PREFACE

­ ere are moments when we are startled into thought. Unan-

Th
ticipated threats have uncovered the fragility of democracy.
One par­tic­u­lar threat more than o­ thers seized our attention—­
what we call the new conspiracism. We have come to under-
stand that conspiracism ­today is dangerous ­because it strikes
at the basic institutions of democracy. But what startled us first
was its power to disorient us. Conspiracism assaulted our un-
derstanding of real­ity. It insulted our common sense.
We wrote a few short articles in an attempt to understand
what was happening. We asked ourselves, What makes the new
conspiracism dangerous? What makes it new? Why now? Also,
what is its appeal? And what can we do about it?
The subject required more detailed and thoughtful interpre-
tation. We have looked closely at the thought of the president
of the United States, the conspiracist in chief, and beyond him,
at the full range of perverse charges that have become a regu-
lar feature of American politics.
We wrote this book to confront our own disorientation and
recover our po­liti­cal equilibrium. We offer our account to
­others who are confused and disturbed by this malignant phe-
nomenon distorting public life and endangering us all: the new
conspiracism.

ix
A LOT O F P
­ EO P LE AR E SAY I N G