Ron Malzer: The GOP’s conspiracy theory addiction

We can laugh at this ludicrous title, but that doesn’t diminish the harm caused by the distorted testimony House members are soliciting.

The hearings, the first action taken by the new Republican House, show clearly that conspiracy theories are a dominant force in Republican Party politics today. Most of all, they show that Republican leadership refuses to confront bizarre and hate-filled theories.

I urge everyone to read Brian Klaas’s Jan. 17 essay in The Atlantic on Republican-promoted conspiracy theories. The article documents how outlandish and bizarre some of these theories are, and it argues persuasively that elected Republican leaders have an obligation to confront head-on these extreme distortions of reality. Conspiracy theories are almost always delusional.

These theories become accepted by people starved for explanations of events. Unfortunately, these false conspiracy accusations lead at times to violent actions, and they undermine democracy.

Recall the man who showed up at a Washington pizzeria, rifle in hand, because he had become convinced that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophilia ring in the basement there. How can America sort out its candidates for office when such poisonous narratives are being promoted?

“The Big Lie” involved multiple false allegations of conspiracies. Hundreds of people, believing in those conspiracy-based claims about the 2020 presidential election, acted on them by invading the Capitol in a coup attempt. We almost lost our democracy.

Now let’s look at what the current Republican “weaponization” hearing is presenting to the public. Among the first to testify was Wisconsin’s own Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, alleging a federal cover-up of COVID treatment issues, and that this cover-up represented the tip of the iceberg in a large federal conspiracy. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered “a long list of oft-cited grievances about the origins of the investigation between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and went on to complain about what he said was unfair media coverage.”

It gets worse. Here is a sampling of the conspiracy theories identified by Klaas, all offered by Republican supporters, based on no evidence whatsoever, going uncriticized by officeholders or officials within the Republican Party. Klaas lists: allegations of “deep state” coverups; “Italygate”, the baseless assertion that Rome and the Vatican used satellites to rig the US 2020 presidential election; supposed vote-altering 2020 election equipment from South America; the assertion that COVID-19 is a “fake disease”; and a belief that “a secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles has taken control of parts of the U.S. government and mainstream media.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has blamed a California wildfire on a “space laser” and indicated it was controlled by a Jewish banking family, drawing on a longstanding anti-Semitic trope. Rep. Jennifer Gross, a Republican State Representative in Ohio, offered effusive praise to an “expert” who testified that COVID vaccines can interface with 5G cell towers, and can “magnetize people such that spoons will stick to their upper forehead following a shot.”

I try not to be angry at individual citizens who hold beliefs such as these, even though they are what should be called zero-evidence claims. We all look for meaning in life, and sadly, conspiracy theories provide an easy answer for some. “Special knowledge” makes people feel important.

I do hold accountable those who disseminate these awful theories, and in particular, officials within the Republican Party who have made it clear that conspiracy theorists are welcome in the GOP.

How is it possible that no Republicans confronted Donald Trump when he called climate science “a hoax from China”? Why did no Republican leaders confront Sen. Johnson when he went on his anti-vaccine tirade, or declared that climate change was (expletive)? Science is science; denying it comes at our own peril.

House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy deserves severe blame for the persistence of conspiracy theories. Instead of confronting Marjorie Taylor Greene on her anti-Semitic and ludicrous conspiracy theory, he struck a deal with her and other like-minded GOP House Representatives to have featured committee roles, as a carrot to get himself elected Speaker. The “election steal” conspiracy of 2020 is widely endorsed by Republican elected officials, creating a danger of future coup attempts.

We the voters can put a stop to this madness. We took a first step last November, as the predicted “red wave” in the House turned into a pink trickle, and Democrats gained in the Senate. Election-denier candidates on the Republican side did particularly poorly.

We need to demand that Republican Party officeholders stop inflaming the public with their “weaponization of the Federal government” accusations and other conspiracy theories, and start working together with Democrats on solving America’s problems.