conspiracy theories

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/5/2022
  

  How QAnon Catchphrases Took Over the KBJ Hearings

  by Donald Moynihan

  "QAnon, a sprawling set of baseless conspiracy claims, is built on nods and winks, which has allowed it to move from the fringes to the center of American politics without toppling the mainstream conservative politicians who are courting its adherents."

• 
• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  2/1/2022
  

  Whack-a-Mole

  by Rivka Galchen

  Reviewer Rivka Galchen looks at two recent books that highlight the importance of cultural beliefs in the acceptance or rejection of vaccines. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  10/6/2021
  

  The Apocalypse Never Dies, It Just Gets Weirder

  by Thomas Lecaque

  "Not only has the apocalypticism of the last few years not died out, but things aren’t getting better." A historian considers the intensification of apocalyptic rhetoric in American evangelicalism, and its fusion with the Trumpist political movement.

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  9/9/2021
  

  The Conspiracy Theorists Are Coming for Your Schools

  by Thomas Lecaque

  "Over the past year, as the conspiracy theorists have come together under one big apocalyptic tent we have seen organized campaigns of harassment, threats of violence, attempts to harm members of school administrations, and physical altercations at school board meetings when masks are mandated."

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  9/10/2021
  

  Another 9/11 Legacy? The Spread of Conspiracy Theories Online

  by Jeff Melnick

  9/11 happened as traditional American media outlets were being consolidated into a small number of corporate networks, encouraging people seeking information to turn to decentralized sources and, eventually, social media, opening space for misinformation and conspiracy theories. 

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  Richard J. Evans on Fascism, Today's Right, and Historical Truth

  by Aaron J. Leonard

  "Honest historians know they have to abandon their arguments when the evidence turns out to disprove them; dishonest historians and conspiracy theorists bend the evidence to fit the argument."

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  8/24/2021
  

  Spike Lee’s New Documentary Platforms a 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist [UPDATE: LEE TO EDIT DOC]

  "There’s still time, though, before Episode 4 airs, for Lee to do the right thing by excising the 30-minute section from the film, which is totally unnecessary to the true and important story he tells in the rest of the episode."

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  8/23/2021
  

  Bad Information: QAnon is a Social Problem, Not a Cognitive One

  by Nicolas Guilhot

  "The champions of debunking and the new information vigilantes are not interested in entertaining the possibility that the root cause of conspiracy theories may be located outside the mind and may require a reexamination of our economic and social arrangements."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/8/2021
  

  The John Birch Society Never Left

  by Rick Perlstein and Edward H. Miller

  Journalists are calling for the Republicans to follow the lead of William F. Buckley and stand up to far-right extremists in their ranks. The problem is that neither Buckley nor the GOP of the 1960s did any such thing, instead perfecting the technique of speaking to two audiences. 

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  Does Ridiculing Q Followers Fuel the Fire? Historical Lessons in Applied Social Science

  by Jayson Dibble

  The January 6 Capitol riot brought the QAnon conspiracy into public view, including the toll on families when a member adopts the worldview. Looking historically at social science research on cults suggests that while aggressive ridicule might be tempting, it's counterproductive. 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  3/2/2021
  

  'More Dangerous And More Widespread': Conspiracy Theories Spread Faster Than Ever

  Kathryn Olmsted says that conspiracy theories have always been part of American politics, but they have become more widespread in the last ten years, and their endorsement by a former president is unprecedented. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  2/25/2021
  

  QAnon and the Satanic Panics of Yesteryear

  by Daniel N. Gullotta

  "The perception of a Christian nation in religious freefall fits almost seamlessly with QAnon’s conviction that the United States is under spiritual assault."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/15/2021
  

  Eroding Trust, Spreading Fear: The Historical Ties Between Pandemics And Extremism

  Historian John Fea says that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of a long line of disease outbreaks encouraging paranoid thinking and a siege mentality. 

• 
• 2/14/2021
  

  History, Evidence and the Ethics of Belief

  by Guy Lancaster

  Untrammelled freedom of belief has been enshrined as an American civic virtue. The nation, democracy, and possibly the planet are imperiled without a collective commitment to respect belief only to the extent available evidence supports it. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/6/2021
  

  Marjorie Taylor Greene is Just the Latest Radical White Woman Poisoning Politics

  by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae

  White women have been active participants in creating and advancing the politics of white supremacy and eliminationist conspiracy theorizing. Marjorie Taylor Greene's antics are nothing new. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/6/2021
  

  History Reveals the Danger of Republicans Indulging Marjorie Taylor Greene

  by Austin Nicholson

  Allowing Marjorie Taylor Greene to accrue seniority and committee leadership will bring her dangerous, conspiratorial and bigoted thinking into the mainstream of policymaking. 

• 
• 2/4/2021
  

  How Do You Solve a Problem Like Marjorie?

  The House of Representatives has voted, mostly on party lines, to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments in response to her statements endorsing the Capitol riots and conspiracy theories that school shootings were hoaxes and California wildfires were started by the Rothschild banking family using space lasers.

• 
• SOURCE: Buzzfeed
  1/29/2021
  

  Trump Taught Teachers Conspiracy Theories. Now They’re Teaching Them To Students

  “More than anything else, teachers have to distinguish between what’s a real controversy and what’s a pseudo controversy,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor and education historian. “And a real controversy happens when the best-informed people disagree — a pseudo controversy is when they don’t.”

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/14/2021
  

  A TV Documentary Shows the Deep Roots of Right-Wing Conspiracy

  New Yorker critic Richard Brody discusses the 1964 broadcast of "Danger on the Right" on the John Birch Society. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/8/2021
  

  A Scholar of American Anti-Semitism Explains the Hate Symbols Present During the US Capitol Riot

  by Jonathan D. Sarna

  The presence of conspiracy theorists and overt and coded anti-Semitic messages at the Capitol riot shows that far right ideology continues to target Jews in a conspiratorial, eliminationist worldview.