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Conspiracism & Cowardice: A Brief Comment
A large part of contemporary conspiracism — and election denialism in particular — is rooted in cowardice; in the unwillingness of Trumpists to say what they really mean.
Let me pan back for a moment before refining that point.
I have no wish to burnish the past but certain old-neighborhood influences have crept into my current ideals. When I was 12, my father ran for Congress on the Conservative Party ticket in Queens, New York. He opposed a longtime Democrat, Lester Wolff, and a party-line Republican, Stewart Ain. Dad, a former Kennedy Democrat and Legal Aid attorney buffeted by the city’s chaos, was anti-abortion. I was pro-choice, even at age 12.
The anti-abortion point of view was unpopular in New York City, naturally. Wolff had no problem. He was proudly pro-choice, like me. Ain skirted the issue. “Abortion is the law of the land,” he said during a radio debate, “and I will uphold the law of the land.” Wolff objected: “I’ve answered the question; Mr. Horowitz has answered the question; why won’t you answer the question?”
“I’ve answered the question; Mr. Horowitz has answered the question; why won’t you answer the question?”
This is probably among the reasons why I use blunt (ahem, Satanism) language in defining my search. Anything less is, in my view, dodging. Well, thank you Dad and Lester Wolff.
This is also among the reasons I revile conspiracism, which I define as man’s perpetual search for a hidden foe. And such a foe is always found, usually among powerless innocents, whether Jews, “witches,” or Romani in past eras, or “groomers,” “Satanists,” and poll workers in our own.
Cultivating an imaginary enemy satisfies a need. Although election denialism is patently absurd, it is clung to as a proxy by Trumpists who are too fearful to utter — chiefly to themselves — what they really desire: autocracy.
In that vein, I am eager to debate, and hopefully prevail over, figures who overtly advocate for authoritarianism and fascism. These things have actual definitions. Historically, fascism features: 1) equivalency between leader and state; 2) a compact of economic, judicial, governmental, and military power…
