I woke up to the news that my representative in Congress, Elijah Cummings, had passed away. It got me thinking that if the chairman of one of the Benghazi hearing committees died, it would immediately be called an assassination by people on the right that command a national audience. And no matter the evidence to the contrary, people would continue to support the assignation theory.
The right is more credulous when it comes to conspiracy theories, and this seems to be a recent phenomenon. Thirty years ago, conspiracy theories were at least as likely to be leftist, and modern conspiracy theories of the left tend to be apolitical, like vaccines and the like.
This seems a little pat … like a cartoon version of “the other side”. I’d want to see this actually take place before using it to besmirch one tribe or the other.
The article costs $36 to read but the abstract seems to say there’s a correlation between political extremism and belief in conspiracy theories, not so much right-wing-ism and conspiracy theories. Also between “belief in simple political solutions” (not so uncommon IMHO!) and belief in conspiracy theories.
Now it does seem that extremism has become mainstream on the American right wing (people actually voting for extreme candidates) certainly also accompanied by “belief in simple political solutions”.
I believe that theory. Both conspiracy theorists I have worked with (same job, different departments) are waaaaaay on the left. Like, Looney toons land. One was a vehement anti-vaxxer because Big Brother was replacing the vaccine with microchips to track your every movement and he was pro-everything the left believes in.
I’d have to say I don’t think the OP has a valid theory. Conspiracy theories are believed equally by ether political persuasion. They just believe different ones.
The right: pizzagate, The Clinton’s murder list, Birthers
The left: anti-vaxxers, moon hoaxers, 9/11 truthers, chemtrails
People have this innate need to feel they are not at the mercy of a cruel, random world, that they are in control. People just choose different things to grasp on to.
Wait. You made up a conspiracy theory about a group of people, then accused them of being susceptible to the conspiracy theory you just came up with? Is that how this works?
The idea that the right is more subject to conspiracy theories sounds like selective perception and confirmation bias to me.
It is difficult to debate something that didn’t happen, but read the Amber Guyger and Jeff Epstein suicide threads for left-wing conspiracy theorizing.
I’d say that extremists believe in extreme things. I think you are underplaying the left and what many believe wrt CTs. There is even some cross over for specific CTs, with left and right extremists believing certain facets of a CT, even when you’d think they were diametrically opposed. Hell, I read somewhere that something like 50% or more Americans believe in one or more CT’s, so this isn’t going to be left/right…the middle would be in there too.
Really, the question is why do PEOPLE, regardless of political ideology, believe in wild CTs? I’d love the answer to that, as most of them are just so stupid it’s hard to credit anyone would believe such horseshit.
How about them? I don’t agree that belief in those conspiracy theories is either (a) statistically significant in number of believers or (b) reflective of any particular wide swath of people. I acknowledge that a fringe exists, but not that it is any more than a fringe.
I’ve seen enough right wing conservative Christians that are anti-vaccine. 9/11 hoaxers are mostly right wing antisemites. Moon Hoaxers are apolitical, and chemtrail believers come in both varieties. I don’t think any of these are inherently more likely to be left wing, with the exception of vaccines, and leftists with a national audience don’t support these theories, with the exception of vaccines. Alex Jones is just as likely to do a show on any of these subjects, choosing the crazy side.
OK, what about Seth Rich? What about Sandy Hook? What about Qanon and Pizzagate? I didn’t make those up. Why do conservatives with mainstream reach and large audiences support this nonsense, where I would be super surprised if Rachel Maddow or John Oliver did a show about Elijah Cummings being murdered by Trump.
You said my OP was a cartoon version of the other side. I was trying to give real examples. They may not believed by the majority of registered Republicans, but would you be surprised to hear Fox News promoting them?
This premise is difficult to accept out of hand. I anticipate, though, that we’d be getting bogged down definitions of the bolded items. For instance, I would disqualify the likes of Alex Jones out of hand as, charitably, a cynical showman – he’s no conservative standard-bearer.
OK. I’ve sited other real conspiracy theories that are common on the right, and are promoted by rightwing figures that have a national audience. There is no leftist equivalent of the Clinton Hit List, or Sand Hook, or Pizzagate. The closest I can think of is vaccines, and there are plenty of antivaccine people on the right.
If you think I’m cherry picking, please let me know what I’m overlooking.
I never called him a standard bearer. I just said he has a national audience. I think the comparison to Rachel Maddow is apt. I don’t enjoy here show, and think that her editorial style is often excruciating and belittling, but she has a national audience and has never said the moonlanding was fake, or that chemtrails are real.
