Paper short abstract:

Conspiracy theories appear to promote feelings of powerlessness. Drawing upon first-hand ethnographic research in Britain, this paper argues that fluoridation narratives actually conceptualise a positive alternative of the human body embodied through self-regulated patterns of consumption.

Paper long abstract:

Within networks of self-identified 'truth-seekers' - individuals often labelled pejoratively as conspiracy theorists - the perceived medical orthodoxy is frequently accused of propagating a knowingly harmful conceptualisation of the individual body. It is furthermore accused of hiding the dangers of an essentially toxic environment. For example, individuals voice concerns that medical authorities value monetary profit over cures; or that fluoridated tap-water harms body, mind, and spirit, to make entire populations unwell, docile and controllable. That 'conspiracy theories' appear dystopic and nightmarish, and imagine pervasive, state-sponsored systemic dangers that affect an entire social body, has led some commentators to claim they produce feelings of powerlessness. On the other hand, that real-life 'truth-seekers' seem often to be empowered by their beliefs presents an apparent puzzle. This paper draws upon qualitative data, including participant observation and interviews, as part of a wider ethnographic study of the social dimension of (so-called) conspiracy theorising in Britain; this moves the study of conspiracy theory away from secondary, textual sources, and sets it instead in the lifeworld of actual truth-seekers. By refocusing our attention away from the social world and onto phenomenal encounters with ubiquitous aspects of the everyday, such as water and food, this seeming contradiction can be resolved. Truth-seekers first "wake up" to a state-sponsored body politic; they reconceptualise the individual body; and they realise this phenomenally by undertaking individuated journeys of self-regulation.