Normalization of insanity to get through a news cycle: why, oh why, do members of the press keep writing articles about the GOP leadership believing in conspiracy theories? They don't. Conspiracy theories are memes manufactured by people for money and deployed by politicians seeking power. Only the voters believe them. Regardless, voters brush off many theories and keep those that assuage their fears. The problem is not conspiracy theories, it's lack of accountability. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/conspiratorial-thinking-polarization-america-united-kingdom/672726/
I respectfully disagree regarding #GQP leadership. I've included a couple of snippets of texts/emails below. Many of them do believe in conspiracy theories, if not most. Please don't let the ones that do slide bc not all of them do. If the party didn't want this, they can quash it abruptly.
Bamboo fibers on ballots from China, Chinese thermostats changing votes somehow, Jewish space lasers, German server farms, Italian satellites, etc etc...
Thomas takes the cake, though.
@ExecutiveFunction404 Oh, I am not being somehow apologetic for them. They use these memes for power seeking, not simply hysterical coffee shop talk with friends. The line between opportunism and belief is so fine that I think only the stupid, confused rubes among them actually believe what they are telling constituents, but all of them move from theory to theory in order to keep the money pouring in. They have learned it doesn't matter if they believe a theory, because the result is the same.
I agree with what you're saying here. A lot of them definitely lie & rant about nonsense to rile up their base.
I wasn't referring to memes. I was replying to your remarks about the reps not believing conspiracies. The 2 screenshots ☝️ were private conversations via email & text. (there are so many more texts/emails) They're GQP to GQP; no constituents involved. So, that's what I was referring to in my reply. Many of them do truly believe outlandish conspiracies.