JayUtah wrote:
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In conspiracism, the axiom is a distrust in all forms of authority, whether formalized in government or informal authority based on perceptions of superiority and inferiority.
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That is a crucial observation but I would go farther and say that the basis of conspiracism is a distrust of all authority
except that of the conspiracists themselves. The fallacy of "appeal to authority" is strikingly prevalent in conspiracist rhetoric, with long lists of alleged credentials and great weight given to supposed personal observation. "He seems credible" is a mantra in the UFO culture and there are variations of it in most other conspiracy beliefs.
The conspiracists' challenge to authority is based on an effort to rhetorically replace it with their own. The role of conspiracism in various totalitarian political ideologies is well-documented in history. Again, the conspiracy claimant is projecting himself as an authority in opposition to all others. So, conspiracism has both political (in the broad sense of power-seeking) and religious overtones. This of course is the same combination that has turned the world into a battlefield during the last few years.