Expert insight: Conspiracy without the theory

Conspiracy theories have mutated into conspiracism , a transformation marked by people rejecting proof and evidence in favour of frivolous speculation. That's what political scientists Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum suggest in their book A Lot of People are Saying . In short, conspiracism is conspiracy without the theory. Muirhead and Rosenblum use the "birther" conspiracy to illustrate conspiracism. "Birtherism" is the belief that Barack Obama was not born in the United States , therefore ineligible for the presidency. It is an example of conspiracism because it causes the relentless denial of simple facts , a characteristic that makes it appealing to far right figures like Donald Trump. Conspiracism is opposed to logic and reason, and it helped sprout the racist attacks against Obama and others.