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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The theory of conspiracy theory [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-20
We begin today with Jon Allsop of The New Yorker pointing out (rightly, in my opinion) that the tacky shoe salesman was destined to be singed (at the very least) by the very conspiracy theories that he propagated.
In 1964, the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote a famous essay for Harper’s Magazine about what he called the “paranoid style” in American politics. Hofstadter argued that a mix of “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” has long manifested in public life—including eighteenth-century speculation about the “allegedly subversive activities of the Bavarian Illuminati” and the McCarthyism of the nineteen-fifties—and that such passions have not merely been the preserve of the political right. The Epstein panic appears distinctly Hofstadterian. Earlier this week, a poll commissioned by CNN found that just three per cent of Americans are satisfied with what the Administration has shared about Epstein—and that more Democrats than Republicans are dissatisfied. Democratic élites are beating the Epstein drum, too. Whether they are true skeptics or merely spy an opening to troll Trump is open to debate, but some of their rhetoric has sounded pretty paranoid either way. (Hank Johnson, a congressman from Georgia, picked up a guitar and sang, “Epstein died by suicide / Believe that and you must be blind,” to a tune by Jason Isbell.) Given that the Democrats are supposed to be the party holding the line against the post-truth age, I’ve found some of this a little disconcerting. [...] ...I favor a third theory, which is that Trump’s approach to conspiracy theories is inconsistent, and makes little sense. (This is fitting, given that conspiracy theories are often inconsistent and make little sense.) This theory is compatible with aspects of the others—it is harder to convincingly peddle conspiracy theories when you’re in power, and Trump certainly is self-interested—but it holds that Trump’s attitude toward any given theory is likely guided by a mix not only of these factors but by whom he last spoke with, what information he has consumed on a given day, and so on. Musk, Tucker Carlson, and the golfer Gary Player all seem to have influenced his South Africa fixation; earlier this year, Trump appears to have become convinced that a wrongfully deported migrant had a gang tattoo when he didn’t. Maybe Trump doesn’t want the Epstein files out because he’s covering them up. But maybe, as the Times suggested this week, he was slow to grasp his base’s fury because Epstein conspiracism is a Very Online phenomenon, and he is an old man who principally consumes newspapers and TV. Trump’s views are idiosyncratic, and his attention is prone to wander. Sometimes he looks less like the leader of some programmatic conspiracy cult—or the “paranoid spokesman” of Hofstadter’s essay—and more like an ignorant blowhard. And not just on Epstein. Before writing his essay on the “paranoid style,” Hofstadter gave a similar lecture at Oxford University, in November, 1963. The next day, J.F.K. was assassinated, spawning decades of conspiracy theories. In the past, Trump has flirted with these. While running for President in 2016, he falsely insinuated that the father of his primary rival, Ted Cruz, was an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy’s assassin. After taking office for the first time, Trump allowed a trove of J.F.K. files to be released. This year, he dumped more information into the public domain, fulfilling the promise of his early order—an act, as I wrote at the time, that could be seen as an encouragement toward conspiratorial thinking in itself, whatever was actually in the files.
The most memorable part of Hofstadter’s essay to me was the portion on anti-Jesuit conspiracy theories, which I always kept an eye out for when Francis became Pope. Even Pope Leo XIII was brought into the American conspiracy culture...and there is also this from Hofstadter
..the sexual freedom often attributed to the enemy, his lack of moral inhibition, his possession of especially effective techniques for fulfilling his desires, give exponents of the paranoid style an opportunity to project and express unacknowledgeable aspects of their own psychological concerns. Catholics and Mormons—later, Negroes and Jews—have lent themselves to a preoccupation with illicit sex. Very often the fantasies of true believers reveal strong sadomasochistic outlets, vividly expressed, for example, in the delight of anti-Masons with the cruelty of Masonic punishments.
”Your body, my choice.”
And what could be more cruel and “sadomasochistic” than setting up a...OK, let’s call it an immigration “detention center” in the Florida Everglades nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” and sell t-shirts and other gear with that nickname printed on it?
Lisa Friedman and Maxine Joselow of The New York Times writes about the dismantling of the Environmental Protection Agency’s science office.
The decision to dismantle the E.P.A.’s Office of Research and Development had been widely expected since March, when a leaked document that called for eliminating the office was first reported by The New York Times. But until Friday, the Trump administration maintained that no final decisions had been made. The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that underpins nearly all of the agency’s policies and regulations. It has analyzed the risks of hazardous chemicals, the impact of wildfire smoke on public health and the contamination of drinking water by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Its research has often justified stricter environmental rules, prompting pushback from chemical manufacturers and other industries. [...] “It is dismantling a world-class organization, and the American people are not going to be well served by this,” said Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, who worked at the E.P.A. for 40 years and led the research office under the first Trump administration. “These actions are very shortsighted, and the way they’re going about it is very callous and very cruel.” When Mr. Trump took office, the E.P.A. had 16,155 employees. But more than 3,700 employees have left the agency or are set to leave through firings, retirements, resignations and other moves, eventually bringing the agency’s work force to 12,448, a level last seen during the Reagan administration.
Andrew Mercein of Columbia Journalism Review looks what some of the managers and directors of rural public media stations are saying now that the Rescissions Act has passed.
