AS THE OLD, clear distinctions between plausible and preposterous beliefs and assertions were fading at the turn of this century, Michael Barkun wrote in A Culture of Conspiracy that the Establishment still maintained the fundamental true-false boundary “in a variety of ways”—“by withholding access to the most powerful and prestigious channels of communication; by withholding institutional rewards and sponsorship from certain ideas; and by subjecting fringe ideas and those who hold them to scorn.”
