Fear of primaries drives officials’ conspiracist equivocation

Evidence

One of the most intense and immovable American fears is of subliminal, hidden government control. We’re also worried about the other, more overt kind—armies marching down the street, doors kicked in, guns in our faces—but the murky circumstances behind several major military conflicts, combined with revelations of various secret FBI and CIA programs, have helped foster the suspicion that we might be controlled and manipulated through more subtle means, ones beyond our recognition. That’s one reason for paranoia about such threats as mind-controlling fluoride in the water supply, subliminal messages in advertising and Disney movies, and brainwashing in schools through the Common Core curriculum. But the fear of invisible government manipulation is also largely accountable for the prevalence of theories of false flags: the idea that mass casualty events have been orchestrated or carried out by the government to consolidate its power. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 351 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Excluded as it is from society and political representation, the mob turns of necessity to extraparliamentary action. Moreover, it is inclined to seek the real forces of political life in those movements and influences which are hidden from view and work behind the scenes. There can be no doubt that during the nineteenth century Jewry fell into this category, as did Freemasonry (especially in Latin countries) and the Jesuits. It is, of course, utterly untrue that any of these groups really constituted a secret society bent on dominating the world by means of a gigantic conspiracy. Nevertheless, it is true that their influence, however overt it may have been, was exerted beyond the formal realm of politics, operating on a large scale in lobbies, lodges, and the confessional. Ever since the French Revolution these three groups have shared the doubtful honor of being, in the eyes of the European mob, the pivotal point of world politics. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 311 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The model estimates that a one-standard-deviation increase in elite rhetoric predicts a . standard deviation increase in conspiracy talk in the public. These are substantial relationships. — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 679 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State officials defeated Trump’s voter-fraud commission by refusing data — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 357; Novel bipartisan threats are the sole driver of conspiracy talk surges — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 584; Fear of invisible government manipulation drives false flag conspiracy theories. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 351 (+7 more)

Related

• Fear of invisible government manipulation drives false flag conspiracy theories. (similarity 0.84)
• Political exclusion drives left-leaning people to conspiracy theorizing (similarity 0.78)
• Conspiracism exerts independent political force once it takes hold. (similarity 0.78)
• Novel bipartisan threats are the sole driver of conspiracy talk surges (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Fear of invisible government manipulation drives false flag conspiracy theories. #corroborates (0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 351
• Political exclusion drives the mob toward conspiratorial readings of power #corroborates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 311
• Political losing raises a group’s propensity for conspiratorial reasoning rather than causing it #qualifies (0.72) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 756
• Elite rhetoric substantially raises public conspiracy talk #expands (0.72) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 679