Elite reticence about conspiracism erodes public trust in whether representatives mean what they say

Evidence

Failure to speak truth to conspiracy changes the complexion of the partisan connection. Rooted in calculations of electoral survival and party loyalty, reticence raises the question in constituents’ minds, indeed in the public mind, whether party leaders and representatives mean what they say. When are they accommodating conspiracism in bad faith? When are they actively peddling stories they know are false? When are they pandering to and exploiting popular fears or donors’ threats? Can they be trusted when it comes to fundamental untruths that degrade democracy? — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 331

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Compliant elite silence, not belief, enables conspiracism to delegitimize democracy — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 138; Elected officials know better yet dignify debunked conspiracy claims — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 235; Party officials uniquely positioned to rebut conspiracism instead acquiesce for electoral survival — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 329 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Institutional credibility depends on not openly repudiating citizens’ counterfactual idealizations #corroborates (0.85) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 13