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Strange Politics: Inside MIT’s Unusual Course on Conspiracy Theories and Memes
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” – George Orwell
In the heart of one of the most technologically forward-thinking institutions in the world—MIT—there exists a course that ventures not into robotics or quantum computing, but into the chaotic, fascinating underworld of internet culture, disinformation, and post-truth politics. Titled “MAS.S60: Strange Politics: Memes, Alt-Politics, and the Wild Wild Web,” this course might seem more suited to a YouTube rabbit hole than to an elite academic syllabus. And yet, it is one of the most timely and daring academic efforts to decode the bizarre realities of how power, truth, and culture function in the digital age.
Offered through the MIT Media Lab, MAS.S60 was developed in response to the changing landscape of modern discourse. Today, political ideologies are shaped not just through textbooks or parliamentary debates, but through TikToks, anonymous Twitter accounts, cryptic memes, and viral conspiracy theories. The strange has become the mainstream. The ironic has become the ideological. The chaotic has become strategic. Recognizing this shift, MIT created a course that doesn’t just observe the internet’s influence on politics—it dissects it with academic precision.
What makes Strange Politics extraordinary is that it is unapologetically interdisciplinary. It pulls together tools from media studies, anthropology, political science, psychology, and even internet history. It doesn’t just talk about memes as humorous internet jokes—it studies them as cultural weapons, social markers, and ideological battlegrounds. The course explores how memes can function as a form of propaganda, and how humour is often used to mask or normalize extreme views.
Equally compelling is the course’s deep dive into conspiracy theories—not from a judgmental distance, but from a lens of anthropological curiosity. The students study why people believe in conspiracies, how they spread, and what emotional, political, or cultural voids they fill. From QAnon to flat Earth theory, from ancient alien enthusiasts to digital “red-pilling,” the course unpacks the psychological architecture of belief and doubt in an age where facts are negotiable and narratives are endlessly mutable.
In many traditional academic institutions, subjects like memes and conspiracy theories would be dismissed as fringe or unserious. But at MIT, Strange Politics is taken seriously because its professors and students recognize that these are not side effects of the internet—they are central features of contemporary politics. Disinformation can sway elections. Viral memes can destroy reputations or launch movements. Online rumours can provoke real-world violence. The stakes are not virtual—they are urgently real.
The course also includes a practical, project-based approach. Students are encouraged to create their own media artefacts—memes, videos, campaigns—and analyze their impact. They study meme warfare as a communication strategy and assess the ethics of engaging with online subcultures. In doing so, they learn not only how to critique digital politics, but how to navigate it, survive it, and possibly shape it.
A critical part of MAS.S60 involves exploring fringe communities and the architectures that house them—Reddit threads, 4chan boards, Telegram channels, Discord servers, and encrypted social networks. These communities, often ignored by mainstream politics, are treated as laboratories for radical ideas. Some become breeding grounds for hate or disinformation. Others are fountains of subversive creativity. By studying them, students learn how political energies percolate and evolve before reaching the surface.
The course also forces its participants to grapple with moral and epistemological dilemmas. What does it mean to “know” something in a world saturated by misinformation? How can democratic societies defend truth without becoming authoritarian? When does censorship help, and when does it backfire? These are not questions with simple answers, and that is precisely why the course matters.
The syllabus draws from thinkers like Michel Foucault, whose theory of power and knowledge explains how “truth” is socially constructed and contested. It also brings in modern voices—journalists, digital activists, and media theorists—who help students decode the tactics of digital persuasion and manipulation. Each lecture feels like peeling back a layer of digital illusion to reveal the power structures beneath.
A fascinating aspect of Strange Politics is that it doesn’t just examine the right or the left, the mainstream or the radical—it seeks to understand the entire political spectrum of absurdity and extremity. This is not about validating any ideology, but about recognizing that digital spaces have warped the map of belief itself. Terms like “left” and “right” are often inadequate to describe movements that combine environmentalism with spirituality, or racism with irony, or feminism with conspiracy. The internet has birthed what some scholars call “ideological mashups,” and this course is one of the few academic spaces trying to map them.
While the course does not yet have a long list of publicly documented alumni, its influence is growing. Students who’ve taken MAS.S60 have gone on to work in digital policy, journalism, cybersecurity, counter-disinformation research, and social media ethics. Given the course’s recency, it’s safe to say that its most famous graduates are yet to emerge—but they will be the thinkers and leaders trying to make sense of a world where truth is always in crisis.
In an age where students are often urged to pursue STEM disciplines for job security, MAS.S60 stands as a bold declaration that the humanities and social sciences are not only relevant—they are vital. Understanding technology is not enough. We must also understand how technology shapes our understanding of reality. As deepfakes grow more convincing, as AI-generated propaganda becomes indistinguishable from fact, and as politics becomes more entangled with memes than manifestos, we need intellectual tools that go beyond engineering. We need political media literacy, digital anthropology, and ethical resilience.
To dismiss a course like Strange Politics as trivial is to misunderstand the world we live in. A world where elections are influenced not just by policies but by memes. A world where the truth is increasingly a matter of narrative, and where identity is built online. In such a world, this course is not a novelty—it is a necessity.
MIT’s courage in offering this course sets a precedent for other institutions. It shows that even the most technical of schools can—and must—make space for the strange, the chaotic, the cultural. Because that is where the future of politics is being written: not just in legislation, but in hashtags, comment sections, and group chats.
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell
By: Mayukh Sarkar
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