Stigma level, not truth, determines which conspiracy beliefs reach mass audiences.

Evidence

The most immediate advantage for New World Order ideas of being placed in a UFO context has been a reduction in stigma. Although UFO ideas have often been the target of ridicule, the enormous size of the UFO-accepting public has made it impossible to stigmatize UFO beliefs so completely that they are banned from public discussion. Far from it: UFO ideas have ready access to such avenues of distribution as cable television, mainstream bookstores, and magazine publishers. They fall into the realm of stigmatized knowledge in that they are rejected by science, universities, and government, but the level of stigmatization has not been so great as to exclude them from popular culture. … By contrast, the views of the radical right have been so excluded, through an unstated yet powerful pattern of self-censorship on the part of the mainstream. This voluntary silence has denied access to beliefs deemed racist, bigoted, completely unfounded, or likely to justify or promote violence. Tales of secret Illuminati conspiracies, imminent UN invasions, and Jewish, Masonic, or Jesuit plots, for example, have been informally banned from media, classrooms, and other mechanisms of knowledge distribution. Unlike beliefs about fl ying saucers, considered eccentric but socially harmless, many conspiracy ideas deemed both false and dangerous have been banished from the mainstream discourse. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 417

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter on stigmatized-knowledge beliefs channeling believers toward conspiracy theories. — connects to: Marginalization itself functions as evidence of truth for believers — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 190; Conspiracy theories succeed only when anchored in issues people care about — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 748; Stigmatized-knowledge belief channels believers toward conspiracy theories — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 186 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy belief rates may be stable while their reach has exploded #corroborates (0.82) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 227
• Ordinary people can generate conspiracy theories on demand #corroborates (0.80) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 218
• Conspiracy beliefs stay stable while conspiracy talk shifts with power #corroborates (0.78) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 749
• Polarization does not statistically predict conspiracy talk #contradicts (0.75) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 667