In 2009, historian Kathryn Olmstead built on the work of 1990s-era conspiracy theorists by examining why, exactly, such a large number of Americans believed their own government would engage in conspiracies against them and the relationship this belief had to actual conspiracies. She found that, despite their “seeming outlandishness” the wide array of conspiracy theories all had “at least one thing in common: when they charge that the government has plotted, lied, and covered up, they’re often right.”
