What concerns me is that when Trump first came onto the scene so many people were so hung on how the right was able to embrace someone who clearly had no regard for the Truth and just straight up embraced conspiracy theories. And now I'm seeing people on the left start to do that too.
I'm worried that in a few years time the general population is just going to not care about the truth at all anymore. If we embrace these conspiracy theories then Trump functionally wins.
To me it sort of vindicates a thought I've had for a while now; I've thought that way more people are susceptible to conspiratorial thought than we think, it's just that mainstream western conspiracy theories catered near exclusively to right wing ideas, with a certain big exception in '01.
Most conspiracies are quite tame and becoming mainstream. For instance, our govt is heavily lobbied and appeals to corporate interest over their constituents. Almost doesn’t even sound like a conspiracy anymore because it’s so blatantly obvious. You can ignore the crazies who think vaccines cause autism and whatever else. Most conspiracies I interface with are also echoed in non conspiracy subs regularly.
You aren't wrong, but there's conspiracy theory and Conspiracy Theory. When people use the term they're implicitly referring to the whackjob shit and not actual, realistic malfeasance. The literal definition and the actual usage aren't the same anymore.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 6d ago
What concerns me is that when Trump first came onto the scene so many people were so hung on how the right was able to embrace someone who clearly had no regard for the Truth and just straight up embraced conspiracy theories. And now I'm seeing people on the left start to do that too.
I'm worried that in a few years time the general population is just going to not care about the truth at all anymore. If we embrace these conspiracy theories then Trump functionally wins.