Conspiracy theorizing against out-groups is as old as American colonization itself

Evidence

Conspiracy theorizing has been part of the American system of governance and culture and thought since its beginnings: as journalist Jesse Walker writes in his book The United States of Paranoia, early white settlers, including history textbook favorite Cotton Mather, openly speculated that Native Americans were controlled by the Devil and conspiring with him and a horde of related demons to drive them out. Walker also points to the work of historian Jeffrey Pasley, who found what he called the “myth of the superchief”: the colonist idea that every Native-led resistance or attack was directed by an “Indian mastermind or monarch in control of tens of thousands of warriors.” — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 27

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s claims about out-group demonization and scapegoating mechanisms — early colonists casting Natives as devil-controlled conspirators parallels later moral panics and prejudice psychology claims. — connects to: Out-of-power domestic groups generate most conspiratorial talk — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 699; Conspiracy theory has long filtered how Americans view rival political forces. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 48; American conspiracy thinking dates to the founding fathers themselves. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 52
• QUESTION: The superchief myth is a useful cross-cultural pattern: powerful actors almost always assume out-group violence needs a hidden mastermind rather than decentralized agency — worth chasing how this inverts (or projects) the conspiracy theorist’s own logic.

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy theory has long filtered how Americans view rival political forces. #expands (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 48
• Out-of-power domestic groups generate most conspiratorial talk #qualifies (0.72) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 699