But Why These Conspiracy Theories?
On Tuesday, in the comments below my post about how many MAGAnistas want to believe in even the most ridiculous fantasies, Gustopher asked this extremely salient question:
They may want to believe, but why do they want to believe this?
There are a couple of levels to the answer. The tier is why people believe in conspiracy theories in general; the second is about why the MAGA conspiracy theories resonate with that particular audience.
There are lots of reasons why people fall into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole:
- Conspiracy theories create sense in a senseless world. It’s terrifying to imagine that impersonal, uncontrollable forces govern our lives. Weirdly, it can be more comforting to believe that a small, sinister cabal is really the driving force behind history.
- Conspiracy theories explain why people feel dispossessed and disenfranchised. These cabals aren’t just interested in manipulating markets and controlling global conflicts. They’re also out to get you, for whatever you represent to them that they find offensive (for example, because you’re white, male, Christian, and can’t get a date).
- Conspiracy theories are esoteric knowledge. Even if you feel powerless and downtrodden, you can at least claim one advantage: you know something that the sheeple don’t.
- Conspiracy theories give people agency. Even an underdog, when armed with secret knowledge, can strike a blow against their vastly more powerful enemies. Even the act of rejecting the “dominant narrative” can be counted in the ledger of resistance.
There’s lots of interesting social science research into conspiracy theories, posing hypotheses about how there may be a conspiracy theory mindset, how that worldview makes one open to seemingly disconnected conspiracy theories (If clearly there are lizard people running the world, why not Bigfoot?), and even how there might be neurobiological origins of conspiracy thinking. And it’s nothing new for scholars to point out how often conspiracy theories (or, as Umberto Eco called it, “obsession with a plot”) are an integral part of fascist content.
But none of these possible explanations tell us why someone would be willing to believe in specific MAGA fever dreams, such as voting machine companies are rigging elections, Venezuelan gangs have seized power in a Colorado suburb, Haitian immigrants are eating innocent pets, gay teachers are “grooming” students, or Bill Gates wants to inject microchips into your veins. The content of these conspiracy theories has a simpler explanation: these are the people who already make the believers in conspiracy theories uncomfortable, and they are looking for stronger justifications for their discomfort. Or, to put it more succinctly, they want to believe because they want to hate.
You might simply invoke the word “Othering” and leave it at that. However, I believe it’s more important to understand the mechanism that replaces the humanity of people you don’t like with a demonic caricature.
There are many basic human impulses at work which polite, vague terms like “disenfranchisement” don’t capture. They’re as simple and direct as discomfort (with the day workers hanging around the Home Depot parking lot), disgust (with the concept of gay sex), fear (about one’s own sexual leanings, of changes to the community in which one lives, etc.), envy (of people who are more successful than yourself), and bafflement (at how complex systems, such as government agencies and supply chains, operate).
Conspiracy theories take these very raw human feelings and turn them into a narrative of good and evil, in which the most extreme countermeasures are justified. It’s not just that transvestites makes me feel icky, but drag queen story hours are an active plot to corrupt the nation’s youth. Those day workers aren’t merely people unlike myself, but still recognizably human; they’re rapists and murderers who have infiltrated our country. That talking head on TV isn’t merely someone with whom I don’t agree, but a secret communist trying to undermine the pillars of American society.
MAGA conspiracies are so ridiculous because they are trying to justify things that are inherently hateful. The more innocuous the truth (most immigrants are just people looking for a better life, or escape from a horrible fate; LGBTQ+ people don’t want special privileges, they just want to be treated as humanely and fairly as everyone else; etc.), the more outlandish the narrative has to be.
Of course, no one is immune from taking this dark path, including people of more left-wing political persuasions. One simply has to look at the equally absurd conspiracy theories in the history of Communism that justified horrors like the liquidation of Ukrainian “kulaks,” the killing fields in Cambodia, or the Cultural Revolution. However, we’re talking about this particular movement, in this country, at this time, and the eager embrace of fantasies that are as ridiculous as they are hateful.
There are other mitigating factors, obviously. Fifty or a hundred years ago, the person who rants about how the Earth is hollow and aliens have secret bases within it would have been the neighborhood kook, with few ways to reinforce their beliefs beyond a few fringe publications, newsletters, AM radio shows broadcast in the middle of the night, and the occasional TV “documentary” show. Now, they are plugged into vast networks of fellow believers who provide encouragement and tortured explanations needed to sustain their beliefs in the face of facts. They also, of course, now have a Conspiracist In Chief who fans the flames of their paranoia, and a legion of other full-time conspiracy thought leaders doing podcasts and posting on social media. You can call this a “permission structure,” but again, I fear this language may as denatured as “disenfranchisement.” What we’re talking about is a license to hate.
To re-make my point from Tuesday’s post, none of this goes away if Kamala Harris is elected president, and the inauguration happens without interruption in January. Once you crawl your way to the top of a pile of tortured logic, unbridled hatred, and outright lies, it’s terrifying to climb down again — particularly when there are legions of people cheering you on, telling you that you’re exactly where you should to be, sneering at the people you think should stay below you.
Here, here. Nice summation.
It will be interesting to see how this ends and when. The US went through a period of conspiracy mongering in the 30’s and it took WWII to break that spell. I fear that it will take a similar out of society shock to break this sad period.
Excellent post.
@Sleeping Dog: In the absence of external enemies, people look inside their own borders/communities for people to hate. Hating is the thing. Who is immaterial.
ETA: China has been very wise to avoid being seen as a geopolitical enemy. I wonder if Xi is wise enough to continue on that path. China would be easy to hate. It’s in our mutual histories.
