Washington Examiner columnist David Harsanyi's new book The Rise of Blue-Anon underlines that the conspiracy theories on the Democrat side are not on the fringes. They come from the very center of the party establishment and the one-party media. Like MSNBC's Michael Beschloss suggesting your kids will be killed if Republicans win.
Right before the 2022 midterms, Beschloss said the stakes of the election was "whether we will be a democracy in the future, whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed." Harsanyi said this sounds like the "kind of utter madness" would usually come from mumbling vagrants in Times Square wearing sandwich boards.
As Harsanyi writes in his introduction, "Most of the right's conspiracy theories are spread by deranged characters and marginal social-media voices....But the left's deception is broadcast by trusted television hosts, politicians, public health officials, journalists, former federal intelligence officials in suits who appear on MSNBC, CNN, and NBC News armed with impressive degrees and resumes."
Many conservatives don't know anything about the conspiracy theories of Q-Anon. But conservatives now joke about "Blue-Anon." Among the conspiracy theories explored by Harsanyi:
-- 9/11 trutherism
-- Obama birtherism
-- Election denialism in the Republican victories in 1980, 2000, 2004, and 2016
-- Russian collusion with Trump, "the greatest hoax in American history."
-- January 6 vs. the 2020 George Floyd riots
-- Christian nationalism leading to an American version of The Handmaid's Tale
-- Republicans pushing fascism and "Jim Crow 2.0"
-- Anti-semitic conspiracy theories and Louis Farrakhan
-- Climate change doomsaying
Enjoy the podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
