Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 is a user on social.coop. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
This was a surprisingly interesting wikipedia article. Good #epistemology in the internet age is hard... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_(person)#Studies
"Michael Barkun...traces the history of certain UFO & "New World Order" conspiracy theories. He finds that these theories & communities were originally distinct, but that certain bookshops and magazines would sell/advertise books of both genres. He traces...the gradual synthesis as ideas from one milieu start to invade another til both communities routinely refer to both, Area 51 & black helicopters as part of the same conspiracy canon. He describes the process as #ImprovisationalMillennialism."