On January 6th, 2021, the US Capitol Building was stormed by around 2,000 individuals who left a trail of destruction and, eventually, five people dead. While many Americans sat at home and watched the news coverage with concern, author Noelle Cook witnessed it all in person. Upon later reviewing her snapshots and reflecting on the chaos and confusion, she saw a surprising trend — a large number of the participants were middle-aged women.
Cook’s deep dive into why so many middle-aged women attended the J6 protests would become the book The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging. The search for understanding lead her down some interesting rabbit holes and created some unwitting, unusual friendships along the way. The book is centered around Cook’s deep empathy and the bond shared between her and two of the J6 participants, Tammy and Yvonne.
So why are so many middle-aged women willing to get on the MAGA trolley and refuse to switch the tracks? Cook believes it’s a mix of “conspirituality,” the blending of New Age religious-type beliefs with anti-government and anti-scientific ideology, and the lack of roles for women in society, past childbearing age.
You can see there’s a “wellness and white” to “extreme right” pipeline happening, but it doesn’t exist in a bubble. Without the pandemic, the current culture wars, and the division manufactured by the government itself, none of this would have been possible. QAnon also played an instrumental role (much larger than imagined possible) in continuing to reinforce the basic premises that radicalized these woman. Social media echo chambers helped to push the constant reinforcement as well. It’s almost like it was designed this way.
Billed as four years worth of research, today The Conspiracists can read less as “objective study” and more like “excuses.” The book is reminiscent of Behind the Curve, a documentary movie about flat-Earthers and how, if we just make room for people and don’t allow ridicule, everyone will trust in science and its methods. That film was made in 2018 — a year that seems almost normal-ish compared to the crazy times we find ourselves in today.
Cook says she has a fairly large sample size, but in The Conspiracists we only ever get to meet the two women. It’s convoluted on where the ethical line drawn between study sample ends and friendship closes in, but this definitely feels problematic on the surface. The long and the short of the conclusion is that if we hadn’t ostracized these people, they wouldn’t be acting out.
But we know from the flat-Earth movement that no matter how much kindness is poured on people, the end result tends to be the same. This movement of “conspiritualists” isn’t just happening because people want a better way of thinking about life, it’s full of people who are already unhappy with what life has given them, and they’re willing to take from others if it aligns with their own personally held beliefs and ideas.
It’s true that all people should be treated with kindness and compassion, but the paradox of tolerance also applies: if a society extends its tolerance to the intolerant, the tolerant society will be destroyed, as well as tolerance with it. The normalizing of this poor behavior can allow more of it to carry on.
In the current climate of political instability and horrid news cycle after horrid news cycle, it’s hard to recommend The Conspiracists. Initially this was going to be a fun read about psychology, but knowing this behavior is directly linked to Jeffrey Epstein and 4chan’s /pol group … well, that makes this read infuriating. It will definitely be interesting to see if Cook has any differing opinions now, in light of all this new information.
Even setting that aside, The Conspiracists is just incredibly frustrating. So the two main characters had trauma? That’s valid, but that doesn’t make it okay to inflict harm on others. They had struggles with religion? Belief in organized religion has been declining for decades. So there was poverty, and family tensions, and abuse? Simply put, everyone is dealing with something you don’t know about. Being kind and respectful is good, but it doesn’t mean we should all just forgive and forget the worst behaviors.
Everyone wants to belong somewhere. If you believe in New Age ideas like “do no harm but take no sh*t,” just make sure you nail down what “doing harm” looks like. It’s never wise to simply apply a blanket of empathy without setting some boundaries. The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging feels like it’s asking the reader to do just that.
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