I was a somewhat credulous teenager back in the 1970s, and I have maintained a sort of hobbyist’s interest in fringe literature and conspiracy theories ever since.

One thing the article mentions that I noticed pretty early on was an undercurrent of antisemitism found almost as soon as you left the mainstream stuff for sale in regular bookstores.

It was kind of surprising how few steps it took some people to get from unusual lights in the sky to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

I also ran across a lot of ranting about the Federal Reserve, a topic that you wouldn’t expect channeled extraterrestrial entities to care much about.

Just the same, there was nothing like the current level of vicious hatred that you see routinely expressed nowadays. I guess the internet has allowed these people to connect more easily and to encourage each other to go farther, but there must be something else at work. Even well into the current century the tone of the conspiracy literature you would find online was much the same as it was in the print era.

i became a member of abovetopsecret.com back in 2007. speculation about “the powers that be” was interesting and there was lots of information and friendly people.

i still visit that site about once per week, but the people are awful and the information is no good. habit, i guess.