How To Sell Conspiracy Like McDonald's

I tried to calmly push back against his voice on the other end of the line, conceding some things (okay, yes, the Clintons are sketchy) but pressing others (the election was not rigged). I don’t remember the specifics of all I tried to tell him or what he gave to me as “evidence,” but I do remember one thing he said:

“I mean, look at me. Where’s my American Dream? I didn’t get my American Dream.”

There was no point in arguing with that. The whole thing wasn’t about the “facts” but about who we were and where we spoke from. So after talking a little about baseball, I said I love you and hung up. I think a lot of people have had these sorts of conversations.

Conspiracy Theories as Pollution

Jess Maddox, a researcher at the University of Alabama, recently made a great post about online conspiracy theories, using the always-feverish conjurings of Taylor Swift fans as an example. Maddox describes how new communic…