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The community element of dangerous conspiracy theories | The Washington Post

It’s convenient and comforting to think of conspiracy theorists as isolated loners. There’s an element of deviance to such theorizing, by definition, so it seems appropriate to view adherents as outcasts clumped together around society’s drain.

But that is often not the reality.

There were two conspiracy theories at the heart of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, both completely untrue. The first was that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, tainting the results. The second was the QAnon theory — this idea that President Donald Trump was engaged in a massive, secret battle against a ring of pedophiles that would result in widespread arrests of Democratic leaders and celebrities.

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Source: The community element of dangerous conspiracy theories | The Washington Post