In his two volume work The Open Society and Its Enemies Popper used the term “conspiracy theory” to criticize the ideologies driving fascism, Nazism, Marxism and communism. Popper argued that totalitarianism was founded on “conspiracy theories” which drew on imaginary plots driven by paranoid scenarios predicated on tribalism, chauvinism, racism or classism. Popper did not argue against the existence of everyday conspiracies (as incorrectly suggested in much of the later literature). Popper even uses the term “conspiracy” to describe ordinary political activity in the classical Athens of Plato (who was the principal target of his attack in The Open Society & Its Enemies).

In his critique of Marx and the twentieth century totalitarians, Popper wrote, “I do not wish to imply that conspiracies never happen. On the contrary, they are typical social phenomena.”

He reiterated his point, “Conspiracies occur, it must be admitted. But the striking fact which, in spite of their occurrence, disproved the conspiracy theory is that few of these conspiracies are ultimately successful. Conspirators rarely consummate their conspiracy.”

Popper proposed the term “the conspiracy theory of society” to criticize the methodology of Marx, Hitler and others whom he deemed to be deluded by “historicism” – the reduction of history to an overt and naive distortion via a crude formulaic analysis usually predicated on an agenda replete with unsound presuppositions.

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