Those who question whether the Earth is round – the facts understood by the ancient Greeks and taught to primary school American children may have been political pariah ten years ago. Now they run local Republicans in Georgia and Minnesota, and are seeking public office in Alabama.
Despite years of research and intelligence establishing that this is not the case, a prominent far-right activist who said the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was an internal job by the US government and commemorated the 9/11 anniversary with President Trump last year.
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services, last month pledged to support the agency for a fight that includes the so-called Chemtrail.
Conspiracy theories, relegated to random and often anonymous online forums, are either defended or publicly debated by increasingly powerful people. Trump in particular has been embraced, elevated and even appointed to his Cabinet, which promotes these theories.
“The real problem with communication between ideas and conspiracy theory is when they are proven by people who have the power to act on them,” said Joseph E. Ussinski, a professor at the University of Miami who studies conspiracy theory. “If you think that somewhere, somewhere, the Earth is flat, then the answer is, 'So what?' But when people in power have those beliefs, it becomes a serious problem. ”
He added:
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that mainstream media “painted President Trump as an extreme portrayal of his entire political career,” and that his agenda is “common sense.”
Stories about election fraud and vaccines have surged in public discourse over the past five years. The Pro-Trump movement, known as the Canon, makes the extraordinary claims when it comes to having global sex trafficking operations backed by the so-called deep state, which has proven to be as popular in the United States as some major religions.
However, the conspiracy theory, which is now graduating to mainstream, has been far more marginal until recently. And the people who voice them are becoming more influential.
Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, dubbed “unelected co-president,” have repeatedly proposed this year, without evidence and without assurance that Fort Knox Gold reserves could have been stolen, without the assurance of a current and former Treasury secretary.
Anna Paulina Luna, the second-term Republican leader from Florida, supported by Trump, said she believes the two shooters were involved in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Luna is currently heading to a task force established to investigate “declassify federal secrets,” and has pledged to investigate long-standing conspiracy theorists, including the so-called incongruence phenomenon, including the so-called unidentified anomaly phenomenon, the Covid-19 pandemic, files related to the 9/11, and the customer list accusing Gelly's epstein customer list.
Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgia Republican known for voicing conspiracy theories about September 11th, is her third term in school shootings and wildfires, which were started by Jews with space lasers. During two devastating hurricanes this fall, she posted online that “they can control the weather,” and nodded to the false narrative suggesting that the government can reveal the storm.
Four years ago, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was the minority leader at the time, denounced the kind of “Rooney Rise and the theory of conspiracy” that Greene embraced as “the cancer of Republicans and our nation.” She is currently considering a Senate or governor bid. When contacted by a reporter, a lawmaker's spokesman said his only comment was that the reporter was “crazy.”
Cynthia S. Wang, a professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which runs the Center for Dispute Resolution Research, said more extraordinary theories are being made possible and rewarded by the online ecosystem. Social media platforms classify people into echo chambers, encourage the production of compelling and sophisticated posts, and use engagement metrics to promote content that triggers responses.
Adding a chaotic news cycle full of war, natural disasters, economic disruption and other anxiety-inducing features, conspiracy theory seems to explain the inexplicable, which makes it even more appealing, experts said.
“Many people with authority know that this rhetoric is powerful. It stimulates uncertainty and then “Hey, if you listen to me, I can help with your uncertainty and make sure you and your group are fine,” Dr. Wang said. “That's really comforting.”
Politicians understand that conspiracy theory is at this point “that hurts our collective spiritual itch,” said John Llewellin, an associate professor of communication at Wake Forest University, who studies urban legends and rhetoric. Repeating such stories and committing to act on them allows for some kind of rhetorical hand hands, such as performing card tricks with the right hand, which is going in the wrong direction from what is going on on the left.
For example, pursuing policy actions on the non-existent danger of chemtrails allows officials to “resolve symbolic satisfaction that does not require tax increases or combats healthcare challenges, or real and urgent issues in our society,” Llewellyn said.
Wild stories are causing real-world trouble.
According to an essay published in December by several researchers, including Dr. Ussinsky at the University of Miami, the correlation between support for political violence and the trend of being classified as a conspiracy as a result of conspiracy tripled its size from 2012 to 2022. Researchers theorized that the surge could have been caused by a steady rise in polarization, a decline in trust in facilities, or by Trump's conspiratorial and violent language.
The Strategic Dialogue Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, identified rashes from violent incidents last year involving perpetrators affected by conspiracy theories about ChemTrail, 9/11, elections, the pandemic, and more. Prosecutors said a man who was fueled by his anger over the government, immigrants, the gay community and the movement of black lives was killed and beheaded his father, a former federal employee.
“These theories distort the worldview and political developments and other events can serve as catalysts for action for radical individuals who are already prepared to commit violence,” the researchers write.
According to Watchdog Group, a conspiracy theory feedback loop is formed at all levels of the US government. Efforts to break the chain are weakening. Misinformation and disinformation researchers have faced years of political pressure, including last month's decision to close grants related to field research by the National Science Foundation.
What other topics are from Shunned to Spotlight? “I'm pretty bullish on the devil as the next big thing,” said Angelo Calthorne, president of Media Matters, a left-wing advocacy group that monitors misinformation.
Trump referred to “the devil's army” on the campaign trail and called the Democrats “a very devil's party.” A few days before interviewing both Donald Trump Jr. and Musk at Mar Arago on Election Day, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson posted a YouTube video claiming he was attacked at night “by the devil or the invisible.” Dan Bongino, a right-wing expert and podcaster who is now deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said on his show that “devil's energy is real.”
“It's no longer an abstraction. It's about the straight devil,” Calthorne said. “The hot swamp is our reality now.”
