The Myth of the Conspiracy Boom?

Joseph Uscinski pushes back hard on the widespread claim that conspiracy theories are exploding in America—and brings decades of data to prove it. Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, explains why journalists and the public confuse visibility with prevalence, why viral anecdotes mislead us, and how conspiratorial thinking has been a feature of American life long before the internet. Along the way, we discuss politicians’ use of conspiratorial rhetoric, nostalgia for a “rational past,” and why people’s beliefs—online or off—are far more complicated than we assume. The result is a myth-busting conversation that reframes challenges many ideas about misinformation, media, and our nostalgia for an era of uncontested "facts."

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