Fully agree, the real issue is not that these influence operations changed voting behavior in an election, but that it created epistemic nihilism that favors a particular type of hate politics, and that in turn favors autocratic leaders and conspiratorial ideation.
As I have written elsewhere, there is an asymmetry that a confused, polarized and hateful info sphere creates, and that asymmetry plays into the hands of anti-democratic actors and forces.
Political leaders and movements can use conspiracy theories to gain power, and this is not unique to the US by any means, as we have seen for example with the Philippines, but we could also talk about Poland, Italy, and Hungary, or Myanmar, Nigeria, and Brazil, and many other nations currently in democratic decline. Making use of conspiracy theories is one of the oldest tricks in the book that authoritarian leaders and dictators use to attack opponents, galvanize followers, shift blame and responsibility, and undermine institutions that threaten their power (Ren ZB et al., Curr. Opin. Psychol., 2022). Most politicians who share conspiracy theories are usually regarded as less trustworthy, but certain political actors can create the authentic impression of an ‘outsider’ capable of changing the system (Green R. et al., Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2022). Some experiments suggest that lying demagogues appeal ‘authentic’ to people who perceive the current system as unjust or illegitimate (Hahl O. et al., American Sociological Review, 2018).
[…] conspiracy beliefs are correlated with alienation from the political system and anomie — a feeling of personal unrest and lack of understanding of the social world. — Douglas KM. et al., Political Psychology, 2019
Interestingly, conspiracy theories in themselves might present another asymmetry in what type of political actors (spoiler: it is not the friendly, normal ones) can make full use of them to further their strategic aims. Demagogues have a clear incentive and an advantage when they can weaponize available grievance, hate or fear narratives, but their political opponents can not.
So when we understand information spheres also as battle spaces, certain actors weaponizing crowd-sourced conspiracy theories for strategic aims is like using available terrain advantage for battle advantage. A broken info sphere makes their influence operations more effective and likely to succeed.
