Youth voter turnout has been on the rise, but as young people grow into their roles as political participants and not bystanders, conspiracism spread via social media poses a threat to well-intentioned civic awareness.
Conspiratorial ideas are often less about trusting a competing explanation and more about a fundamental skepticism toward all accepted truths. This pervasive distrust acts primarily as a distraction from an increasingly fraught political landscape.
Ira Hyman, a professor of psychology at Western Washington University who studies attention, memory and false information, says he’s seen a growing distrust for traditionally trusted institutions even in his own classroom.
“I ask my students, ‘Which news sources do you trust? Which government figures do you trust?’ And far too often the answer is pretty much nobody,” says Hyman.
19-year-old Rohan Muppa describes his interest in conspiracy theories as an exercise in curiosity. “It’s not as simple as I just believe [conspiracy theories] are legit... If I distrusted the conspiracy theories at one point and I trusted the establishment narrative at one point, now I distrust both of them,”
Recently, a concerning number of my political conversations have devolved into topics that are, distinctly, not the point. Somehow, a discussion on current events in Gaza, for example, crumbles into speculative conjecture on decades-old covert government operations backed by dubious evidence.
The frivolity in discussing the possibility that 9/11 was orchestrated internally, or the validity of some other conspiracy theory, is irritatingly popular even as modern politics careen into uncharted territory.
Open up Instagram or TikTok and search keywords related to a conspiracy theory, and you will find a plethora of videos, each driving massive engagement.
The appeal to emotion is clearly effective, as en masse, viewers turn their gaze away from current events, including an American democracy in peril, a genocide overseas and a vulnerable world economy.
Can jet fuel melt steel beams? We are asking the wrong questions at the wrong time.
Politics are pulled into conspiracism in the tangle of the algorithm: pushing increasingly extreme and niche ideas as a viewer expresses interest and subconsciously turns away from today’s headlines.
“Conspiracies get spread by algorithmic feeds much more than they would by a rational, human editor,” says Avi Bryant, who helped develop Twitter’s (now X) first algorithmic content during its startup years.
“The starting point [of conspiracies] would be on social media, where all these ideas are recorded and all these people are engaging in debate with each other about these ideas,” Muppa says of his introduction to conspiratorial beliefs.
Through social media algorithms, bias-confirming information is set to catchy music, layered behind humor and produced at breakneck speed. These seemingly innocent characteristics function as uniquely fertile soil for conspiracy theories to bypass a viewer's logical defenses and grow.
“If you introduce that in the form of a joke… people won't necessarily take what you are saying as seriously,” says Muppa. “But the idea is still introduced into their head and over time that thought continues to build up and eventually you start taking it more seriously and [begin] engaging with it elsewhere in more serious forms.”
Conspiracism is undeniably appealing; there is bravado and revenge in choosing to distrust what you were taught to trust. As American democracy shudders under an unprecedented administration, the economy wobbles and overseas conflicts smolder, the youth are justified in their rage and fear. But, conspiracism is where righteous fury becomes nihilism and loses agency.
“I think young people are particularly susceptible, in part, because you have correctly assessed that the world is, I'm going to use a technical term here: F– -ing you over,” says Hyman.
Today, attention is a commodity, and content consumers have a responsibility to recognize that the disproportionate representation of conspiratorial beliefs and nihilism is a distraction from their influence on current events. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is a home for anger and distrust, primarily among the facets of our democracy that still attempt to prioritize the power of the people. In an imperfect country, founded on flawed priorities, there are still footholds where moral anger can fuel the climb towards progress. These footholds can be found in ballots, protests, petitions, city councils and the contact information of your local officials.
Anger and reasonable suspicion are components of progress, but only when harnessed in tandem with optimism and trust. To enact change, you have to choose something to believe in.
Sarah Zieger (she/her) is a Journalism major and Opinion writer for The Front this quarter. When she's not holed up in a coffee shop writing this week's piece, you can find her drawing in a hammock somewhere off Chuckanut or lifting at the rec. You can reach her at sarahzieger.thefront@gmail.com.
