[danShumway]

This is an idea that Cory Doctorow has also promoted at various points: that the increase in conspiracy theories are due to the increase in conspiracies, and people just don't know how to tell real conspiracies from fake one.

I agree that his/your position is worth considering, and I don't think it's that far off of the mark, but I also think it's kind of oversimplifying a tiny bit.

I think some people honestly get swept up in conspiracy theories out of pure mistake, but I've also seen people get pulled into conspiracy theories not out of some kind of rational mistake, but because those theories validate something that they want to be true, or because they offer a community that isn't otherwise available, or just because it feels good to think that every problem in the world is some specific person's fault. Jumping from general distrust of the world to full-on conspiracy is... well, it's a jump, not a simple step. I don't think everyone in QAnon is there just because they're not rational enough, I think there are multiple issues at play.

I suspect there is no single unified cause for conspiracy theories that we can point to, even though I do agree with people like Doctorow that actual rampant corruption in our institutions both isn't helping with the problem and is understated as a potential contributing factor.

[TeMPOraL]

Fair enough. I think that the community aspect is a competing theory here - or even a complementary one. I've personally (face-to-face) dealt with conspiracy believers that tend to be isolated in their beliefs, but I totally buy that for many, it's the shared belief that matters, almost regardless of what the belief is even about. This also has support of some sociological research I remember reading.

About the Doctorow's idea, I don't know. Do we have increased amount of conspiracies? Or perhaps just a perception of it? Or maybe we're constantly exposed to micro-conspiracies - namely all the businesses, big and small, scheming how to one up each other and screw up their customers - that make people prone to see conspiracies everywhere?

[indymike]

This line of thinking confirms my biases.