Conspiracy theories, fetishism, and the spiritual crisis: Marx on religion revisited

Marx defines religion not as the source but the expression of human misery under capitalism, where individuals become automatons—personifications of capital. The critique of religion as critique of “God-capital,” the substance-subject of capitalist society, forms the foundation of all criticism. Religion, in this view, takes not only Biblical but also contemporary forms, including conspiracy theories. These theories perversely grant significance to the otherwise immiserated masses, who, feeling ineffectual, imagine themselves as central targets of grand conspiracies—thus reproducing their own powerlessness under a mystical guise.