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| Salem Witch Trials |
The spread of bizarre conspiracy theories, advocated in several recent speeches, makes us think about how they spread. Hillary Clinton is the devil. The United States government was behind 9/11. The government wants to take our guns and put us in FEMA concentration camps. All silly.
In part, mainstream writers, scholars, and journalists simply do not realize how popular these absurd, but often dangerous, ideas have become. The conspiracy theories are so ridiculous that responsible people do not believe how many people either believe these piles of nonsense, much less recognize how much harm conspiracy rhetoric can cause. Unfortunately, a great many Americans have been persuaded of ridiculous conspiracy theories.
Worse, it is actually not necessary for people to believe conspiracy theories for them to be dangerous. Many people who do not believe the conspiracy theories do, however, at least suspect that they are true. There are plenty of real reasons to mistrust authorities; adding fuel by spreading conspiracy rhetoric only weakens the American republic.
And, while this goes on, most mainstream experts falsely attribute conspiracy rhetoric to a small lunatic fringe.
Here's my post about how to evaluate conspiracy speeches: http://harpine.blogspot.com/2016/10/speeches-about-conspiracies-how-can-we.html
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