Documented government abuses are extrapolated into boundless suspicion of state capacities

Evidence

Wright repeated those claims in a 2008 appearance at the National Press Club. “Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything.” (Around then, Wright became such a headache for Obama that the future president denounced his views and cut ties with him. The following year, Wright told an interviewer he hadn’t talked to Obama in some time: “Them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office.”) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 183

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to vault claims on how groups use documented oppression to license general out-group distrust; Wright’s Jew-blaming adds the classic scapegoating strand. — connects to: Past government abuse justifies wary distrust of any officials; Exposed government infiltration would strengthen rather than weaken conspiracism — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 343; Past government abuse gives victims good reason for diffuse, unspecific distrust — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 758

Broader Connections

• Past government abuse justifies wary distrust of any officials #corroborates (0.85)
• Past government abuse gives victims good reason for diffuse, unspecific distrust #corroborates (0.82) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 758
• Exposed government infiltration would strengthen rather than weaken conspiracism #exemplifies (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 343