The right wing in American politics has been conspiracy driven for many decades. The kidnapping of the Lindberg baby comes to mind as perhaps the earliest example of the phenomenon. Fluoridation of the water supply was a staple of the John Birch society in the 50s and 60s as well as the threat of communists in government. The thing is, only a tiny percentage of even the right actually believed in these conspiracy theories.
The fever swamp was enlarged with the advent of Fox News in the late 90s, but the network still paid lip service to reporting facts which undermined many of the fantasies their prime time hosts trafficked. This dynamic changed with the advent of Donald tRump and the Q anon phenomenon. Suddenly it became semi-respectable to spout absurdities such as Hilary Clinton drinking the blood of small children and running a pedophilia ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington. When asked to disavow Q and the conspiracies he peddled, tRump professed to know nothing about it. With a wink and a nod, his followers were off to the races.
The unholy confluence of tRump and Fox News has led to an exponential growth in followers of conspiracy theories. Of course, the biggest of all being the big lie the 2020 election was stolen. Democracy as we know it may or may not survive this axis of disinformation.
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