We think of the stupid masses falling for them and cons generally, but really the biggest cons are aimed at influential people. It's much more important to get Tom Friedman believing your nonsense than some random dude watching Youtube.
Get Tom Friedman to believe your nonsense and we go to war in Iraq!
"Saddam Hussein is a big threat to the United States" was the biggest conspiracy theory of all!
Not picking on Tom here, specifically, just that our elite pundits believe all kinds of nonsense precisely because they are the marks for this stuff. Because they are overcredentialed, imagine themselves to be the savviest of all people, and nobody but weirdos on the internet ever tell them they are full of shit, their bullshit detectors are actually really bad!
Iraq is the obvious example, because it was all so transparently stupid. But it's an ongoing thing!
