New conspiracists claim elite esoteric knowledge, unlike populists’ plain people

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: Connects to the elitism-of-the-knowing-inner-circle pattern seen in esoteric movements and secret-society claims. — 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; New conspiracists are self-styled cognoscenti, not the intuitive people of populism. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 155

Broader Connections

• New conspiracists are self-styled cognoscenti, not the intuitive people of populism. #corroborates (0.95) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 155
• New conspiracism offers cheap knowingness as an elite status #expands (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 95