Conspiracy theories represent rot in the nation. They result in less social cohesion, poorer decision making, and lack of confidence in the government and the system.
At their heart they are always about mistrust.
They are the result is a combination of things. First, the national discourse that drives democracy is breaking down. We used to have conversations that we structured by the limits of the media. Limited airtime meant that debates had to be focused around unifying themes, and in turn this unified people.
Now the internet has removed those limits and an infinite variety of opinions get airtime, some of them extremely kooky, some outright hostile towards our own selves. This has fundamentally made us less unified.
Second this process is augmented by the who are hostile to our way of life. Foreign dictators, Islamists, and others ideologically opposed to Western democracy and capitalism plant fake news and foment dissent.
All this weakens us. It's actually weakening our democracy itself: more people today would accept and support a non democratic transfer of power, and lack of focus in debates would enable an elected leader to seize additional power unconditionally while cowing the legislatures and the people to accept it.
Caeser ended the Roman Republic by declaring additional powers for himself and ignoring objections by the Senate. That can happen, and in a world where no one trusts the system that can easily happen.
At their heart they are always about mistrust.
They are the result is a combination of things. First, the national discourse that drives democracy is breaking down. We used to have conversations that we structured by the limits of the media. Limited airtime meant that debates had to be focused around unifying themes, and in turn this unified people.
Now the internet has removed those limits and an infinite variety of opinions get airtime, some of them extremely kooky, some outright hostile towards our own selves. This has fundamentally made us less unified.
Second this process is augmented by the who are hostile to our way of life. Foreign dictators, Islamists, and others ideologically opposed to Western democracy and capitalism plant fake news and foment dissent.
All this weakens us. It's actually weakening our democracy itself: more people today would accept and support a non democratic transfer of power, and lack of focus in debates would enable an elected leader to seize additional power unconditionally while cowing the legislatures and the people to accept it.
Caeser ended the Roman Republic by declaring additional powers for himself and ignoring objections by the Senate. That can happen, and in a world where no one trusts the system that can easily happen.