Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov Says ‘It’s a Great Time to Be a Nut Case’ as She Bashes Conspiracy Theories
What To Know
- Jessica Tarlov and Astead Herndon discussed the increasing prevalence of conspiracy theories among left-leaning Americans.
- They noted that conspiracy thinking is becoming more mainstream across the political spectrum.
- Both hosts agreed that the rise in conspiratorial beliefs is partly due to politicians’ reluctance to confront misinformation.
Fox News host Jesscia Tarlov welcomed Vox Media’s Astead Herndon onto her Raging Moderates podcast on Wednesday (April 29) to discuss the rise in conspiracy theories on the left and right.
“It’s a great time to be a nut case,” the liberal commentator said as she referenced a new poll from the Manhattan Institute Survey, which found that 46 percent of Democrats believed that the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump was staged.
The pair also discussed the recent conspiracies surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. According to the New York Times, the word “staged” was a trending topic on social media, with “more than 300,000 posts on X by midday Sunday.”
“It’s mostly these new entrants into the coalition, who think the craziest stuff,” Tarlov stated. “Everything from 9/11 was an inside job, moon landing faked, etc.”
When Tarlov asked Herndon what he makes of the current state of America’s consciousness, he said, “It’s wild. I think we’re in a breakdown of shared reality. And I keep telling people that I think that it’s been building for a long time.”
The America, Actually host went on to say that things have “gone beyond the sort of conspiratorial folk you expect.”
“I remember being at an Ivanka Trump event in suburban Georgia, being with all of these well-to-do Georgia ladies, and everyone was talking about machine fraud and that conspiratorial, ‘Biden stole the election,'” Herndon continued.
He added, “It was really this moment for me, like this is not as fringe as you kind of thought. This is becoming more mainstream… obviously that culminates in January 6.”
Herndon noted that he doesn’t think things are yet 1-to-1 with Republicans, but that it’s been building. He said he’s spoken to some Democrats who believe Trump didn’t actually win every swing state in the 2024 presidential election.
“I think it’s somewhat a function of our institutional trust loss,” he explained. “People have stopped believing in institutional media, and I think some of that has led to conspiracy rising.”
Tarlov added that part of it is that “politicians are scared to tell their constituents the truth” out of fear of retaliation from Trump.
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