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Eleanor grew up listening to stories of the Apollo missions and audio clips from space expeditions. Every weekend, the two of them hopped on a train to downtown Philadelphia to visit the Franklin Institute, where they would explore the planetarium, flight simulators, and technology exhibits. That was several years ago.

InEleanor began to glimpse a much different version of her father. At first, she assumed he was attending a Black Lives Matter march or a similar event.

But no — her father was protesting to reopen the state of Pennsylvania, then under lockdown due to Covid, because he thought the governor was exaggerating the threat of the virus. Other dissonant moments followed.

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Immanuel has also declared, among other thingsthat ovarian cysts are caused by sex with demonsthat scientists are experimenting with alien DNA, and that reptilian humanoids are running the government. But over the past five years, it has certainly seemed like average Americans have bought into them more and more.

Meanwhile, the headline-grabbing QAnona conspiracy theory that evolved from Pizzagate and posits that Trump has been working in secret to capture high-powered figures who are engaged in child abduction Theoies trafficking, is still a niche belief. As enters the home stretch, new conspiracy theories seem to keep coming up. The latest?

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And some people will channel that uncertainty into conspiracy theories. Why did baseless theories about health, science, and sinister world leadership get to be so popular, and why now?

The history of conspiracy theories is somewhat short, relative to human evolution. Movable type allowed for the wider spread of Throries — and anxious reinterpretation Cpntribute that information. Conspiracy theories have most often flourished during times of great sociopolitical upheaval and uncertainty. Take the Salem witch trials in the s, another transformative moment in conspiratorial thinking. These events were prompted by sweeping social and political changes in Puritan New England: frontier wars with American Indians, expanding roles for women, and challenges to religious authority. Conspiracy theories provide people with a feeling of control when presented with troubling and disturbing information, calming our fears of the inevitable or unknown.

People take comfort in that, in a sort of perverse way. Troubling times further breed conspiracy theories on the principle of supply and demand: The circumstances from which they are born more info to their proliferation.

But if conspiracy theories have historically gotten a boost from geopolitical turbulence, modern-day conspiracies have several other unprecedented factors working in their favor, — starting with memes and misinformation. But in the United States, conspiracy theories have much more power than these tales do. The conspiracy theory can be a political How Social Factors Can Contribute Conspiracy Theories, thanks to what historian Richard J.]