Why We Should Expect Further Rise in Conspiracy Theories

A symptom of the decline in the U.S. educational system is the dramatic rise in the number of conspiracy theorists.

What these folks have in common is that, by definition, a small, malicious, and clandestine group that has successfully convinced the vast majority of the U.S. population, aka “sheep,” that something we take for granted is actually false. The main theme is that some group of government elites are working with corrupt scientists to promote one or more of the following hoaxes. A growing number of Americans look at the world like this:

SUBJECT	SUPPOSED HOAX	SUPPOSED TRUTH
Climate change	Is caused primarily by human activity, presents a grave threat to human civilization, but can be mitigated/adapted to by technology	Is undergoing widespread debate among scientists. Is perpetuated by anti-capitalist/anti-American interests, bent on destroying the United States. In addition is this biblical text: only God can destroy the Earth.
Donald Trump	Is a conman, liar, and criminal, acting only for his own enrichment	Is an honest and dedicated servant of the American people, the only force preventing us from socialism and the invasion of criminals from Mexico.
COVID-19	Is a real and extremely dangerous disease, the only wise approach to dealing with which lies in the application of science	Is a planned test of the government’s ability to take away Americans’ civil liberties; the government has no right to force people to take precautions to prevent its spread
Science	Should be trusted and used as the basis for decision-making in terms of public health and safety	Is used by the elites and corrupt forces to control American citizens

I received a rude awakening as to how the United States had deteriorated over a very short period of time when I spoke recently with an old friend from my boyhood. Because he lives in Florida, a state that had experienced a terrible spike in COVID cases, I asked him about the pandemic. “Oh, the plandemic? It’s our government’s attempt to learn how far they can push us citizens before we refuse to go any further. Isn’t it funny that I don’t know a single person who has had the disease. Do you?”

I explained that between my wife and me, we know four people who have died of the disease, including the person I most admired outside of my parents, my favorite teacher, Joe Perrot.

“Did he have any pre-existing conditions?” he snapped.

“Well, I don’t know anything specific about his personal health, but he was 89 years old, and perhaps you could say that old age is a pre-existing condition in and of itself,” I replied, resisting the temptation to figure out which “news” sources he looks to for truth on important matters like these, and realizing that people, once they go down this road, are not going to be turned around by a phone call from an old buddy.

This whole experience would have been unthinkable as recently as 20 years ago, a time during which anyone who made completely baseless assertions that contradicted the findings of our scientists would have been written off as a lunatic, or at best, a fool. Now we have a woman in congress who was elected solely on the basis of her belief in QAnon. From the New York Times:

QAnon scored its first national political victory on Tuesday when Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the convoluted pro-Trump conspiracy theory, won a House seat in Georgia, bringing into the halls of Congress an online movement that has inspired real-world violence and been branded a potential domestic terrorism threat by the F.B.I.

Ms. Greene was among at least a dozen Republican congressional candidates — some estimates put the number upward of 20 — who had expressed some degree of support for QAnon and its baseless belief that President Trump is fighting a cabal of Satanist child-molesting Democrats and deep-state bureaucrats who seek global domination. Most were running for reliably Democratic seats.

Ms. Greene’s victory was expected — she was running unopposed in one of the most conservative districts in the country — as were losses by most of the other QAnon-linked candidates. None of the results altered what by now has become apparent inside and outside the Republican Party: This is the year conspiracy theories, QAnon among them, gained a new foothold in the party.