Have Americans Become More Conspiratorial?

As it dragged on over nearly two years, the Mueller investigation laid bare the inherent difficulties in thinking about or even identifying conspiracy thinking. Representatives of both sides—those who fervently wished the official inquiry would yield evidence of Donald Trump’s criminality and those who just as fervently hoped it would amount to nothing—charged their opponents with adopting a dangerously conspiratorial mind-set. This is also where the common ground ended. Trump’s antagonists insisted there was enough evidence to suspect a plot to collude with a foreign power during the 2016 election campaign or to obstruct justice afterward or both. The president’s allies, by contrast, fixed on the idea of a secret, albeit thwarted, scheme by the deep state or alternatively the Democrats to stage a coup and illegally reverse the mandate of the American people. The public, buffeted by these warring claims, was left to guess who (if anyone) was on the right track and who was simply spinning elaborate tales for political gain.