1. A significant chunk of partisans always refuse to accept election results (as with Dems in 2004 & 2012 & GOP in 2008 & 2012) but 2020 is different in scale: a majority of GOP elected officials & voters are in complete denial. Obviously Trump is a big factor but not only one

2. This @DouthatNYT column is a very thoughtful attempt to do an ethnography of new conspiracy theorists, dividing them into normies following elite partisan signalling, reflexive contrarians & the newly radicalized by Covid: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/opinion/sunday/trump-election-fraud.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

3. It's the newly radicalized that is most interesting. Douthat is right to note that Covid has been hugely disruptive & has opened people up to extremist politics. You see that also with QAnon surge.

4. Where @douthat's analysis could be pushed further is noting that it's not just Covid radicalizing people but the particular political failure of USA Covid response which radicalized normie conservatives & opened them to far-right theories.

5. The particular failure in USA has been uncertain economic relief (the UI top up was great but limited, policy tended to favor big business) and mixed messaging (no masks, masks but also, crucially, Trump's incoherence).

6. This is exactly the point I'm trying to make: Trump's epic failure led GOP partisans (who were unwilling to blame him) to start scapegoating other groups (Soros, BLM). https://twitter.com/cwrightmd/status/1335988536177086464

7. The existing GOP culture prepared partisans to leap conspiracy theories just as it had earlier prepared them to accept Trump: the distrust of experts, the dual scapegoating of elite & minorities, the narrative that white petty bourgeous are true victims.

8. More thoughts on the social context for the current explosion of conspiracy culture: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-trump-republican-conspiracy/