New conspiracists are self-styled cognoscenti, not the intuitive people of populism.
Evidence
Where populism lauds the unconstrained, untutored, intuitive voice of the people, the new conspiracists have a special power to see nefarious dealings that others don’t. They have their own brand of elitism; they are a company of cognoscenti with special knowledge, identifying “false flags” and discerning the workings of a “deep state.” They are members of an inner circle with a privileged ability to decode the hidden causes of things. They are not the spontaneous, intuitive people of populist ideology. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 155
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the earlier claim from chapter 6 that conspiracism offers ‘cheap knowingness as an elite status’ — here the elitism is fully theorized. — connects to: New conspiracism offers cheap knowingness as an elite status — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 95; Populism assumes a homogeneous people betrayed by an elite cabal. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 152; Conspiracists falsely portray themselves as skeptical critical thinkers — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 265 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Conspiracists falsely portray themselves as skeptical critical thinkers
#corroborates(0.82) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 265 - New conspiracism abandons evidence while classic conspiracism theorizes it
#expands(0.80) - Conspiracist assent functions as tribal identity signaling, not factual assertion.
#corroborates(0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 126 - The new conspiracism is uniquely and asymmetrically a right-wing phenomenon.
#qualifies(0.72)