Letter: Conspiracy theories undermine discourse | Letters to the Editor | readingeagle.com

Editor:

Most conspiracy theories are false, claiming that random events represent a sinister pattern to gain an advantage or to harm others. Often they are used by people or groups to secure power. Their frequency and uncritical acceptance increase during times of cultural anxiety and heightened personal feelings of fear, alienation, rejection, and powerlessness. They threaten our democracy by squandering time, focus and resources, increasing distrust in bedrock institutions while encouraging divisiveness, violence, political fragmentation and tribalism.

By supporting President Donald Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories alleging a fraudulent, stolen election, many Pennsylvania Republican state and federal legislators promote all the above. Various legislators have:

• Decided that Trump’s daily dangerous behaviors are acceptable norms.

• Complicitly remained silent as the U.S. Justice Department, FBI, state and federal courts, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have found no evidence of election fraud.

• Hosted in Gettysburg a potential COVID-19 super-spreader event for Trump’s conspiracy theory histrionics, clapping when election officials were called bad people.

• Undermined Pennsylvania’s election procedures, upheld by the state Supreme Court, claiming that the elections were not free and fair.

To know what is, what matters and what to do requires knowing what the truth sounds like. False conspiracy theories and their promoters are not what the truth sounds like.

Ward G. Becker

Maxatawny Township

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