Pragmatically synthesizing existing conspiracy styles: blending paranoia and politics in Richard Nixon’s early-career anticommunist rhetoric

Abstract

In the field’s long conversation on conspiracy rhetoric, the most robust topic has been the theorization of the paranoid and political styles. Thus far, these styles and their evaluative criteria have been theorized as wholly separate. However, certain discourses and rhetors blend the styles. To understand this blending, I introduce the concept of pragmatism to argue that the existing styles can be synthesized. Through my analysis of three of Richard Nixon’s anticommunist conspiracy texts, I demonstrate that his rhetoric is a pragmatic synthesis of paranoia and politics. I conclude the paper by suggesting further avenues for research on conspiracy within the field, including the possibility that there may be a “pragmatic style.”