{"id":20492,"date":"2025-07-20T06:55:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T06:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/?p=20492"},"modified":"2025-07-20T06:55:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T06:55:55","slug":"why-conservatives-cant-live-without-conspiracy-theories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/?p=20492","title":{"rendered":"Why conservatives can\u2019t live without conspiracy theories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/tags\/ExplainingTheRight\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Explaining the Right<\/em><\/a><em> is a weekly sequence that appears at what the proper wing is at present obsessing over, the way it influences politics\u2014and why you might want to know.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><span>Over the past two weeks, President Donald Trump <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/7\/14\/2333318\/-Trump-and-MAGA-turn-on-each-other-over-Epstein-files\" target=\"_blank\">has been at odds<\/a><span> along with his MAGA base like by no means earlier than.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>His administration has stated it won&#8217;t disclose any additional data on the case of convicted intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and Trump has railed towards his personal supporters for not falling in keeping with the present narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"image-captioned align-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Video from Nov. 1992, showing Donald Trump socializing with Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-A-Lago.\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/856693\/large\/ScreenShot2020-09-15at11.33.58AM.png?1600194898\" title=\"Video from Nov. 1992, showing Donald Trump socializing with Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-A-Lago.\"\/><figcaption>President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago in 1992.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span>In the meantime, Democrats<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/7\/16\/2333669\/-Democrats-slam-Trump-and-GOP-for-cover-up-of-Epstein-files?pm_campaign=front_page&amp;pm_source=top_news_slot_7&amp;pm_medium=web\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>have taken him to task<\/a><span>, highlighting how the proper claimed that Trump\u2019s election would result in additional disclosures. However now the GOP has stonewalled any makes an attempt at transparency and presumably implicating Trump himself within the fallout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Led by Trump, conservatives<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/how-trump-spent-years-stoking-dark-theories-and-why-hes-facing-epstein-case-blowback-now\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>spent years<\/a><span> pushing conspiracy theories about Epstein and his demise as a result of it fed into longstanding narratives in regards to the elite and Democrats. Supporters advised themselves that Epstein\u2019s intercourse trafficking was used to profit the super-rich and that Democrats had been overlaying all of it up for the purported \u201cglobalists\u201d they work in live performance with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However this isn\u2019t a current growth. Trendy conservatism has at all times been obsessive about this sort of wild conspiracy pondering.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The John Birch proper takes management<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>The extremist John Birch Society<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/11\/03\/nx-s1-5165364\/how-the-john-birch-societys-conspiracies-led-to-political-divides-in-the-1960s\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>rose to prominence<\/a><span> on the proper within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties in response to the rise of the so-called \u201cliberal\u201d world order underneath leaders like Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However it wasn\u2019t sufficient for Birchers to easily oppose liberal concepts; they needed to bask in weird conspiracies, just like the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2008\/05\/conspiracy-watch-fluoride-pinko-plot\/\" target=\"_blank\">notion<\/a><span> that the inhabitants was being brainwashed to help communism by way of fluoridated water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After the conservative rebellion that led to Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona and his acolytes taking management of the occasion\u2014and dropping the 1964 election in a landslide\u2014the conspiracy-first mindset, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/harpers.org\/archive\/1964\/11\/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\">described as<\/a><span> \u201cthe paranoid type,\u201d turned the default on the proper.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Paranoia goes mainstream<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>Whereas some GOP leaders like Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush stoked conspiratorial fires time and again, there was an understanding that this model of extremism was a political nonstarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"image-captioned align-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1389977\/large\/AP25020642942506.jpg?1737477947\" title=\"Former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)\"\/><figcaption>Presidents Barack Obama and Invoice Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span>The Republican institution wished the votes of conspiracy true believers with out the general public humiliation of standing by simply debunked absurdities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This started to alter after President Invoice Clinton ascended to the White Home in 1993. Annoyed by Clinton\u2019s win, conservatives<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/encyclopediaofarkansas.net\/entries\/the-clinton-chronicles-video-8575\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>openly accused him<\/a><span> and Hillary Clinton of working a drug-trafficking ring and committing a sequence of murders, amongst many different simply debunked conspiracies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This reached a fevered pitch when President Barack Obama was elected. The appropriate couldn\u2019t settle for the legitimacy of a Black president and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/sean-hannity\/flashback-how-fox-news-promoted-trumps-birtherism\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>embraced<\/a><span> the \u201cbirther\u201d conspiracy, claiming that his beginning certificates was false and that he was actually Kenyan. After all, Trump was probably the most outstanding booster of this racist smear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Figures as soon as on the skin, like<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2024\/9\/25\/2272857\/-Alex-Jones-will-finally-pay-for-his-horrific-lies-about-Sandy-Hook\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist<\/a><span> Alex Jones, turned normalized underneath Trump and the MAGA motion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Out of the blue, the proper started brazenly accusing Democrats of being half of a kid sex-trafficking ring known as \u201cPizzagate,\u201d which<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/blogs-trending-38156985\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>inspired believers<\/a><span> to commit crimes, together with<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2017\/03\/26\/521545788\/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-apologizes-for-promoting-pizzagate\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>the Alex Jones fan<\/a><span> who stalked a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant to liberate youngsters from the institution\u2019s nonexistent basement.