About

The New World Order is a conspiracy theory that revolves around the concept of a secretive cabal of world leaders with a globalist agenda trying to construct a new totalitarian "one-world" government. While the phrase has been around long before the internet, the New World Order is frequently mentioned in memes both mocking and promoting the conspiracy. Memes and discussions on the New World Order are frequently renewed whenever a major political leader or high-profile individual mentions the phrase during a speech, such as President Joe Biden in March 2022. The concept is also closely associated with The Illuminati and sometimes used interchangeably.

Origin

Ideas about a “new world order” and anxieties about the secretive organizations that might bring it about date back centuries. However, the term entered the public vernacular during the 20th century when political figures like Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill specifically used the term to refer to the new period of history marked by the stark change in political thought and in the balance of power around the world after World War I and II] Over the latter half of the 1900s, the term continued to see use throughout the Cold War era and beyond, particularly increasing during the 1990s.

The instance that largely popularized the idea of a “New World Order” and the conspiracy theory behind it was a speech given by American President George H.W. Bush to the United States Congress on September 11th, 1990. In the speech (seen below), the President explained his reasons for going to war with Iraq. He argued that it was the responsibility of the U.S. to own the post-Cold War moment and create a “new world order” founded on American values, which could be inflicted by force.^[2]

In the 1990s, many watched the Bush speech and interpreted the phrase “new world order” as an alleged secret code to his co-conspirators. People speculated that Bush was involved with the Illuminati, demons, Freemasons and many other secret organizations.

Spread

The phrase “world order” is also often used in foreign policy and academic circles to refer to the way that international relations are structured at different moments in time.^[3] In this context, politicians will sometimes use it and whenever they do, memes end up on social media. For example, in response to President Joe Biden's speech on March 21st, 2022, in which he used the phrase, the conspiracy theory saw a resurgence online in the following days. For example, Twitter user @Avocado232232^[4] posted a meme that same day mocking people who thought the President spoke about the conspiracy, earning over 8,000 likes over the course of three months (seen below).

Others, such as Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, seemed to embrace the conspiracy theory interpretation. For a tweet (seen below) posted on March 21st, 2022, calling out the New World Order, Gatez received over 28,000 likes over three months.^[5]

The phrase has continued to trend periodically on Twitter whenever a political figure says it, leading to tweets such as one by Twitter user @bbocean2^[6] on July 1st, 2022, that received over 200 likes in roughly a week.

Aside from its singular conspiracy, the New World Order has also been linked to a range of other conspiracy theories, such as QAnon to the Georgia Guidestones to the Freemasons.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References