Republican Conspiracy Theory Inc.

[ck4829]

It's pathetic that the "other side of the aisle" lacks so much depth and originality as QAnon is taking more and more root in the Republican "mainstream".

It gets even sadder when you realize, and you can see this for yourself, that every right-wing conspiracy theory and moral panic for the last several decades is the SAME. EXACT. THING. You have the same words and phrases, you just tweak them around a little bit sometimes, and you can list the same words and phrases off sort of mad-lib style, and voila, you yourself can make an American conspiracy theory.

You know the words, you know the phrases. Phrases like...

"Secret tunnels"
"George Soros"
"Clintons"
"Je... globalists"
"FEMA guillotines"
"FEMA camps"
"Satanists"
"Whatever ethnic/religious minority is scary today"

QAnon's just the same thing as the Satanic Ritual Abuse thing in the 80s, just for even dumber people.

[safeinOhio]

1. This looks like a good read...

Cults and Conspiracies

A Literary History
Theodore Ziolkowski
Explore 2,000 years of conspiracy in literature.

Human beings have believed in conspiracies presumably as long as there have been groups of at least three people in which one was convinced that the other two were plotting against him or her. In that sense one might look back as far as Eve and the serpent to find the world’s first conspiracy. Whereas recent generations have tended to find their conspiracies in politics and government, the past often sought its mysteries in religious cults or associations. In ancient Rome, for example, the senate tried to prohibit the cult of Isis lest its euphoric excesses undermine public morality and political stability. And during the Middle Ages, many rulers feared such powerful and mysterious religious orders as the Knights Templar.
Fascination with the arcane is a driving force in this comprehensive survey of conspiracy fiction. Theodore Ziolkowski traces the evolution of cults, orders, lodges, secret societies, and conspiracies through various literary manifestations—drama, romance, epic, novel, opera—down to the thrillers of the twenty-first century. Arguing that the lure of the arcane throughout the ages has remained a constant factor of human fascination, Ziolkowski demonstrates that the content of conspiracy has shifted from religion by way of philosophy and social theory to politics. In the process, he reveals, the underlying mythic pattern was gradually co-opted for the subversive ends of conspiracy.

https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/cults-and-conspiracies