In my book, Twilight of Democracy, I described how autocratic regimes use conspiracy theories as loyalty tests...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/us/politics/trump-administration-loyalty-test.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
@anneapplebaum In your recent podcast series, I found this to be a real eye-opening insight. It helped me make a more sense of odd things I observered in global politics over the past decade or so.