Why are Trump supporters especially receptive to conspiracy theories ?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities” - Voltaire.
61-69, M
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DunningKruger · 61-69, M
A better question might be why are people receptive to conspiracy theories supporters of Trump.
The basic conspiracy theorist thinks like this, as I understand it — I want to believe something, but there's no evidence to support it, therefore, someone must be suppressing that evidence, and if they can do that, what else can they do. Trump tapped into what a group of people wanted to believe — that they are an oppressed majority whose rights are at risk from outside forces controlling the world. He offered confirmation that what they wanted to believe is true actually is true. Anything that contradicts what they want to believe is just lies and fraud committed by The Powers That Be and can be rejected out of hand. In fact, the more The Powers That Be try to debunk and disprove their pet conspiracy theory, the more this confirms it for them — "They don't want us to know the truth! Wake up, sheeple!"
Or something like that.
The basic conspiracy theorist thinks like this, as I understand it — I want to believe something, but there's no evidence to support it, therefore, someone must be suppressing that evidence, and if they can do that, what else can they do. Trump tapped into what a group of people wanted to believe — that they are an oppressed majority whose rights are at risk from outside forces controlling the world. He offered confirmation that what they wanted to believe is true actually is true. Anything that contradicts what they want to believe is just lies and fraud committed by The Powers That Be and can be rejected out of hand. In fact, the more The Powers That Be try to debunk and disprove their pet conspiracy theory, the more this confirms it for them — "They don't want us to know the truth! Wake up, sheeple!"
Or something like that.
LegendofPeza · 61-69, M
@DunningKruger I think you just about nailed it there. That certainly chimes with what I've been reading.
There's a very good piece on the subject in today's NYT ; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/opinion/qanon-conspiracy-theories.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
.... the coda to which is truly eye-watering :
"McConnell has a history of bending with the wind, accommodating the extremists in his party, including Trump and Trump’s allies, and he voted in support of the claim that Trump’s second impeachment trial is unconstitutional. If the conspiracy wing of the Republican Party becomes strong enough to routinely mount winning primary challenges to mainstream incumbents, McConnell may well abandon his critique and accept a party moving steadily closer to something many Americans (though not all) could never have imagined: the systematic exploitation of voters gullible or pathological enough to sign on to preposterous conspiracy theories in order to engineer the installation in Washington of an ultraright, ethnonationalist crypto-fascist white supremacist political regime.
The problem of keeping the extremist fringe at arm’s length has plagued the Republican Party for decades — dating back to Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch Society — but nothing in recent American history has reached the crazed intensity of Donald Trump’s perseverating, mendacious insistence that he won a second term in November. That he is not alone — that millions continue to believe in his delusions — is terrifying."
There's a very good piece on the subject in today's NYT ; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/opinion/qanon-conspiracy-theories.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
.... the coda to which is truly eye-watering :
"McConnell has a history of bending with the wind, accommodating the extremists in his party, including Trump and Trump’s allies, and he voted in support of the claim that Trump’s second impeachment trial is unconstitutional. If the conspiracy wing of the Republican Party becomes strong enough to routinely mount winning primary challenges to mainstream incumbents, McConnell may well abandon his critique and accept a party moving steadily closer to something many Americans (though not all) could never have imagined: the systematic exploitation of voters gullible or pathological enough to sign on to preposterous conspiracy theories in order to engineer the installation in Washington of an ultraright, ethnonationalist crypto-fascist white supremacist political regime.
The problem of keeping the extremist fringe at arm’s length has plagued the Republican Party for decades — dating back to Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch Society — but nothing in recent American history has reached the crazed intensity of Donald Trump’s perseverating, mendacious insistence that he won a second term in November. That he is not alone — that millions continue to believe in his delusions — is terrifying."