Conspiracy theory

• Although there is no uniform definition of “rural,” and even federal agencies cannot agree on a single standard, roughly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, according to the Census Bureau’s definition.
• The unfortunate fact is that polls suggest many rural white people’s commitment to the American political system is eroding.
• Even when they are not members of militant organizations, rural white people, as a group, now pose four interconnected threats to the fate of the United States’ pluralist, constitutional democracy.
• Although these do not apply to all rural white people, nor exclusively to them in general, when compared with other Americans, rural white people:

Let’s examine a few data points.

Xenophobia

• That’s a lower proportion than urban and suburban dwellers and even nonwhite rural residents.
• In addition, Cornell researchers found that rural whites reported feeling less comfortable with gay and lesbian people than urban whites do.

Conspiracism

• Polls in 2020 and 2021 indicated that QAnon supporters are 1.5 times more likely to live in rural areas than urban ones, and 49% of rural residents – 10 points higher than the national average – believe a “deep state” undermines Trump.
• Rural residents are also more likely than urban and suburban residents to believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, according to 2021 polling by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Antidemocratic beliefs

• In addition, more than half of rural residents surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute said being a Christian is important to “being truly American” – 10 percentage points more than in surburban or urban areas.
• This is one of several signals that rural residents are disproportionately likely to support white Christian nationalism, an ideology that reaches beyond Christian ideas of faith and morality and into government.

Justification of violence

• And 27% of Americans who say Trump should be returned to office even if “by force” are rural residents.
• Those are minority views, but both proportions are significantly higher than the rural proportion of the overall population.

Thomas F. Schaller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Liberal commentators frequently condemn conspiracy theories that threaten public safety.
• But what if liberal conspiracy theories can be even more wrong-headed and damaging than their fringe counterparts?

Conspiracy theories, right and left

• Liberal observers often present conspiracism as the preserve of right or left-wingers.
• Journalist David Aaronovitch and philosopher Quassim Cassam, for example, attribute fallacious conspiracy theorising to the political “extremes”.
• According to academic Grażyna Piechota, RT is guilty of “building a conspiracy message [and] using it as a political instrument”.

Combating Corbyn

• But this didn’t stop exaggerated and indeed conspiratorial antisemitism allegations emerging from the British political centre in the mid-2010s to discredit then-Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
• Sacks went further by likening Corbyn to the infamous racist politician Enoch Powell.
• Corbyn himself repeatedly denied accusations of institutional antisemitism in the party but was suspended for claiming that such charges were “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
• Leaked documents from within Labour and an Al Jazeera investigative report found that antisemitism had been “weaponised” against Corbyn by his adversaries.

Trying to topple Trump

• There were even claims about Trump cavorting with Russian prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.
• These liberal conspiracy theories about Trump and Corbyn are as simplistic and fallacious as much leftist and rightist conspiracism because they too often ignore wider economic and political contexts.

Deadly dangers of liberal conspiracism

• Conspiracism from the centre can also have deadly consequences.
• For instance, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, described by US intellectual Noam Chomsky as “the worst crime of the 21st century”, was justified by western governments’ false claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy deadly weapons within 45 minutes.

Stephen Harper is affiliated with the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Tom Sykes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivot CMO, an elite-performance marketing solutions company, is merging with new-media agency Modern Formula (MoFo) to bring performance marketing to the forefront of a superior media offering with creative firepower.
• "We took a hard look at the evolution of performance marketing and what brands need to win in a post iOS world.
• What is needed in this new marketing environment is fewer siloed solutions and more full-funnel strategies that balance the best of brand marketing, while keeping true to the principals of a power performance approach," said Zihla Salinas, CEO of Conspiracy Theory and Modern Formula.
• "This is why we focus so heavily on creative, data analysis, and performance," said Sam Shaw, head of growth.

• 2171 on its annual Inc. 5000 list , the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
• The list represents a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economy's most dynamic segmentits independent businesses.
• UNFOLD is a member of the Conspiracy Theory network of best-in-class specialist agencies that work together to grow brands and drive business.
• "We launched UNFOLD 10 years ago and the world has changed dramatically in that time," said UNFOLD co-founder and CCO Brick Rucker.