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In US politics, conspiracies are rife – and many more emerged in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Tackling them requires us to see conspiracism differently, says researcher Sophia Knight.
Within minutes of Saturday's attempted assassination on former US President Donald Trump, conspiracy theories started to swirl online.Without any evidence, people spread claims that the incident was everything from a hoax to a plot. Swept up in a divisive presidential campaign, online voices spun up explanations to fill in the details of the day's shocking events.
Conspiracy theories are not new in American politics. Adherents of QAnon – a wide-ranging political conspiracy movement – were among those who caused chaos at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, while there are many still invested in conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of former President John F Kennedy more than 60 years ago. From such experiences, we know the division, discord and disintegration of trust they breed can be extremely damaging to a democracy's health.
So, what do we do about this rising tide of conspiracism? Most importantly, the answer is not to just try and prove people wrong. Any attempt to debunk a conspiracy has a good chance of backfiring, playing into established narratives of "the elite" or "deep state" censoring the truth.
Continued below.
Within minutes of Saturday's attempted assassination on former US President Donald Trump, conspiracy theories started to swirl online.Without any evidence, people spread claims that the incident was everything from a hoax to a plot. Swept up in a divisive presidential campaign, online voices spun up explanations to fill in the details of the day's shocking events.
Conspiracy theories are not new in American politics. Adherents of QAnon – a wide-ranging political conspiracy movement – were among those who caused chaos at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, while there are many still invested in conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of former President John F Kennedy more than 60 years ago. From such experiences, we know the division, discord and disintegration of trust they breed can be extremely damaging to a democracy's health.
So, what do we do about this rising tide of conspiracism? Most importantly, the answer is not to just try and prove people wrong. Any attempt to debunk a conspiracy has a good chance of backfiring, playing into established narratives of "the elite" or "deep state" censoring the truth.
Continued below.
Anatomy of a 'conspiracy loop': Do we need a new way of looking at the spread of fake claims?
Researchers say they understand how fake claims and wild theories surface – and then take hold. But can anything be done about them?