Communism, Conspiracies, and Extremism in Dallas

Since before the fall of the Alamo, Texas has served as an incubator for unhinged conspiracy theories about the motives behind the Texas Revolution, feared rebellions by the enslaved, Mexican plans to retake Texas, the supposed plot by Franklin Roosevelt to impose communism in the United States, why water is being fluoridated, who killed Kennedy, and the various fever dreams of the QAnon movement. In this episode, we explore what makes Texans, and Americans in general, particularly susceptible to conspiracy theories and what emotional comfort these ideas give believers.

Sources:

Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America https://www.ucpress.edu/books/a-culture-of-conspiracy/paper 

Mark Fenster, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture   https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816654949/conspiracy-theories/ 

Edward H. Miller, Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo19197692.html

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