Why would a politician promote conspiracy theories?
It's fun to read about conspiracy theories. From time to time I'll look at what's going on in the world of flat-Earthers. It's fun to see how the human mind can contort itself to support a presupposed belief and create interesting alternative but unsubstantiated explanations.
It remains entertaining because the harm produced by the flat-Earth theory is local to its supporters and mostly only an epistemic harm. I compare this sort of relatively harmless belief to an adult believing in Santa Claus — a lot of milk and cookies will go to waste but they live an otherwise normal life. They just happen to have a false belief that has little impact on their day-to-day existence.
What is more alarming is when politicians endorse and propagate conspiracy theories. Marjorie Taylor-Greene is perhaps the most egregious offender with Donald Trump being the most consequential.
Conspiracy theories can play different roles for politicians. They can help to achieve some specific political end, like disparaging a rival political candidate, as was the case when Trump accused Joe Biden of taking bribes from a Ukrainian gas company.
They can also spread fear about a non-existent problem while painting the politician as an outsider who has the determination to solve it, as MTG does when she talks about how Jews are attempting to replace the White populations of western countries with non-White immigrants.
It's important to note that conspiracy theories in politics are not new, it has merely become a more effective tool with the introduction of social media. Famously, King Philip of France, being deeply indebted to the Knights Templar, destroyed the order by accusing them of heresy. The ancient Roman Emperor Nero created a conspiracy theory blaming Christians for starting a massive fire that destroyed much of Rome to deflect blame from himself.
Admittedly, not all politicians who spread conspiracy theories are using them for their own benefit. It seems to me that Robert Kennedy Jr. truly believes that vaccines cause autism and that Wi-Fi causes cancer. The only thing RFK Jr. is guilty of is being a massive adulterer with poor critical thinking skills.
But when politicians do use conspiracy theories that they know to be false to achieve their ends, it can change history. Take Donald Trump spreading election denial. Here the possible benefit is clear: conjuring up enough skepticism and public support to hold onto power.
It's alarming just how easy it is to spread conspiracy theories. We're already primed to be distrustful of politicians and public trust in official accounts and expert opinion has been continuously eroded.
I'm not going to try to persuade you that any one specific conspiracy theory is false or poorly supported. This is not likely to be effective given that conspiratorial thinking tends to become so entrenched that the believer comes to be entirely unreceptive to reasons.
It's also the case that some conspiracy theories turn out to be true, which is then mistakenly taken by some people to extend credibility to other conspiracy theories they believe. Instead, I'd simply like you to keep in mind that these falsehoods are tools that many politicians use for their own benefit and they don't care if it's true or if it has the potential to hurt people.
The next time you hear a politician spreading a conspiracy theory, think about their possible motivations for doing so. What could they gain from giving you a false belief? To a certain extent it should be expected that democracy should motivate politicians to embrace conspiracy theories. Their careers are at the mercy of the electorate. They also understand that the electorate can be controlled by exploiting the features that make them susceptible to manipulation in the first place, namely, tribalism and fear.
Since the sort of person who seeks political office is typically a narcissistic sociopath, they have no qualms about exploiting these features
for their own interests. Normal people do not run for office or get elected because we cannot so easily sacrifice our moral principles.
So why should you care about all of this anyway? Over 1,200 useful idiots have been charged with crimes during the Jan. 6 insurrection, many of them receiving significant time behind bars. These were regular people who allowed themselves to be manipulated by someone they've never even met and who could not care less about their ultimate fates.
Rafael Perez is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@ gmail.com.