Conspiracy millenarians draw on a shared reservoir spanning religion, aliens, and strange races

Evidence

Rather, they construct wholly new creations out of bits and pieces acquired from astonishingly diverse and unrelated sources. It is as though there were some reservoir of motifs into which the new millenarians can dip, acquiring scraps of this or that ideology, idea, or creed. But what sort of reservoir is this that encompasses not only the familiar themes of religious and secular millenarians but also the more outré elements—Jesuit-Masonic conspiracies, Jewish cabals, sudden shifts in the polar axis, UFOs bearing alien emissaries, subterranean tunnel systems populated by strange races? — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 159

Categorization

• XREF: The idea of a shared ‘reservoir of motifs’ parallels the author’s later account of stigmatized knowledge and its circulation. — connects to: New World Order conspiracy theory fuses millenarian Christianity with secret-society pseudohistory — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 245; Diverse millenarian movements are unified by a shared conspiracy theory. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 240; Conspiracy beliefs mark subcultures rooted in fringe religion and politics (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Diverse millenarian movements are unified by a shared conspiracy theory. #expands (0.85) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 240
• Post-1960s millennialism freely blends traditions into conspiracist bricolage #expands (0.80) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 110
• Conspiracy beliefs mark subcultures rooted in fringe religion and politics #expands (0.78)
• Conspiracy theories inherit the mythic good-versus-evil frame of American religious zealotry. #expands (0.75) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 55
• Conspiracy movements depend on a symbiosis of believers and opportunists #expands (0.72) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 905
• New Age wellness fairs function as hub venues where conspiracy theories circulate #exemplifies (0.72) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 42
• Conspiracy and millennialism function complementarily by dividing labor over the problem of evil #expands (0.72) — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 107