Long ago I realized that the reason absolute bullshitters (Trump, Jim and Tammy Faye, etc) are so successful amongst a certain demographic is because they can project absolute certainty 100% of the time. Frightened and anxious people value certainty above truth and accuracy. People who are telling the truth have to acknowledge qualifications and unknowns, people that are projecting certainty never do. Amongst that frightened and anxious segment of the population, bullshitters will always win. Full stop.
People believe whatever lets them belong. For many people, especially those raised religious, pretending to believe nonsense is a badge of honor. The ‘fool for Christ’ thing. I know everyone thinks I’m just beating on religion, but the eagerness to believe nonsense begins in Sunday school. Humans don’t pop out of the womb as credulous ninnies, that’s learned behavior. A Christian is deliberately taught that they must believe nonsense in order to belong. They demonstrate that faith by trying to convince others to believe the same nonsense. When that fails they use government power to compel belief, and all the while none of them really, truly believe.
Believers often have difficulty even making sense of atheism and insist that it must be an alternate form of faith. Of course it’s not. An atheist says: I don’t see the evidence to support your belief. It’s the opposite of faith. Atheists are the little child who sees that the emperor has no clothes.
We are quite likely to see the end of the American Republic. It will be ‘believers’ who will kill democracy.
Othering.
This week my first cousin re-posted a conspiracy theory about FEMA and Hurricane Helene relief. I replied that maybe we should just snooze until after the election because I was too old for angry politics.
My cousin responded with a civil reply that she was worried that people weren’t receiving the help they needed. I responded that I appreciated her caring, but I simply didn’t believe the video, and shared the experience of my community that burned up 4 years ago and how FEMA relief works.
My other first cousin (her brother) chimed in and warned her about not snoozing–that it’s what They want.
I started to reply that, “Sheesh!, I wasn’t They, I was his first cousin,” but then erased it in the belief that you can’t argue rationally with an irrational person.
Another first cousin (the other side of the family) was in a cult back in the 70s. They would track him and call if they felt he was not checking in or straying a bit. The Facebook exchange felt a bit like the True Believers are making sure no one strays.
MAGA is such a hot mess of cult and intentional dissociation that permits hate and Othering. And the talk show hosts rake in the moola with their lies.
Great post. I particularly like this:
I would add that that “license to hate” comes not only from a Conspiracist In Chief, podcasts/posting on social media, and vast networks of fellow believers. The “license to hate” also comes from the collective shrug of key normalizers – the press who cover the hate as though it is a reasonable, constructive response to the haters’ economic anxieties or the pols & pundits who want to convince themselves and others that Trumpism is just politics as usual.
BTW – licenses can be revoked.
@Skookum:
My mother-in-law has lost her reason due to long term exposure to Fox News. My kids can’t talk to, let alone debate ideas with, her any more. I’ve asked her how it could be that she could come to trust/believe the agenda-serving charlatans on the TV more than her daughters or grandchildren and their lived experiences. She refuses to process the question – the cognitive dissonance is too much for her.
@Michael Reynolds: Thank you for your concern troll. I’ll take your thoughts under consideration.
@Scott F.: I disagree. A license to hate can only be abandoned/not renewed. You can’t revoke free will/agency no matter how hard you try. Believing that you can is the flaw that powers the erroneous belief that atheism is the opposite of Christianity, as MR pointed out earlier.
ETA: In relation to your m-i-l, as Ann Wilson so succinctly put it: “I can’t sell you what you don’t want to buy.” Your m-i-l didn’t lose her reason watching Fox News; she watched Fox News because it matched her world view.
Concern troll? Not sure where you see that.
I’m stating my case clearly: teach kids to believe in things for which no evidence exists and you create a person whose natural defenses against bullshit have already been weakened. There is no MAGA conspiracy any dumber than Noah’s Ark, or Jonah, or virgin birth, or the resurrection, or heaven and hell.
The gospel is a sick story. God creates creatures he knows will inevitably sin, and rather than blame himself, he decides to condemn them to hell. And the only way around this is for him to send his son to be tortured and killed. It’s a picture of a psychopathic God, and we’re meant to see it as a good story about a God of love? It’s appalling. Do you have to kill a sacrificial lamb before forgiving your kids?
Religion is a conspiracy theory, a very profitable conspiracy theory. It is not a coincidence that Evangelicals are the core of MAGA. It’s not a coincidence that the happiest and most progressive nations are also the most godless.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Just to add: there is no coherent epistemological model that says truth is both a) that which is demonstrated by replicable experimentation, and also, b) whatever bullshit you feel like believing. That circle cannot be squared. Reality is either evidence based, or it’s not. You cannot say that 2+2=4 unless you want it to equal 5.
@Michael Reynolds: Are there any models in you epistomologic view that allow for truth that you fail to perceive?
(Incidentally, I don’t recall ever having applied the term “truth” to any articles of personal faith. Jesus is reported to have said “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” but I don’t make that claim for what I believe as it applies to anyone not named cracker.)
@Michael Reynolds:
Oh, would that it were so simple.
It’s more like a primal need. That’s why it goes back to long before civilization. Not that I understand such an emotional need; religion has never made any sense to me, even when I kind of practiced and believed in Judaism.
Doesn’t hold a candle to the Book of Job.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It’s true that hate can’t be revoked. But, license is given by others. The press with their Cletus Safaris, the politicians with their “I’m just listening to my constituents” BS, and the wider public with their shrugging off abnormality gives permission.
Sure, the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. I’m not suggesting it is possible to get them to stop hating. F*ck em! What I’m saying is the wider public doesn’t need to validate their hatefulness. I believe I agree with you that the racism, xenophobia, and hate have always lurked there in the hearts a many a citizen. What is different now is Trump and Trumpists have let the lurkers be loud and proud with their hate – we’ve given license. That hasn’t always been the case and it doesn’t have to stay that way. That’s a matter of our will/agency not theirs.