How 2016 has become the “conspiracy theory” election

The popularity of Donald Trump in the 2016 race has also seen the elevation of conspiracy theories to the forefront of the public consciousness. Joseph E. Uscinski writes that while some amount of conspiracy theorizing will always be present in our politics, they now dominate all aspects of the 2016 campaign discourse. He argues that the prominence of conspiracy theories in this year’s election can be partly explained by the popularity of anti-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who have both engaged heavily in conspiracy theorizing during their campaigns.