This interview was originally posted on KJZZ by Sam Dingman.
Conspiracy theories are having a moment, as they often do in times of chaos. Many Americans are struggling to make sense of the various billowing cultural headwinds: seemingly endless wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, extreme partisan division at home, an executive branch battling scandals and consolidating power at an unprecedented scale.
As people struggle to make sense of it all, they seek out what Northeastern University professor Sarah Riccardi-Swartz calls “supportive scaffolding.” They look for points of connection between these various crises, hoping to find some sort of throughline.
Enter conspiracy theories. Distilled ideas — no matter how irrational — that seem to prop up the otherwise unstable structure of reality.
Riccardi-Swartz says that starting in the late 1990s, certain groups have shown a particular interest in conspiracy theories.
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