The root of Tinfoil Hat evil, why Americans fall for conspiracy theories

American insanity is contagious even in the UK.

(edit): Americans are for the most part good people, like every other national group. This article aims to discuss the more crazier ones.

You more than likely heard it all before, Americans claiming that there’s secret forces fighting for world domination and only good old fashioned American extremism and guns can save the day. From eighties “New World Order” fears to modern day QAnon crazies, these fears never seem to die down. Where do these people come from and how do they end up thinking the way they do? The answer is simple, fear has become a multi-billion-dollar industrial complex.

Americans are powerful, so powerful that their government has fundamentally changed how the world operates, from making the American dollar the standard global trading currency to military alliances that cover the Earth, the Pax Americana has effectively made white America the ruling class of the globe. Yet American conspiracy culture insists that they are victims, being attacked by shadowy forces or institutions that Americans built such as the United Nations, World Bank or even Hollywood.

This victim mentality can be traced back to the foundation of American culture, the underdog story. Since the American Revolution, the United States has prompted the notion that they are the historical underdogs, fighting more established powers for a seat at the table. They relish stories of overcoming impossible odds, from discrimination against Irish immigrants to modern soldier heroics, white Americans love the hero fighting with his back against the wall. This is proven in their popular culture, think on all the classic American films and you will see that a majority of them feature underdog stories (Rocky, Scarface, Godfather, American Gangster, etc.).

Yet this desire to be the underdog does not at all match with their position in the late 20th and now 21st century. You can’t be an underdog when you boast the largest military on Earth and own the majority of the wealth. This is where conspiracy culture ensnares their victims, because they offer white Americans the chance to feel like an underdog again. No longer are they the inheritors of a global empire that regularly dismantles others governments for their economic benefit, now it is they who are under attack from whatever internationally minded institution they happen to google that week.

And those who seek to profit on this fear, men like Alex Jones, gun manufacturers and now increasingly Republican Party candidates peddle these unfounded theories in order to hawk various products or win elections. They understand that the desire to be an underdog is so strong that Americans are willing to submerge themselves in total fantasy to achieve it, and fear is a powerful marketing tool. Nothing sells quite like a product you believe you need to survive.

So now the World is left reeling from an American Fear Industrial Complex, one that stretches from gun makers all the way to the halls of Congress. One that will increasingly put people (usually political enemies of extreme right wing politics) in danger by making unfounded claims of evil doing and create doubts about democratic institutions. Look to the capitol attack or the various incidents of conspiracy ladened crazies taking up arms, this is a growing problem that won’t go away easily.