Conspiracy believers suspect fellow believers closest to them of being state plants

Evidence

It was at that point that I noticed a man in his late thirties hovering very close to us, filming us with his phone and talking quietly to himself; I realized after a moment that he was livestreaming, telling his viewers what he was seeing. When LaLa mentioned Trump, he laughed out loud, a short, sharp bark. “Controlled opposition,” he said loudly, pointing the phone at LaLa. “Controlled. Opposition.” … He couldn’t quite help himself, though. “You love Trump,” he told LaLa. “You love David Seaman.” The crisp NRA hat, the BENGHAZI shirt—it all looked to him as if she was a plant, sent to the rally to discredit the movement. (Later, in an online video dissecting the event, he zoomed in on her purse, which looked barely used. A sign that it was freshly bought and contains a hidden camera, he speculated.) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 252

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Demonstrates the self-cannibalizing logic of paranoid epistemics: suspicion extends laterally until even proximate, sympathetic believers are read as controlled opposition on the basis of un-falsifiable surface signs (a barely used purse).
• XREF: Resonates with vault material on in-group policing and the collapse of interpersonal trust under authoritarian/surveillance worldviews, and with segmentary purity dynamics in the trust literature. — connects to: Conspiracy believers must burrow deeper as their ideas gain mainstream acceptance — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 228; In conspiracy culture any widely accepted belief is presumed false — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 172; Conspiracy theories can be generated about conspiracy theorists themselves. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 958 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy theories can be generated about conspiracy theorists themselves. #exemplifies (0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 958
• In conspiracy culture any widely accepted belief is presumed false #corroborates (0.80) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 172
• Conspiracy believers must burrow deeper as their ideas gain mainstream acceptance #corroborates (0.75) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 228
• Conspiracy believers abandon specific claims while retaining a core that something must be wrong #expands (0.70) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 214