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Birth Certificate Enslavement: A Conspiracy theory from the archives to the internet
Södertörn University, School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Archive Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4350-6346
2020 (English)Conference paper, Poster (with or without abstract) (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The idea of “Birth Certificate Enslavement” is a conspiracy theory situated in North America and spread through the internet. It is connected to, among others the Sovereign Citizen-movement (SPLC 2019). There are examples of the conspiracy theory spreading, with active activists in Europe among other parts of the world. According to the believers, the creating of a birth certificate starts the life of an evil administrative doppelgänger to the newly born. A “corporate shell”. This corporate shell is then sold by the State to foreign investors as a form of financial security. One of the administrative proof of this, according to the believers of the conspiracy theory, is that the birth certificate is written in capital letters and that bond papers and watermarks are used. This part of the conspiracy, the “proof in the design of the administrative document” is connected to an interpretation of Maritime law that the sympathisers believe are valid regarding birth certificates (SPLC 2010). To analyse the conspiracy three research questions have been used. R1) References done in the video clip to public administration and archives - How are public administration and archives viewed in the message of the video clips? How are the employees of the agencies responsible for creating, storing and administrating birth certificates viewed. Are they in any way seen as recipients of the message in the video clips? Are there any appeals to confront the agencies or their employees. R2) References to other conspiracy theories - Are there any references to other conspiracy theories? Do they differ from video to video depending on the creator? One of the differences between various conspiracy theorists are that they put different “masterminds” behind the execution of the conspiracy. Aliens, Freemasons, Jews, Reptiles, the Catholic church, the Red shoe men and the Bilderberg group et cetera. According to previous research, people that believe in a conspiracy theory often believe in more than one (Silva et al 2017, p. 427) I here use the definition of conspiracy theory as “an explanation of historical ongoing, or future events that cites as a main casual factor a small group of powerful persons, the conspirators, acting in secret for their own benefits against the common good.” (Uscinski & Parent 2014, p. 32). R3) References to other political and administrative contexts than those connected to the United States of America - Are there any references to other political and administrative contexts than those of the United States of America? Do the proponents of the conspiracy theory believe that the theory interoperate with other political and administrative contexts or are they unique to the context of the United States of America?

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020.
Keywords [en]
Birth Certificate, Conspiracy, Archives
National Category
Other Humanities not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Other research area
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-42107OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-42107DiVA, id: diva2:1478083
Conference
Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries, hosted by National Library of Latvia, October 20-23, 2020.
Available from: 2020-10-21 Created: 2020-10-21 Last updated: 2020-10-21Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf