An officeholder’s specious claims carry destructive force once backed by institutional power
Evidence
Presidential conspiracism is doubly unique. Trump has unique personal characteristics, for one thing. For another, the presidency allows him to act on conspiracism in ways unique to the office, with incomparably destructive consequences. Conspiracism allied with presumptive authority and institutional power means that the president’s claim to own reality is accompanied by the capacity to act on it. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 150
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the general phenomenon that ideas held by the powerful differ from private delusion because they can be acted on — parallels to base/basing books and to Orwell themes. — connects to: Equivocal officeholders can delegitimize institutions without fully endorsing conspiracy claims — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 333; A president’s conspiracism coerces officials into accommodation and distorts governance — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 170; Presidential office converts personal conspiracism into publicly authoritative claims — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 169 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Presidential office converts personal conspiracism into publicly authoritative claims
#expands(0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 169 - A president’s conspiracism coerces officials into accommodation and distorts governance
#corroborates(0.82) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 170 - Equivocal officeholders can delegitimize institutions without fully endorsing conspiracy claims
#qualifies(0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 333 - Deliberately induced political chaos consolidates rather than weakens the orchestrator’s power
#complicates(0.70) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 442