By Rylie Oswald
John Kenneth White, author of Grand Old Unraveling, talks about combating political conspiracy theories during election season in a digital age. White also tackles the history of conspiracy theories in politics, dating back to the founding of the United States.
How do most political conspiracy theories start?
It derives from outcomes people want fervently to happen and believe the outcome was unjustly taken away from them. In other words, people wanted Donald Trump to win. He could convince people of the lie that, in fact, he did win, and he is not a loser. And the Republican Party bought that hook, line, and sinker, even though objective facts tell you otherwise.
If you go back in history, you find that many Americans did not want the US to be involved in World War II. There was an idea that Franklin Roosevelt had conspired with other parties, if not to have Pearl Harbor bombed, at least knew about it in advance, so that it would precipitate US involvement of World War II.
How far back do conspiracy theories in politics go?
In American politics, they go back well into the founding of the country. The Know-Nothing Party, whose official name was the American Party, believed there was a conspiracy to allow more Irish Catholic immigrants into the country that could affect the outcome of elections. The notion of conspiracy theories has run right through our history, and it didn’t begin with Donald Trump.
What is the best way for voters to avoid falling victim to disinformation during election season?
That’s become even more difficult than it has been because of social media and the lack of trusted news sources. We are really in the Wild West in terms of the disinformation that’s out there. That makes the prior tendencies, particularly of the Republican Party, to believe in conspiracy theories like those promulgated by the John Birch Society in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s just become much more difficult because people have turned away from mainstream media outlets that have journalistic standards, where things have to be verified, or should be verified, before being reported.
The best medicine for voters is to rely on multiple news sources, even sources that you may disagree with. You may look at the Washington Post and Fox News, for example. I think you have to rely on a multitude of sources that at least profess to have some journalistic standards.
We’re in a period now where you have conspiracy theories not just housed in a political party, but firmly embedded in it, and whose leader is, unlike our past, a former president of the United States. All of that plays into the current dilemma that eventually we’re going to have to adopt. I think the government is going to have to adopt some regulation of social media in terms of what’s put on it — just as we’ve done with radio and television advertisements, for example.
How has social media impacted the spread of conspiracy theories?
Because it is now so universal, the internet is in virtually everyone’s homes. It’s the way we communicate with one another. If you think about means of mass communication, we’ve gone from newspapers to television to the internet. And the internet is much more powerful and much more universal. And maybe, like the early papers of the United States, a gap without standards. We had strong partisan papers in the early 1800s, when people chose their newspaper often depending on which party they supported.
With the power of the internet, you can post pretty much anything, and if it gets clicks, even better. Foreign entities that may not have the United States’ interest at heart can use bots to spread disinformation, which is a huge problem in the country. Now the problem of artificial intelligence: what’s real and what isn’t only adds to our dilemma. There is virtually no government regulation of this whatsoever.
Do conspiracy theories impact voting behavior?
Definitely. In my book, I describe the importance of the John Birch Society. And it was not some small organization of cultists and crazy people. Barry Goldwater described its members as being first class citizens of Phoenix society. They were the bankers, the lawyers, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, it grew to be a fairly large organization, one that Republicans like Barry Goldwater felt that they could not ignore; one that Republicans would cultivate or try not to alienate. Ronald Reagan welcomed their support when he ran for governor of California. These organizations are not necessarily small bands of idiotic people, but in some cases, they’ve had significant followings.
Why do you think conspiracy theories are so prevalent, particularly in the Republican Party?
I think there are a couple of reasons for it. As I write in Grand Old Unraveling, the modern history of the Republican Party began with the party losing five straight presidential elections. And during that period of time, the conspiracy theories certainly began to take root. The idea that elections were stolen from them, or that the voters had been bought off and paid for. When the party is losing, there’s a certain period of grief, but sometimes that grief can be translated into belief in conspiracy theories that elections were stolen. Only later does the party come to a realization that perhaps it’s something they’re doing wrong, and they need to change.
In 2020, Republicans bought the Big Lie, as Jonathan Lemire calls it. Then you have a situation where the party feels that elections were stolen from them, and not only gives rise to conspiracy theories, but says to the party at large, “We don’t need to change. We didn’t do anything wrong. It’s the other side that manipulated election outcomes. So, all we have to do is be even more vigilant and take measures, even extraordinary measures, to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Is there anything else you would like to add?
There’s a lot that’s happening now that I think the book has anticipated. What the last few weeks have shown, what the convention showed, is that it is Donald Trump’s party. It is his party, lock, stock, and barrel, and the selection of fans only amplifies it.
