And I won't bother to try. Instead, I'll just give you some basic reminders about the social science of conspiracy theorizing. Today, "Conspiracy Endorsement As Motivated Reasoning: The Moderating Roles of Political Knowledge and Trust," by Joanne Miller, Kyle Saunders and Christina Farhart. American Journal of Political Science, 2015, Volume 60, Number 4.
Essentially, people latch onto conspiracy theories because they are given ideological comfort by the notions. It makes my party look good, or better yet, the other party look bad. These wacko QAnon people? Their accusations about the Democrats are basically pizzagate-type stuff, so that fits. Where Miller et al.'s research got more interesting was an asymmetry in the role of information. Normally, if you are better informed and better educated, you are less likely to believe idiotic bullshit, but on the right, there was a weird interaction effect where the more informed they were, the more of an effect the authors found of ideologically motivated conspiracy theorizing.
Why? Uh... Well, you can read what they have to say for yourself, but let's be blunt about this. Conspiracy theorizing has been big in the GOP, and the conservative movement for years, and since Trump, it has only gotten worse. The direction of causation is not clear. The process is likely dynamic.
This QAnon crap is quite new to me. Every time I turn over another rock, I find more crazy shit these people believe.
But here's the thing. Knowledge. Simply knowing who Robert Mueller is puts QAnon devotees at the higher end of political knowledge (by some definition of "knowledge") in this country than your average voter. Remember, you are weird. You are reading a political scientist's morning blog. Weirdo! (Hey, I'm writing this, so I'm way the hell out there!) Most people know very little. In the 2016 American National Election Studies survey, only 54% (weighted) could correctly recall that Paul Ryan was the Speaker of the House.
Donald Trump rose to the top of the Republican Party with a batshit crazy, racist conspiracy theory: birtherism. He propounds conspiracy theories on a regular basis. "Deep state" is practically a right-wing motto these days. QAnon isn't that far past any of this, and you shouldn't be surprised that people are latching onto it. You should be surprised if Trumpkins stop at only this level of craziness.
Apropos of yesterday's post, I wonder if I just invited a bunch of spam...