Conspiracy entrepreneurs merchandise wholly unrelated beliefs into a single confident persona

Evidence

Along with his psychic skills, Morton is also a radio host on a program called Strange Universe, broadcasting daily from Southern California, which covers UFOs, get-rich-quick schemes, practical measures to achieve time travel, and conservative politics in pretty much equal measure. … He has the booming, polished, confident cadence of radio stars everywhere, emanating from an incongruous body: he’s maybe five-foot-six, stout and sandy-haired, with a big D-shaped belly and a bristly little mustache. He’s forever in a navy blazer with what looks like a private-school crest on the pocket; he studs it with pins of Disney characters. TO SAVE TIME, ASSUME I KNOW EVERYTHING, his T-shirt reads. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 46

Categorization

• XREF: The blending of occult/self-help/get-rich-quick with conservative politics echoes the vault’s claim that the same epistemic style underlies disparate belief systems. — connects to: Belief in some conspiracies predicts endorsement of unrelated fictional ones — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 184; Conspiracism is fueled by entrepreneurs seeking money and influence, not its consumers. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 134

Broader Connections

• Belief in some conspiracies predicts endorsement of unrelated fictional ones #exemplifies (0.85) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 184