The United States of Conspiracy Theory
Should MAGA wear tinfoil hats?
A few months ago, someone texted me that President Joe Biden was “an old racist pedo.” It kind of shocked me. This guy (we’ll call him Conner) was someone I’d known for twenty years. All that time, he’d been apolitical. Now he thought the current president was prejudiced against people based on skin color and molested children.
Perhaps it makes some sense. Conner is a rugged individualist. Divorced. Essentially libertarian. And while he’d never been very political in the years I’d known him, he was a social media user like pretty much anyone else. Instagram, TikTok, X.
Even if he wasn’t wearing a red hat, the conspiracies had found him and hooked into his brain.
What exactly is a conspiracy theory?
Let’s address this right up front: What I’m about to say has some equivalence on the other side. Democrats and the left in general have their information bubbles, but they’re less likely to be conspiracy theorists. That Joe Biden is a “racist” and a “secret pedo” is a conspiracy theory.
Let’s define that term so we’re on the same page.
According to Google, a conspiracy theory is “a belief that some secret but influential organization is responsible for an…
