides them’, declares the actor and humanitarian, Peter Ustinov, in Granada TV’s 1998 film for Channel 4 Such A Wonderful Thing, part of the documentary series Planet Ustinov. He makes this bold assertion in conversation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu who responds with a characteristic chuckle of agreement.
This theme came alive for me again recently when I hosted a post-film conversation of The Conspiracists – a fascinating documentary that captures an intimate portrait of women drawn into the MAGA world of conspiracy.
I was interviewing the film’s director Liz Smith and ethnographer Noelle Cook whose academic research into women’s participation in conspiratorial and right-wing movements was the inspiration for the documentary. Both women also play a pivotal role in the film which charts their road trip across America alongside the charismatic Yvonne, a MAGA supporter who is about to serve a 30-month prison sentence for storming the US Capitol. The film’s other main character, Tammy, is also a conspiracy theorist who has already served a sentence for her role in the January 6 insurrection. (Both women were later granted clemency under Donald Trump’s sweeping January 6 pardons).
Along the way we meet other “patriots” and dive ever deeper into the world of conspiracy and conspirituality. (Conspirituality in which New Age religion, online wellness culture and extremism blend and become laced with antisemitic and racist theories.) These are all middle-aged white women - a demographic that particularly interested Cook after she noticed their significant presence at the insurrection, perhaps reflecting a desire for belonging born out of the invisibility and irrelevance that comes as women age. Cook’s research and subsequent involvement in the making of the film led to her writing a mesmerising book about how ordinary women become extremists, The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism and the Lure of Belonging.
For anyone watching the film the inevitable question is likely to be, will these women ultimately change their minds or will they remain convinced that, for instance, the US government was responsible for 9/11; Zionists are using blood for matzo balls; January 6 was a set-up; Mother Teresa “fathered” Anthony Fauci; Princess Diana isn’t dead; Covid was a hoax; McDonalds restaurants sell human meat in their hamburgers….and so on.
The short answer is, they remain convinced to the end. Though the film involves a road trip, it is hardly a journey: in that there is no change in belief or identity, no inward exploration. Absolutely nothing shifts in the worldview of Yvonne and Tammy or the other MAGA women they encounter along the way. All remain ideological warriors to the end, bound by moral certainty. They are true believers who claim to inhabit a fifth dimension of consciousness (5D) – a state of being which is said to bring spiritual awakening, higher vibrations and enlightenment. Cook and Smith’s gentle and respectful questioning (interspersed only very occasionally with a raised eyebrow) makes no dent on their absolute conviction.
But while this isn’t a film about transformation it is a film which beautifully showcases compassionate listening and empathy.
The style is observational as opposed to confrontational and because the filmmakers give their subjects time and space to be heard, by the end of the documentary you warm to these women – they are quirky, funny, often intelligent and demonstrably kind.
The shift of worldview could of course also have happened the other way round but nor is there any suggestion that the filmmakers might be pulled into the realm of conspiracies. They too remain firmly in what the MAGA women describe as a 3D world of fear and ego and ‘being asleep’.
Any film about conspiracy theories will naturally contain a great deal of certainty. I’ve always been wary of unbridled certainty because it doesn’t leave any room for movement.
And one of the main reasons I’m interested in forgiveness is because forgiveness allows us to imagine alternatives and replaces certainty with curiosity. It can be a powerful antidote in our badly polarized society.
As the author Anne Lamott once said: ‘The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.’ The fact that faith doesn’t mean blind acceptance and certainty can easily harden into dogmatism is something I came to understand much more clearly from one of The Forgiveness Project’s storytellers, Arno Michaelis, a former white nationalist. Describing the precarious nature of extremist thinking, he told me that the views he had once held – which at the time had felt solid and completely watertight – were, he later realised, ‘as fragile as a house of cards.’
