[burlesona]

We have an “enemy-centric” political environment right now. I’ve seen this with much more than just Qanon. The strong Democrats I know can rattle off a long list of conspiracies and crimes on the right, and the strong Republicans I know can rattle off a long list of conspiracies and crimes on the left. Meanwhile when I say “this is what the other side says about your team” the reaction is almost universal puzzlement. “Who? That fringe group of crazies? They aren’t part of (my party).”

It’s quite amazing to watch.

[acdha]

This false equivalence falls apart as soon as you assess how widespread such beliefs are and whether they’re based in verifiable facts. There are leftie conspiracy theorists but there’s nowhere near the spread, especially at the senior levels of the party.

For example, Birtherism was easily disproven but persisted for years among a high percentage of Republicans and even among members of Congress, the current President, and many of his appointees. There’s nothing remotely equivalent on the Democratic side - you could probably find someone saying just about anything you imagine but they’re at the fringe rather than making official government actions based on those beliefs (remember Benghazi?)

[burlesona]

The data says this is a bipartisan problem:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-federal-clampdown-o...

As for “which side has more conspiracies,” I don’t think anyone can truly know which side is more or less out of touch with reality when each of us has some kind of affinity to one side or another and will thus have bias that tilts our perception.