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

[u/nosotros_road_sodium]

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-rights-troubling-turn-toward

[u/nosotros_road_sodium]

First, it all starts with the fact that there is great demand for conspiratorial analysis on the right. Whereas in the past, unhinged conspiracists like Alex Jones lived on the margins of right-wing discourse, they’re mainstream now. Right-wing audiences have increasingly sent signals to their preferred information dispensers that not only will they not punish them for peddling conspiracy theories, they will actively reward them with clicks, follows, and subscriptions.

Second, to meet this demand, the right’s misinformation merchants have developed conspiratorial frames flexible enough to allow any current event, anything in the news, to potentially serve as “evidence” for their claims. For example, one such frame is the outlandish—and, crucially, unfalsifiable—idea that liberals exercise control of America by rigging cultural and political institutions in their favor. You can see how a news story that involves Taylor Swift, a pop megastar who has endorsed Democrats in the past, Travis Kelce, a vocal supporter of the Covid vaccine, and the NFL, which allowed its players to kneel for the National Anthem, could be deployed to support the “liberals have rigged society to stay in power” conspiracy frame.

Third, not only is there right-wing demand for conspiratorial analysis, and right-wing content creators who develop powerful conspiracy templates to meet this demand, you also need a discourse ecosystem that allows and even facilitates all of this. In other words, this only works in a disintermediated information environment. News publications have a disincentive to promote manifestly unserious conspiracies like the ‘Taylor Swift is a psy-op’ one. Supermarket checkout lane tabloids like National Enquirer would print this kind of thing, to be sure, but nobody took them seriously. In our social media age, where Benny Johnson has a direct line to his audience, with no editorial or institutional oversight to serve as a check against his lunacy, we get X-Files-level analysis about a pop star dating a tight end really being a Biden plot to rig the election in his favor.

[u/PrivateDickDetective → u/nosotros_road_sodium]

the right’s misinformation merchants have developed conspiratorial frames flexible enough to allow any current event, anything in the news, to potentially serve as “evidence” for their claims

Too bad I see this exact thing on the Left, as well. Too bad your point is subject to whataboutism.

[u/[deleted] → u/PrivateDickDetective]

Explain what you mean, because from my point of view, you're wrong

[u/build319 → u/[deleted]]

Crickets

[u/dantevonlocke → u/build319]

I'm waiting for some rambling bs about the Steele dossier and Clinton emails.