For this reason, he had needed to protect the fragility of his beliefs with the armour of certainty. ‘I was carrying around this armour with me all the time’ he said, ‘until I realised I didn’t need to wear it anymore. That was incredible because it took me to a whole new level of connecting with my fellow human beings. Being suddenly vulnerable, I could now connect with others’ vulnerability.’
Abandoning his racist identity ultimately meant not only relinquishing his sense of belonging to a group but also giving up all national and cultural righteousness. ‘Instead,’ he said, ‘I learnt once and for all to be present with fear, uncertainty and failure.’ These themes of empathy and repair are further explored in Pratap Rughani and David Chung’s recent film Impossible Conversations.
In The Conspiracists the MAGA women themselves display moments of empathy and fragility. For instance, Yvonne acknowledges that when she was shown in court the Police’s bodycam film of January 6 she was suddenly able to see things from the Police’s perspective and understood why they’d become aggressive. And when she hears of the tragedy of Tammy’s transgender daughter who took her own life in prison, despite the fact both women clearly applaud anti-trans activism, they show empathy for Tammy’s deceased child. As Noelle Cook writes in her book ‘the contradiction in Tammy’s beliefs on race and trans issues are what happens when a polarized and heavily politicised white identity meets her more complicated, pluralistic lived reality.’
Listening, rather than criticising, is a recognised and effective approach when confronting cults and conspiracy theories. One of the worst things you can do to someone with whom you profoundly disagree is to shut them down, ridicule them, or tell them they are stupid. Shaming and isolating may have become the default way of expressing disdain or disapproval (as discussed in my earlier blog) but it doesn’t work. It is neither kind nor productive; besides, cults don’t collapse because outsiders denounce them or tell their members they are wrong. Cults tend to unravel only when people within them begin to question, drift away, and defect from the inside. So, if you attack or mock a cult leader, or their followers, you merely drive them deeper into their foxholes, more convinced than ever of their righteousness and strengthened by a sense of persecution.
But curiosity can open a different kind of space. Ask a question rather than make an accusation, and the conversation has a chance to move somewhere new.
Lucy Jaffe, an expert in restorative approaches, told me what struck her most about the film was ‘the power of relationship and connection, which the presenter, Noelle Cook, creates with the women being interviewed. She listens intently and builds relationships with them, which draws out their stories. This is relevant to restorative practice where creating a space for being heard and connected is central.’
I watched The Conspiracists with a sense of dread and awe. Dread because so many people seem to believe so much that is unproven, outlandish and bigoted. Awe because Noelle Cook and Liz Smith reminded me that there is only one productive way of engagement with those we disagree with. Cook sums this up at the end of her book stating that any mass strategy for countering conspiracism requires ‘adopting a new mindset, one based in empathy and curiosity.’ It will require patience too and a determination to reconnect with conspiratorial thinking friends and neighbours until this new way of engagement is ‘rooted in a persistent care for and curiosity about them.’ In an age where people live in their isolated cultural groups and information silos, this is, claims Cook, the only path that ‘doesn’t involve some kind of destructive and protracted conflict.’
In this same spirit, The Forgiveness Project has recently been collaborating with the Common Ground Justice Project on a new initiative called the Listening Ground: a community gathering that encourages participants to listen compassionately and find common ground across divides. This message was recently echoed on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme, when Father Christopher Jamison drew on his experience of monastic communities to stress the importance of listening to one another as a quiet source of hope and understanding. ‘In our current situation there’s a lot of shouting and a lot of extremism’ he said, ‘and we are saying please listen and you’ll be surprised by what you hear and surprised to find how much you agree about.’
The Conspiracists can’t be described as a hopeful film but perhaps what is hopeful is that the only way forward is to remember that we are in this together, and that understanding is built slowly; one conversation at a time; one story at a time.
Click here or the button below for upcoming UK screenings of The Conspiracists.
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This is such an interesting review. I’m eager to see the movie. Thanks, Marina, for your constant and keen insights.
Thank you Marina, you’ve given me a different mindset to approach watching the film and conversations like these. The rush to judgement is shutting out our ability to find our heart.