Conspiracy theories build echo chambers. They reason in circles: the source is part of the explanation. So they lack independent sources and resist fact-checking. Real conspiracies are also hidden, but they eventually surface through evidence, leaks, or investigation. The “deep state” conspiracy theory is typical—a hidden network is claimed to secretly run government. Because the alleged plot is hidden, independent sources are hard to find. Conspiracy theories do not meet the criteria of falsifiability, the possibility to fact check a story defined by Karl Popper.
Keeping people inside the bubble
A violent crime committed by a minority, immigrant, or refugee can briefly inflame hostility toward the entire group. The effect fades as other stories — with majority-group perpetrators — push it out of view, and as positive stories about the same minority push back against it. This is why authoritarian parties work intensively to silence critics and control the media.
This can be done by creating an epistemic bubble or an echo chamber. Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles are primarily defined by exclusion. An Echo chamber is, as defined by philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, a social epistemic structure that other relevant voices have been actively excluded and discredited from. An epistemic bubble occurs when the critical voices, perhaps accidentally, have been left out. Some also choose to be silent. Right wing populist politicians often try to discredit counter information by spreading conspiracy theories about edited mass media and fact checks, human rights activists and opposing politicians.
Stories of violent immigrant crime enable right wing supporters to take the moral high ground in informal social fora. When somebody tells such dramatic stories, they can dominate the talk in a social group. The stories told may appear to be non-partisan, but it is important to be aware that spreading stories about violent immigrant crime are an important part of the right wing strategy.
It is also not obvious that you are exposed to propaganda when you hear a story from somebody you trust personally. If such stories are told unopposed, they can make an informal sosial group or a social media group into an epistemic bubble. It is a great advantage for right wing populists if they can seed themes what become discussed in daily talk among people. The discussion in informal groups of people can create epistemic bubbles. When there is absence of critical voices, stories of alleged violent crime can be broadcasted and amplified.
Peer pressure can make you not object when you hear a story. Some researchers have put forward that the conformity in epistemic bubbles are important for making gossip stories and rumours with strong negative biases generally accepted. It is not easy to decide if a new story somebody tells the truth, since you have never heard about it, and the claims are new to you. A natural response could be accepting, like “really, that was chocking”, not asking critical questions.
Epistemic bubbles can be individual, like a political partisan who gets his news only from one sided news sources, dismissing other sources as “Fake News“, or a conspiracy theorist. Some of the lone wolf terrorists have lived in epistemic bubbles created by conspiracy theories on the Internet. Epistemic bubbles can be real world social groups, or social media groups on the internet.
People are more likely to retell stories when the accused perpetrator is an outsider — foreign, unknown, and someone they seldom encounter in social contexts. This illustrates that lack of social contact between different cultures can make a fertile ground for xenophobia and foreign hate. Since the ones in out-category are not present in discussions in majority groups, they can not defend their own reputation.
“Fake News”: A tribal howl
Donald Trump has systematically tried to discredit the mainstream media by commenting by establishing the symbol “Fake News“. The “Fake News” claims that that the undefined “Fake News media” works synchronised to mislead the public. The general claim that editorially controlled media as “Fake News Media” is circular. It builds in the source for the claim as its own evidence. It does therefore not have any external or independent sources. You have to choose if you beilieve it or not.
“Fake News” becomes embedded as a permanent symbol for the in-group. The claims about “Fake News” from “The Fake News Media” circulates widely in the grass root of the MAGA movement, as suggested by two research reports from USA. They have become defining slogans for their subculture, a way for MAGA to distinguish themselves from “Rinos” (moderate republicans) and supporters of other political parties. The slogan signal allegiance the same way as wearing a red MAGA hat would, but less obvious.
The circulation of the “Fake News” and the “Fake News Media” within the MAGA would also construct a perfect echo chamber, where every critical voice and every correction and fact check of the presented stories would be actively dismissed.
“Political correctness”
Language is in constant change. A positive description of political correctness is using language or behaviour to show sensitivity to others’ feelings, especially toward socially disadvantaged social categories. Some words have fallen out of acceptable use, because they may offend those people.
The manosphere is a movement formed on the premise that language supporting minority rights is a form of censorship. Right-wing populists use the catchphrase “political correctness,” in a negative sense to words like “Woke” and “DEI”, to frame language that defend universal rights and minority groups as imposed and absurd. Trump has used the phrase repeatedly.
The phrase “politically correct” described as authoritarian catches on, as it appeals to many of us. Told from an early age which words are off-limits, many of us are drawn to the thrill of swearing in church or challenging authority. The catchphrase “political correctness” used in a negative way is not just communicated by politicians and influencers—it has also become part of everyday conversations.
A recent YouGov survey found that a majority of Americans (57%) say that political correctness or being “woke” played a very or somewhat important role in the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. A NPR survey from 2018 found that only 36 % of Americans wanted more correctness in talking about others, while 52 % were against more correctness (71 % of Republicans against).
(Woke means awareness of racial injustice. DEI means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)
Demonstrations are a way of dominating the political arena.