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Rudy Reichstadt | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 8 February 1981 |
| Occupation | Writer |
Rudy Reichstadt (born on 8 February 1981 in Nice) is a French political scientist, writer, and journalist who focuses on conspiracy theories. He is best known for founding the website Conspiracy Watch in 2007.
Reichstadt was born in Nice to a Catholic father of German origin and a mother of Jewish origin who was repatriated from Algeria. He graduated from the Institut d'études politiques in Aix-en-Provence. Reichstadt held a position as the head of financial affairs at the Paris City Hall's Youth and Sports Department. [1] [2]
The idea for Conspiracy Watch came to him in 2005, after reading works by Pierre-André Taguieff and Antoine Vitkine. At the time, conspiracy theorists were heavily focused on the 9/11 attacks. Reichstadt sought to provide scholarly resources on the subject, emphasizing that these theories were part of a long history of political ideas.
He launched Conspiracy Watch in 2007 as a volunteer initiative. The project gained the support of historian Pierre-André Taguieff and intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy. The website's aim is to expose and denounce conspiracy theories, antisemitism, and Holocaust denial, particularly topics popularized by conspiracy theorists in the 2010s. [3]
In 2014, Reichstadt founded the Observatoire du conspirationnisme, a nonprofit organization. By 2017, he was being funded by the Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah, allowing him to leave his city job and focus fully on the project, working with historian Valérie Igounet, an expert on Holocaust denial and the far right.
The project received a €60,000 grant from the Fonds Marianne, initiated by Marlène Schiappa. [4]
Reichstadt has contributed to several publications, including L’Arche, Rue89, and others. Since 2021, he has co-hosted the Complorama podcast on France Info with Tristan Mendès France. He is also a columnist for Franc-Tireur [5] and K. magazine. [6]
He co-authored a documentary titled Complotisme, les alibis de la terreur, aired on France 3 in 2018. He and his co-author were sued for defamation by Michel Collon, but the case was dismissed on appeal in 2022. [7] [8]
Reichstadt frequently comments on current events through the lens of disinformation. Examples include the Epstein murder conspiracy, where he pointed out how both pro- and anti-Trump factions could interpret it as an assassination. He has also commented on conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, citing studies showing that one in four French people believe the virus was lab-created. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
He is a member of the Observatoire des radicalités politiques [14] and has contributed to political movements like the Printemps républicain, [15] which opposes Islamism and defends secularism. In 2021, he joined the Bronner Commission, tasked with advising the French government on combating online hate and disinformation. [16]
Reichstadt supported Jean-Pierre Chevènement in the 2002 presidential election and voted for Emmanuel Macron in both 2017 and 2022. [17]
In interviews, Reichstadt has been described as one of France's leading experts on conspiracy theories. [18] He has stated that between 20% and 50% of French citizens have been influenced by conspiracy thinking, which has grown due to instant media transmission and a crisis of trust in authorities. He considers antisemitic, pro-American, and pro-Zionist conspiracies to be central to many theorists' beliefs.
Reichstadt's 2019 book L'Opium des imbéciles argues that conspiracy theories pose a serious threat to rational debate and democracy. He claims that conspiracy theories falsify history, protect dictators, and promote dangerous ideologies, ultimately weakening societal trust and public health. [19]
In 2023, he published Au cœur du complot, which continues to explore the dangers of conspiracy thinking and the threats faced by those who combat it. [20]
In 2024, he criticizes Donald Trump's fake news against Kamala Harris. [21]
Pierre-André Taguieff is a French philosopher who has specialised in the study of racism and antisemitism. He is the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'études politiques de Paris laboratory, the Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF). He is also a member of the Cercle de l'Oratoire think tank.
Yves Roucaute is a French philosopher, Phd, Phd (philosophy), writer, professeur agrégé in philosophy, professeur agrégé in political science, teaching at Paris X University Nanterre, Previous President of the scientific Council of the "Institut National des Hautes Etudes de Securité et de Justice", director of the review "Cahiers de la Sécurité", counsellor of the "réformateurs" group at the French National Assembly. He has held a number of positions in cabinet ministers of right-wing governments, and is a close friend of Alain Madelin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and Nicolas Sarkozy. He is also a journalist and columnist He was editing director of some newspapers and he is the owner of newspaper in the south of France and minority stockholder of some others. He is the majority stockholder of "Contemporary Bookstore" SAS.
Nicolas Werth is a French historian.
The Republicans is a liberal conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then–President of France, Jacques Chirac.
Caroline Fiat is a French medical caregiver and politician who represented the 6th constituency of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2024. From 2022 to 2024, she held one of the National Assembly's six vice presidencies. Fiat is a member of La France Insoumise, having previously been an activist in the French Communist Party.
Marie Peltier is a Belgian author. She teaches at the Institut supérieur de pédagogie Galilée in Brussels.
Stéphane François is a French political scientist who specializes on radical right-wing movements. He also studies conspiracy theories, political ecology and countercultures.
Jean-Yves Camus is a French political scientist who specializes in nationalist movements in Europe.
Valérie Igounet is a French historian and political scientist. She studies the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, and extreme right-wing politics in France. Her research on the history of Holocaust denial and Holocaust revisionism in France traces them to both extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing sources. She was the author of the 2000 book Histoire du négationnisme en France, as well as a biography of the prominent French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.
Soyons Libres (SL), also called Libres,, is a French political party that was founded in 2017 by Valérie Pécresse, within The Republicans.
Thierry Casasnovas is a controversial figure from the French world of alternative health.
Laurent Bouvet was a French political scientist. In 2016, he cofounded the political movement Printemps républicain.
Laurent Bigorgne is a French essayist. He was the Director of the Institut Montaigne from 2010 until 27 February 2022.
François-Bernard Huyghe was a French essayist and political scientist. He served as director of research at the Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques (IRIS) and was president of the Observatoire stratégique de l'information.
Philippe Simonnot was a French economist and journalist.
Yael Mellul is a French women's rights activist and former criminal lawyer, specializing in domestic violence.
Thinkerview is a French debate program, launched in January 2013 on YouTube, that produces long interviews between an off-screen host, identified under the pseudonym "Sky," and his guests, without editing and initially broadcast live.
Conspiracy Watch is a French and Francophone website founded in 2007 and managed by an association, the Observatory of Conspiracism, since 2014. Its editorial line is focused on denouncing conspiracy theories and antisemitism, as well as Holocaust denial. It also contributes to debunking disinformation.
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