How conspiracy theories went mainstream

In today’s Big Story Podcast, conspiracy theories used to be weird, and kind of fun. Now they’re everywhere, and pretty dangerous. Last year marked a significant evolution in the mainstreaming of fringe beliefs — and we’re not talking about “The moon landing was faked.” These conspiracy theories are often hateful, and frequently cited as a call to arms.

Amarnath Amarasingam is an assistant professor in the School of Religion as well as Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. His research focus on conspiracy theories, terrorism and online communities.

“I think what we’ve seen in the last year, but also since the Trump campaign in particular, and then the COVID pandemic, was a kind of mainstreaming of some of these bad ideas […] going from the dark corners of the internet to talked about on kind of mainstream media outlets,” said Amarasingam. 

With 2024 being a key year for elections around the globe — headlined by an American presidential campaign that will feature these theories at its core — what do you need to know about how these theories spread, where they go from here, and what new fringe beliefs will enter the mainstream conversation this year?

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