The passage of the Rescissions Act of 2025 marked the most sweeping rollback of public media funding in nearly six decades, gutting the infrastructure that supports more than fifteen hundred local radio and television stations. The consequences will fall hardest on rural and tribal stations, many of which rely on CPB for more than half their annual budgets. “We have stations where the majority of their funding comes from CPB,” said Mollie Kabler, executive director of CoastAlaska, after it was clear Congress would be clawing the money back. “What the signal looks like in those communities remains to be seen.” For now, she said, CoastAlaska is entering a period of total restructuring, and is reviewing every part of its budget. “I’m assuming we’ll have to cut jobs, but I’m not sure which ones,” Kabler said. “It’s hard to do philanthropy and journalism without the funds for public media.” At KSTK, in Wrangell, Alaska, general manager Cindy Sweat is unsure what they’ll do next. “We’re already bare bones,” she said. “If we have to make cuts, there’s no easy choice.” Sweat said she was cautiously optimistic after hearing that Alaska station managers, including those in the CoastAlaska network, would meet Monday to craft a joint fundraising strategy. But local donations won’t be enough. “We’re a community of two thousand people,” Sweat said. “That includes everybody, kids to elders. Our listeners already support us generously. We can’t expect them to fill a deficit like this.”
Jennifer Rubin of The Contrarian gives Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass her flowers.
Mayors of large cities arguably hold the hardest jobs in American politics. They are blamed for everything from potholes to crime to poor-performing schools. They are largely dependent on state and federal funding, but get saddled with cleaning up the mess from disastrous state and federal decisions. And the sheer complexity of issues deeply entrenched in their communities (e.g., homelessness, inequality, infrastructure) makes any success elusive. No wonder so few mayors have spotless records (and those who do generally haven’t done anything noteworthy). Given all that, a mayor who performs well under trying circumstances deserves ample credit. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has dealt with it all—homelessness, devastating fires, and the federal invasion and lawless ICE raids that are terrorizing her residents, damaging the local economy, and inciting understandable anger. And yet, she has been rising to meet this trying moment. [...] Most recently and publicly, Bass has shown her mettle in combating the feds’ inhumane, destructive, and illegal raids that indiscriminately snare brown people, whether native born or not, documented or undocumented. She has earned nationwide praise for consistently rebuking Trump’s lies, successfully litigating against racial profiling and denial of legal counsel for detainees, and issuing an executive order in defense of immigrant communities. “She has presented herself as a defender of a city under siege, a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city confronting a Republican president,” the New York Times reported. “She has drawn on her years as a community organizer to reassure immigrant families struggling with ‘fear and terror,’ and has walked a line at once defending the rights of constituents to demonstrate and denouncing protesters who are ‘creating the violence.’”
Tom Phillips of the Guardian points to the continued escalation in diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Brazil as SoS Marco Rubio pulled the US visas of a number of Brazil’s Supreme Court judges.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup. [...] As the day of judgment nears, Trump has been increasing pressure on the court and President Lula’s administration. On 9 July, the US president announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports as of 1 August, partly as a result of the supposed persecution of his ally. The move triggered an outpouring of nationalist anger in the South American country, with Lula describing it as “unacceptable blackmail”. On Friday, after federal police raided Bolsonaro’s house and fitted him with an electronic tag to stop him absconding, Rubio announced further moves in support of the defendant, who he claimed was the victim of a “political witch hunt”. Writing on X, Rubio said he had ordered visa revocations for the judge leading the investigation into Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, as well as “his allies on the court” and their family members. Rubio did not name his other targets but the Brazilian newspaper O Globo identified them as Luís Roberto Barroso, José Antonio Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, Luiz Edson Fachin and Gilmar Ferreira Mendes. Two other judges who were nominated to the court during Bolsonaro’s 2019-23 presidency, André Mendonça and Kassio Nunes Marques, reportedly avoided the sanction, as did a third judge, Luiz Fux.
Finally today, Carla Gloria Colomé of El País in English profiles Cuba’s most popular “influencer,” Sandro Castro...yes, the grandson of former dictator Fidel Castro.
Sandro, 33, was born when his grandfather was 65 — that is, a Fidel still in full physical strength, channeling all his political rhetoric into telling Cubans that hard times were coming, but that the country would know how to overcome the crisis. Cuba had just lost the USSR as its main trading partner and was entering the long night of the Special Period — one it has, in many ways, never left. Sandro — who proudly smokes Habanos, drives a Mercedes-Benz, and takes flights in small planes — was born and raised in a country of blackouts, food shortages, the Cuban rafter crisis, the July 11 uprising, and thousands of political prisoners. He’s watched much of his generation emigrate in the largest exodus since the triumph of the revolution. [...] Sandro is probably the closest the Cuban people have ever been to truly knowing the Castro family from the inside. In recent years, he hasn’t held back from showing off his luxury cars, throwing private parties in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, or flaunting his nightlife persona at EFE Bar, a venue he owns in the heart of Vedado. He didn’t even try to hide celebrating his birthday while almost all of Havana was experiencing a blackout. He openly toasts with whiskey, bathes in Cristal beer (which he’s renamed and popularized as “Cristach,” referencing his vampire character on social media). He doesn’t hide the fact that his gas tank is full amid fuel shortages, nor did he hesitate to promote one of his parties while the entire country was in national mourning over the deaths of 13 young recruits.
I went and took a look at Sandro Castro’s IG page and while most of it is standard “influencer” type of stuff (that is, weak), I will admit that his usage of the vampire character is interesting, considering that he is Fidel’s grandson.
Still not the flamboyant showman that his grandfather was, though...and that may not be a bad thing.
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