![]() 8ĭespite the lengthy history and global popularity of conspiracy theories, a common perception exists that the world now faces a unique inflection point in the history of conspiratorial theories, and not just among conspiracy theorists. Individuals’ country of residence further provided little value as a predictor of engagement with conspiracy theories. Researchers found similar levels of engagement with conspiracy theories across the United States and Europe. 7 While many hold these beliefs only loosely, for some they can become an obsession.Ĭonspiracy theory belief further appears not to be bound by country or culture. 6 A 2018 study conducted in Florida found 80 percent of respondents endorsed at least one of 9 conspiracy theories. 5 Critically, all eight conspiracy theories covered by this poll related only to domestic political events of the prior four years, omitting long-standing and much more popular theories, including those related to the assassination of JFK and 9/11.Īs the number of conspiracy theories researchers poll on rises, the percentage of people who endorse at least one rises in tandem. In 2020, researchers found that more than forty percent of Americans endorsed at least one of eight conspiracy theories. The anti-Masonic movement of the 1830s and 1840s, anti-Catholic sentiment in the early 20th century, and the anti-Communist movement of the 1940s and 50s were all rife with conspiracies in which the fate of the nation hung in the balance. ![]() 4Ĭonspiracy theories have periodically convulsed the nation ever since. The name of the group behind the plot will be familiar even to those with only a passing acquaintance with conspiracy theories: the Illuminati. In 1798, a Lutheran preacher from Maryland wrote to George Washington to warn him of a dire threat a secret group with the express aim of overthrowing all governments and religions, was spreading like wildfire. 3Ĭonspiracy theories are further not a novel phenomenon of the internet age. According to polling conducted by Emerson College in 2019, even QAnon, frequently depicted as a fringe right-wing phenomenon, drew equal support – 6 percent – from both Republicans and Democrats. Most often, they are built on a foundation of misinformation and misinterpretations of actual happenings and couched so as to be unfalsifiable.Īlthough recent media coverage has primarily focused on right-wing conspiracy theories, belief in conspiracy is non-partisan. 2 While actual conspiracies do and have occurred, conspiracy theories lack any empirical support. QAnon adherents, however, represent only one, highly-political branch of the wider world of conspiracy theory believers.Ĭonspiracy theories can be defined as stories that explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political events by means of secret plots between two or more powerful actors. QAnon has drawn outsized media attention since the theory first emerged on the anonymous image board 4chan in October 2017, due to both the outlandishness of its claims and its embrace by public figures, politicians, and a number of individuals who participated in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. I wanted to feel like I was part of the solution.” I wanted to feel like I was doing something good. ![]() “Someone would share a news article that says: ‘13 children saved in Michigan from sex trafficking operation.’ And then you think, ‘Okay! It’s working!’ And you just get caught up in that,” she says. Curious, Judy began researching “Q” on the internet, subsequently finding a rich community on Twitter and Facebook, all dedicated to saving children from the clutches of a satanic cabal. This was for the greater good.”Ī former school teacher from southern Mississippi, Judy – whose name has been changed to protect her identity – first learned about QAnon from a post in a Facebook group dedicated to another conspiracy theory that she had joined several years earlier at the invitation of a friend. Or a while there, there was this hashtag, ‘save our children,’” she recalls of her early involvement with QAnon, a conspiracy theory movement that holds, among other things, that a group of prominent politicians and celebrities run an underground child sex trafficking ring. ![]()
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