Conspiracism now serves political winners, not just permanent losers

Evidence

The new conspiracism has what we call a “partisan penumbra,” an alignment with radical, antigovernment Republicans. Not all Republicans or conservatives join these ranks, but as we discuss in chapter 7, they rarely speak out against conspiracist claims. They exhibit partisan reticence. And while the Left participates in its share of classic conspiracy theories, it has not yet taken up the new conspiracism. What we have, then, is an alignment between the extremes of the Republican Party and the new conspiracism—a congruence founded in hostility toward government. These conspiracist claims persist in the United States even when Republicans themselves control government. Today, conspiracism is not, as we might expect, the last resort of permanent political losers but the first resort of winners. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 20

Categorization

• SEED: The inversion “first resort of winners rather than last resort of losers” is a genuinely counterintuitive frame worth building an essay on.
• XREF: connects to: Out-of-power groups always drive conspiracy talk as winners disengage — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 590

Broader Connections

• Out-of-power groups always drive conspiracy talk as winners disengage #contradicts (0.85) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 590