Open Society

A shift from a global monoculture to ecosystems of human scale groups reduces the spurious complexity needed to support a monoculture, and it retains and even grows adaptive cultural complexity, i.e. the diversity that emerges when the human ecological footprint is aligned with bioregional ecosystem functions. Spurious complexity wastes energy – is the result of humans working against biological evolution, whereas adaptive complexity saves energy – it is the result of humans engaging in collaborative niche construction as a part of biological ecosystems.

factors like whiteness and Christianity itself, which cultivate majoritarian grievance and encourage a sense of being targeted for “persecution” by outside forces, also make fertile ground for the proliferation of conspiratorial beliefs. In other words, despite having privilege and social position and a “church family,” certain individuals and groups are still highly susceptible to authoritarian attitudes, paranoia, and succumbing to the faux-comfort offered by conspiracy theories.

These theories often contain elements of projection. Take for example QAnon, with its fixation on a supposed cabal of Democratic leaders, Hollywood elites, and LGBTQ people who traffic children for nefarious purposes. In actual fact, child sex abuse is common in authoritarian religious communities, in which powerful abusers can find cover and access to victims, and can often count on their communities to cover their offenses up. Right-wing Christians, including the significant percentage of them who adhere to QAnon beliefs, do not want to face this reality, so they look for (and conveniently find) external monsters to fixate on.

For many conspiracy theorists, the false beliefs they’ve adopted are not just covering up their insecurities, but are also either themselves closely related to the believers’ identities, or are protecting something that is. When identity is at stake—one’s identity as a “good person,” for example, or, in a way that is often not directly spoken but that conspiracy theories give cover to, one’s whiteness and the privilege it comes with—that’s some very heavy emotional baggage to lift.

Most conspiracy theorists, unless they somehow find their own way out of the thicket they’ve gotten lost in, will be reached, if at all, through patient personal engagement that feels largely unthreatening.

Dr. Rosanbalm, the Duke psychologist, said both absenteeism and behavioral outbursts are examples of the human stress response, now playing out en masse in schools: fight (verbal or physical aggression) or flight (absenteeism).

“With food, just like with fashion, whenever something is cheap, somewhere along the line, someone is being taken advantage of,” says Gao.