THIS is how political cults and conspiracy theories are born

When there is zero transparency between the government and the people, cult-like political movements centered on conspiracies tend to form.

No one knows this better than Darryl Cooper, co-host of “The Unraveling” podcast with Jocko Willink.

“People have this sense that something's gone terribly wrong, and they’re hungry for anything that might give them a sense of the history of that process,” Cooper tells James Poulos on “Zero Hour.”

“The idea that the citizenry has a right to be informed so that they can partake in the decision-making process that is, it’s just out the window. I mean that doesn’t really exist anymore and that creates a lot of holes in people’s understanding of the world,” Cooper continues.

He believes these holes are where the conspiracy theories and cult-like political movements begin to crop up.

“Those little crevices of secrecy are where conspiracy theories flourish,” Cooper explains, adding, “and they are flourishing.”

But it’s not a special group of people that fall down these holes and begin to spread conspiracies. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, the lack of trust between the government and the people affects us all.

“You already kind of see it with QAnon and, you know, things like that. I know people personally who — absolutely smart people — who were well put-together who got caught up in that QAnon stuff and lost their minds,” Cooper says.

He believes this is psychologically damaging and incredibly divisive.

“Politics is inherently dangerous,” he continues, adding, “It sets up us vs. them thinking.”

However, with the advent of smartphones, politics and conspiracy theories are at the tips of our fingers, waiting in our pockets to be mulled over and worried about constantly.

“Every day they’re engaged in politics,” Cooper says. “To maintain your equilibrium, you’ve got to be a pretty solid, well put-together person.”

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