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Conspiracies imply easy solutions<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>In a fancy world with horrible issues continually occurring that appear to defy clarification, conspiracy theories assist to make issues \u201cmake sense.\u201d The appropriate grasps onto these theories as a approach to clarify why the world doesn\u2019t go their means.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"image-captioned align-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. Many of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 cited falsehoods about the election, and now some of them are hoping their gullibility helps them in court. Albert Watkins, the St. Louis attorney representing Chansley, the so-called QAnon shaman, likened the process to brainwashing, or falling into the clutches of a cult. Repeated exposure to falsehood and incendiary rhetoric, Watkins said, ultimately overwhelmed his client's ability to discern reality. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1391974\/large\/AP21149461169983.jpg?1738006011\" title=\"FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. Many of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 cited falsehoods about the election, and now some of them are hoping their gullibility helps them in court. Albert Watkins, the St. Louis attorney representing Chansley, the so-called QAnon shaman, likened the process to brainwashing, or falling into the clutches of a cult. Repeated exposure to falsehood and incendiary rhetoric, Watkins said, ultimately overwhelmed his client's ability to discern reality. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)\"\/><figcaption>Trump supporters throughout the Jan. 6, 2021, rebel of the U.S. Capitol ignited by the conspiracy idea that the 2020 election was stolen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span>For example, many Republicans have merely by no means believed {that a} Black individual is certified to be president. Obama purportedly being a Kenyan with a sprawling conspiracy holding him in workplace seems to them as a rational clarification.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Equally, following Trump\u2019s disastrous first time period, many on the proper had satisfied themselves that he did an excellent job. As a substitute of reckoning with failures just like the COVID-119 demise toll on his watch, the proper\u2014led by Trump\u2014<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/6\/18\/2328813\/-Trump-is-back-on-his-insane-rigged-election-bullsh-t\" target=\"_blank\">argued<\/a><span> that the 2020 election was stolen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Republicans have capitalized on this mindset, feeding their supporters a gradual stream of conspiratorial nonsense, together with<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/4\/18\/2317261\/-White-House-transforms-official-COVID-site-into-conspiracy-cesspool\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>debunked theories<\/a><span> in regards to the origins of COVID-19 and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/3\/18\/2310992\/-Oh-great-QAnon-nut-Michael-Flynn-is-back-just-like-Trump-promised\" target=\"_blank\"><span> <\/span>the QAnon conspiracy<\/a><span> that includes elites attacking youngsters for his or her blood.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Trapped in their very own entice<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>Conspiratorial pondering is the area of the proper. However within the Epstein saga, Republicans are affected by backlash to one thing that they created. The story has morphed from one thing to simply affiliate with the left right into a story being suppressed by one in every of their very own, Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><span><strong>Associated |\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/7\/14\/2333318\/-Trump-and-MAGA-turn-on-each-other-over-Epstein-files\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Trump and MAGA turn on each other over Epstein files<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><span>Now, a tradition that has advised conservatives to not consider proof that they witness with their very own eyes is instructing them to easily drop it and transfer on. That&#8217;s proving troublesome for a lot of and not possible for some.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump desires the proper to close up about this storyline, both as a result of his administration realizes there\u2019s nothing there to show, or as a result of Trump himself is straight implicated. However his personal MAGA world has been advised for thus lengthy that this occasion is the straightforward resolution to so a lot of their issues, in order that they aren\u2019t so prepared to let it go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The appropriate wants this conspiracy to be true so actuality will be defined away. Trump can\u2019t cease it, he\u2019s simply alongside for the journey.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2025\/7\/19\/2333746\/-Why-conservatives-can-t-live-without-conspiracy-theories?pm_campaign=blog&#038;pm_medium=rss&#038;pm_source=main\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Explaining the Right is a weekly sequence that appears at what the proper wing is at present obsessing over, the way it influences politics\u2014and why you might want to know. Over the past two weeks, President Donald Trump has been at odds along with his MAGA base like by no means earlier than. His administration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[597,796,995,797],"class_list":["post-20492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-conservatives","tag-conspiracy","tag-live","tag-theories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20493,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20492\/revisions\/20493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisbiginfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}