A LOT of PEOPLE ARE SAYING: THE NEW CONSPIRACISM and the ASSAULT on DEMOCRACY (audiobook) by Nancy L. Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead

 



The key to this book is to understand the difference between a conspiracy theory and the new conspiracism. 

Conspiracy theories are the classic hobby of odd people that we all know. They collect reams and reams of information to prove that the lunar landings were faked, that LBJ had JFK killed, or to prove that 9/11 was an inside job. They work very hard to prove their point. They collect video evidence, find paper trails, produce flow charts and maybe have a wall dedicated to showing how all of the data points connect. There is a logic to conspiracy theories, even if most people find them weird.

 The new conspiracism is often incoherent because it demands no logic - it depends on being repeated over and over again and a strong assertion that "people are saying" it is true. There are no documents that back it up. There are no elaborate theories. Just a "harmless" little observation that "people are saying" followed up with more assertions that "people are saying." 

At best, there may be comments along the lines of "Do the research!" When you do you get into an echo chamber of a YouTube video that refers to an article that refers to a podcast that refers back to the original YouTube video - that's the digital version of "People are saying."

The classic example of this is the Pizzagate situation in which people said that the Democratic National Committee was running a child molestation ring out of the basement of a pizza place. A man showed up with a rifle to free the children from the basement - the problem is there is no basement and there were no children.

The authors supply multiple examples, all from President Trump, Trump allies or Trump supporters. Their "People are saying..." accusations can be pointed at anyone or anything.  The purpose of these actions seem to just to conjure up a few very short term political points. That is common enough, but these behaviors do little but sow the seeds of doubt in our political processes. The authors think that this may actually be the point with some groups or politicians.  

While I agree with every example the authors provided, I think the authors have a blind spot towards the Democrats. 

I am what is commonly called a Never-Trump Republican. I concede that a great deal of the Trump-led-what's-left-of-the-GOP is totally into these sorts of conspiracies. But, the Democrats have had their share of that in the past and they should be noted as well. I notice them because I am a metaphorical refugee from my own party.The fringe of both parties is completely willing to wreck the entire system for a temporary bump in the polls and to activate their super-active fringe voters.

The real problem of this book, though, is that it was published in 2019 and it missed all of the craziness of the 2020 election and its aftermath including the multiple failed lawsuits and the January 6th Insurrection and the predictions from the MyPillow guy that Trump will be reinstated at various times in 2021. I have heard that they are going to offer an update. The only problem is can you offer an update in the middle of an ongoing event?

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5, mostly because it identified and gave a name to a disturbing trend in our national politics. It can be found on Amazon.com here: A LOT of PEOPLE ARE SAYING: THE NEW CONSPIRACISM and the ASSAULT on DEMOCRACY by Nancy L. Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead.

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