Here’s an Atlantic article that talks about Sean Hannity’s promotion of the Seth Rich conspiracy:
Here’s Media Matters on Hannity spreading conspiracy Theories about Charlottesville:
Here’s Media Matters again on frequent Fox News pundit Jerome Corsi and his bag of lives from Birtherism to The New World Order:
Here’s Politico on Fox News promoting The Deep State:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/26/fox-news-deep-state-conspiracies-372856
An article I read a few years ago, pre Trump (might have been in the New York Times), tried to explain why there was no left wing equivalent of Fox news (yes, there is MSNBC, but their viewership is a fraction of those of Fox). It essentially stated that people on the left were more likely to get their news from multiple sources, whereas on the right they were willing to trust just one. I don’t remember if they discussed the reasoning behind it, though, or many more details.
Actually this shows that you did not read carefully, I said that NIMBY rules there, meaning that in that issue both are not doing good but again in the reddest of states, Arizona, I do not see the reasonable left demanding an end to the nuclear power plants we have and on the other hand, even with all the waste land and desert there is virtually no talk from the Republicans nowadays about Arizona setting a dump site since other states are unwilling to do so.
And then lets not talk about Trump that instead of building nuclear energy plants he decided to build a wall.
Agreed, although it is still sad when one notices the wasted years when fear of remaining dependent on fossil fuels was not as important as the fear the Pubs had/have with immigrants.
To the contrary, Vince Foster has been *and remains *a topic of discussion/conspiracy-mongering by the likes of Sean Hannity on Fox.
I’ve been interested in conspiracy theories for over 30 years. The big ones from my youth, like the Satanic Panic, UFOs, UN Black Helicopters, etc, had supporters of varying political ideas. Though most of the Satanic Panic supporters were conservative Christians, there were a fair number of leftist feminists that also believed that Satanic Cults existed and were systematically torturing children. Credulity wasn’t concentrated on the right. Sure, there were groups like The John Birch Society, but they didn’t monopolize conspiracy theories the way guys like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, and other rightwing media personalities do. Now most of these people don’t believe the nonsense that they disseminate, and often bring up conspiracies on their shows under the guise of “just asking questions.” And it’s obvious when you see that, that they are pandering to a credulous audience that does believe. I don’t see a similar dissemination of bullshit from the left, whether it be the mainstream left, like MSNBC, or even extreme sources like the Socialist Worker.
Of course there are people on the left that believe in Bigfoot, Atlantis, UFOs, and the like, but I don’t see leftwing sources pushing these stories. If John Oliver or the New Yorker or even The Socialist Worker ( Why is measles back? | SocialistWorker.org ), were to do a story about vaccine denialist, it would not be a story about how vaccines are bad, and a plot by pharmaceutical companies to make your kids gay, it would be about how vaccines are good, and measles is super bad. On the other hand, if Fox, or Breitbart, or The Washington Times was to do a story about Seth Rich, it’s more likely to suggest that his death was part of an evil plot by Hilary Clinton.
If I’m missing the left wing sources that are pushing these same type of stories, let me know, but please don’t point me to a facebook group of concerned moms.
My WAG is that those on the right tend to be more Authoritarian. They want the One True Authority to tell them what to think.
The Authority used to be the Church. Now, for many (even church going folks) that influence has waned, and they are desperately seeking the One True Authority to help tell them what to think. Fox news is that Authority for some. Why would they go looking for an alternative? For them, this is just crazy talk.
Right. You could argue the entire post-2015 GOP has grown from the birther CT, with its most visible champion their undeniable leader.
I’d love to see a cite, but if true that’s a pretty good rebuttal.
Republicans are older than Democrats, on average. The anterior insula becomes less active with age, and with it the inability to differentiate between trustworthy and untrustworthy information. Hence why old people are always being taken in by financial scams as well.
I suppose it’s an open question if people become Republicans because they’re more gullible, or if there’s just a correlation here.
Is there a huge diff between Satanic Panic and “The Joker movie will cause incels to rise up and kill people”?
And have we really got this far without mentioning RUSSIARUSSSIARUSSIARUSSIA Sanders Gabbard Stein RUSSSSSSSSSIAAAAAAAA!!!
How about climate change denialists and “Shut down all nuclear plants now!”…i suppose technically they’re bassackwards science idiots and not conspiracy theorists.
So as a quick attempt at objective analysis, I did a search under conspiracy theory on snopes.
The first page contained 9 conservative conspiracy theories, 2 Liberal conspiracy theories, and one Neutral conspiracy theory (concerning Nostrodamus and the Notra Dame fire). A quick scan of other pages shows a similar distribution.
Conspiracy theory: Snopes is biased.
A cite that differentiates between this,
September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories
and this,
September 11 intelligence before the attacks
would be nice too.
CMC fnord!
If that dig was about what they did against Hillary, with bullshit conspiracies like Benghazi, then it turns out that there was a wolf as she cried about, as for Diebold, IIRC there were some on the left that believed that Diebold actually helped Hillary gain the nomination, so what are you talking about?
I am talking about the conspiracy theories in 2004, that Diebold hacked the voting machines.
It’s a reference to the vast right-wing conspiracy trying to prove that Bill lied under oath and sexually harassed women.
Other examples are AIDS was created by the government to wipe out black people, the CIA was behind the crack epidemic, etc.
If you would like to argue that these theories are held by people who mostly vote Republican or are right-wing, feel free, but I don’t think you will get very far.
Regards,
Shodan
Fine, got anything from the last 10 years? Or preferably, since Trump was elected?
One piece I came across (but can’t find anymore, it was a while ago) opined that contrary to what might be assumed conspiracy theories were most common among the “winners” in society - that is to say, people who voted for their guy and their guy won but shit didn’t change the way they assumed it would so they have to make up a reality that explains it away without having to admit to themselves that their guy wasn’t who they thought he was.
But of course it’s not all about politics - troofers for example come at the event from a standpoint of “America is the most powerful country in the world with the most powerful military in the world, no way 19 randos could defeat its security”. Or possibly “I’m safe as a citizen of America, it’s not possible for a random person to kill me out of the blue” (which also goes towards the whole crisis actors/fake mass shootings conspiracies btw)
Wut ? I’ll grant you anti-vaxxers to some extent as I do believe (without any cite or thorough look at the subject, mind you) the majority of them fall on the crunchy granola and/or Hollywood flake end of the spectrum ; but what’s lefty about moon hoaxers, troofers or chemtrail nuts ?
Actually Sean Hannity (the biggest Fox News talking head now that O’Reilly has been sent to a nice farm upstate) has posted support for Qanon on his personal Twitter account.
I’m pretty sure you can find anti-vaxxers on the extreme rightas well as on the extreme left.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/27/anti-vaccine-republican-mainstream-1344955
Based on my own extensive exposure to antivax lunacy, I’d say it comes about equally from the Left and Right.
Examples of far right antivax conspiracy shouters are Alex Jones and Mike Adams (of Natural News infamy). Left-end-of-the-spectrum antivaxers tend to cluster in more affluent neighborhoods in California and other places, but also include figures like RFK Jr. and even Al Sharpton, whose organization promoted an antivax conclave in Harlem later this month, before Al took a bunch of heat for letting white antivaxers exploit the black community and decided to back out.
Rachel Maddox and Russia…Don Lemon and …narf…and “jetliner swallowing black holes”
Well, the current leader of the Republican Party:
Screw it, there is already a list:
When you find someone as powerful and as nutty as that On the left, there might be a contest.
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