Conspiracy theory requires a vision of threatened political values to attach to

Evidence

Classic conspiracism is embedded in a more or less explicit ideology or political theory. Nelson captures this astutely in his account of American revolutionary conspiracism: “Expect the worst from those in power” is a temper of mind, but what is the worst that we believe is being done to us? For that we need a conception of liberty, of law, of rights, of political institutions that are being subverted for conspiracy theory to attach itself to. The Declaration of Independence, as we have seen, was itself a conspiracy theory in the context of a broader commitment to equality, natural rights, and government by consent. The sometime messianic claim of classic conspiracists to expose the threat and save the country or the world is inseparable from a story of just what is threatened and—crucially—from a vision of what the saved, restored, rehabilitated nation should be: a republic, a nation without slavery, democratic elections free of covert influence. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 71

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The core insight that conspiracy theories don’t float free — they need a substantive theory of liberty, law, and rights to define what is being subverted. The Declaration of Independence reading is genuinely paradigm-shifting.
• SEED: Possible essay angle: what did the competing conspiracisms of 1776 have that modern ones lost — and can a constructive politics be rebuilt on conspiracist energy?
• XREF: connects to: Conspiracy theories give concrete form to a group’s sensed loss of power — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 58

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy theories give concrete form to a group’s sensed loss of power #expands (0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 58