Knowing that this kind of unmasked plutocracy can take root in democratic societies without so much as an effort to hide it is like being forced to watch your spouse cheat on you when that is not your kink. Maybe we should see conspiracy culture—with its theater of uncovering things that are not hidden—as some sort of twisted lunge for self-respect.

XREF: Connects to theories of conspiracy culture as status grievance rather than pure ignorance (e.g., Hofstadter, contemporary political polarization literature). SEED: An essay angle: reframing conspiracy belief as a psychological coping mechanism against visible elite impunity rather than epistemological failure.

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 788