In a recent study, the political scientists Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum distinguish between conspiracy theories and this new brand of conspiracism.
Traditional conspiracy theories are relatively coherent narratives that seek to explain some disturbing aspect of the political or social world.
In part that's because it's so easy to tweet or upload. But the flow-oriented structure of social media also fosters conspiracism.
Online conspiracism offers an extreme example of the politics of flow, but an obsession with streams of information instead of their content is also affecting the political mainstream.
During these first two years of his presidency, according to Trump's Twitter Archive, he has tweeted more than 600 times about Russia and collusion, more than 400 times lamenting fake news, and more than 200 times each about Clinton and Obama.
Often, the tweets carry a simple, emotional conclusion, such as "No Collusion" or "Just more Fake News.".
His detractors might not notice either-the flow generates too much material for anyone to keep up with, even professional political analysts and reporters.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/why-social-media-ruining-political-discourse/589108/
Traditional conspiracy theories are relatively coherent narratives that seek to explain some disturbing aspect of the political or social world.
In part that's because it's so easy to tweet or upload. But the flow-oriented structure of social media also fosters conspiracism.
Online conspiracism offers an extreme example of the politics of flow, but an obsession with streams of information instead of their content is also affecting the political mainstream.
During these first two years of his presidency, according to Trump's Twitter Archive, he has tweeted more than 600 times about Russia and collusion, more than 400 times lamenting fake news, and more than 200 times each about Clinton and Obama.
Often, the tweets carry a simple, emotional conclusion, such as "No Collusion" or "Just more Fake News.".
His detractors might not notice either-the flow generates too much material for anyone to keep up with, even professional political analysts and reporters.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/why-social-media-ruining-political-discourse/589108/
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