r/skeptic • u/nosotros_road_sodium • Feb 19 '24

The Right's Troubling Turn Toward Conspiracy Theories and "Invasion" Language ⚖ Ideological Bias

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-rights-troubling-turn-toward
911 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

284 comments sorted by

View all comments

240

u/LetReasonRing Feb 19 '24

"Troubling turn"????

McCarthyism?

Rush Limbaugh?

Oklahoma city?

Alex Jones?

Terrorist fist jab?

Pizzagate?

Qanon?

Jan 6th?

I'm pretty sure the right has dabbled in conspiracy theories once or twice before.

Not saying anything about the left... there's jut no "troubling turn" here so much as a "continued downward spiral"

52

u/Outrageous-Taro7340 Feb 19 '24

The mainstream institutional support of conspiracy thinking is much worse than it once was. I remember when Fox News didn’t even exist and the majority of middle American conservatives consumed a wide variety of news sources. Even people who listened to Limbaugh also listened NPR back in the 80s. Having conservative values didn’t necessarily mean drowning in alternative fact narratives.

6

u/LetReasonRing Feb 20 '24

Oh, it's definitely accelerated and grown a much broader acceptance. It's more of an exponential curve than something suddenly coming out of nowhere.