Conspiracy theories gain credibility when respected mainstream figures endorse them

Evidence

Stripped of its Islamic content, the broad contours of Ye’or’s preposterous thesis recall the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the first half of the twentieth century and contemporary notions of the ‘Zionist Occupation Government’ prevalent in far-right circles in the US. … Yet her book has been well received, not only by established heralds of the Islamic threat, such as Melanie Phillips, Daniel Pipes and Oriana Fallaci, but by respected historians such as Niall Ferguson and Churchill’s biographer Martin Gilbert, who, whatever their political views, might at least be expected to recognise the absence of historical discipline or methodology when they see it. — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 46

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the rhetorical structure of earlier moral-panic and conspiracy literature on Islam in the West; connects to commentary on how credentialed historians launder fringe claims. — connects to: Astroturfed audience plants gain credibility from displacing party authorship — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1792
• SEED: Angle: ‘How Serious Historians Endorse Unserious Books’ — credentialed historians as legitimacy launderers for conspiracy tracts.