Donald Trump deploys conspiracy theory as a political mobilizing tool designed to capture anger at the liberal establishment, to legitimize racial resentment and to unite voters who feel oppressed by what they see as a dominant socially progressive culture.
From: Opinion | Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish in Trump’s America – The New York Times
No, not Donald Trump. The Republican Party does this and has been doing this for decades.
The past 25 years of American politics have shown us that the pipeline from right wing talking point to repetition in the right wing media echo chamber to sincerely held GOP base belief is unstoppable and impervious to fact checking.
You could take any decade-plus old article on birtherism and simply re-write it to update if for the current stop the steal conspiracy. You could take a twenty-five year old Clinton Body count conspiracy and also just update it for some new conspiracy. They are re-made and re-booted with the frequency of the Spiderman franchise.
And this is why your crazy uncle liberty thinks Hillary’s Antifa troops are being paid for by Soros and will round up conservatives and put them in jade helm FEMA camps hidden under Ukrainian pizza parlors where they’ll be forced to gay Sharia law marry illegals while the Obama Care death panels confiscate their guns and bibles and force them to say happy holidays as while forcing their kids to learn critical race theory.
I can not think of a single point in my adult life where there wasn’t a moral panic or conspiracy driving my right wing family members.
