UscinskiConspiracy
Conspiracy Theories : a primer
Joseph E. Uschinski 2020 Tigard 001.9 USC
- p01 Ch 1 Why Study Conspiracy Theories?
p02 ref 6 Stanley Kubrick allegedly helped fake Moon landing, Refuted by daughter Vivian
- pxx ref 32
- p21 Ch 2 What Is a Conspiracy Theory?
- p47 Ch 3 The Popularity of Conspiracy and Anomalous Beliers
p48 Likert scale .p58
- p59 Ch 3 ref 81 Paranormal America 2017 survey "25% of Americans believed that people can move objects with their minds"
p59 Linda Lyons, "Paranormal Beliefs Come (Super) Naturally to Some"
- p59 !QAnon and flat Earth are newsworthy but unpopular
- p65 Ch 4: The Psychology and Sociology of Conspiracy Theories
p67 conjunction fallacy -> conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena
Do I Think BLS Data are BS? The Consequences of Conspiracy Theories Political Behavior Vol. 37 pp. 679–701 (2015), Katherine Levine Einstein & David M. Glick
p67 Some strongly need cognitive closure, intolerant of uncertainty
p67 Addicted to answers: Need for cognitive closure and the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs 2017 pdf
p67 overactive cheater detectors, heavy debt + large insurance policy + house fire = suggests arson
- p67 death of Supreme Court conservative Antonin Scalia 2016. Obama conspiracy? or overweight 79yo smoker with diabetes and heart problems?
p69 Cass Sunstein: conspiracy theories stem from crippled epistemologies
p69 Walter Lippmann: People look to the news the way a drunk looks to a lamppost -- not for illumination, bur rather for reinforcement. "oft quoted" no cite, cannot find
- p69 Political arguments end in stalemate; unreasoned opinions cannot be altered with reason and evidence
- p69 motivated reasoning dismisses challenging information
- p69 People with less capacity for analytical thinking tend to believe conspiracy theories
- p70 four styles of personality traits: secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful
- anxious, avoidant, need for uniqueness, narcissism predict belief in conspiracy theories
delusional thinking, magical thinking, schizotypy, and hallucination proneness predict conspiracy beliefs
- p71 Paranormal ideation supernatural ideation
p71 Neil Dagnall Conspiracy Theory and Cognitive Style: a Worldview Journal of Parapsychology
p71 The concomitants of conspiracy concerns Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2017
p72 n27 Sean Richey 2017 A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs
- p79 Ch 5. The Politics of Conspiracy Theories
p80 n3 Medea Benjamin 2017 America Dropped 26,171 Bombs in 2016
p81 n5 Joel Rosenblatt 2018 Champagne Remark May Cost Lawyer $289 Million Bayer Award (title of Bloomberg paywall article)
p83 White replacement theory: corporations and governments conspire to replace whites with inexpensive foreign workers
- Widely believed in Europe, 50% in France
- p86 Masonic square and compass image, the "G" in the center stands for Geometry (precision) and also God or "Grand Architect of the Universe". Freemasonry is non-denominational, but a belief in a supreme being is a requirement to join.
p87 media messages have strong effects, hypodermic needle theory
- p89 Facebook "polarized users" of "conspiracy pages" comment and "like more often
- p92 n55 Many political left don't accept that they also believe conspiracy theories, then argue the definition of conspiracy theory
PR Bost in Conspiracy theories and the people who believe them 2019 (edited by Joseph E. Uscinski)
p94 Rich Lowry 2015 Bernie’s Conspiracy Theory
- p94 no legitimate economics or politics textbooks treat the "one percent theory" (Sanders, the left) as fact
p94 Robert A. Dahl 2013 A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model
p96 n68 Sarah Ann Gordon 1984 Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question PSU basement DS146.G4 G57 1984
- 1984 History at Pace University in New York City
- 1979 Student at SUNY Buffalo
p96 n72a Jim Tankersley 2015 Sorry, Bernie Sanders. Deodorant Isn't Starving America's Children
p96 n72b Sam Frizell 2016 Bernie Sanders' Long History With Alternative Medicine
p97 n75a Smallpage, Enders, and Uscinski 2019 The Partisan Contours of Conspiracy Theory Beliefs
p97 n75b Casey Klofstad et. al. 2019 What Drives People to Believe in Zika Conspiracy Theories
- p98 quadrant map, dem-rep horizontal, high to low conspiracy thinking vertical
- p99 hence most partisan conspiracy theories top out at 25%
- p99 non partisan conspiracy theories higher, bundle of all Kennedy assassination theories 60% to 80%
- p101 Trump 2016, 50% Dems believed Russian vote tampering
- p103 NYT (left leaning Paul Krugman):
- during Bush "The truth is that many of the people who throw around terms like 'loopy conspiracy theories' are lazy bullies, they try to suggest that anyone who asks those questions are crazy"
- during Obama "conspiracy theories are supported by a lot of influential people on the right, but not on the left"
- during Trump "It looks more and more as if we had an election swung, in effect, by a faction of our own security sector in alliance with Putin."
- p103 ... if this can happen to a Nobel Prize winner, it can happen to anyone.
- p109 Ch 6 President Trump, the Internet, Conspiracy, and Conspiracy Theory
- p109 Trump justified policies and actions with conspiracy theories
p110 1992 Ruby Ridge
p110 Jesse Walker Ruby Ridge Is History, but the Mindset That Led to Ruby Ridge is Thriving Reason 2012
Alan W. Bock Ambush at Ruby Ridge Reason 1993
p111 Jose A. Del Real 2016 Here Are 10 More Conspiracy Theories Embraced by Donald Trump paywall
p111 Maxwell Tani19 outlandish conspiracy theories Donald Trump has floated on the campaign trail and in the White House
p112 note 19 How conspiracy theories helped power Trump’s disruptive politics
p113 note 22 Climate Change Conspiracy Theories 26 September 2017
- p113 Harassment charges Harvey Weinstein, Bill O'Reilly, Judge Roy Moore - shift debate from the accusations to conspiracies
- p113 Sanders blamed 2016 primary loss (with 40%) on rigging by the "1%". Trump won primary with 40% because he was running against 20 other candidates
- p113 Brexit "Leave" voters motivated by conspiracy theories
- p114 Hillary Clinton argued Trump was a conspiracy theorist, then claimed he was part of a Russian conspiracy
p115 Taibbi: on Russiagate and our refusal to face why Trump won
Volume 1 of Mueller Report March 2019
Volume 2 of Mueller Report March 2019
The book's summary seems different than the Wikipedia article
p119 Alfred Moore Conspiracy and Democracy
blaming the "internet" Uscinski says we've seen it all before, in 2025 Nicholas Carr says we've never seen THIS before.
- p125 Conclusion