In a world awash with misinformation, conspiracy theories are often treated as harmless digital flatulence — absurd, viral, a bit unpleasant, sometimes amusing, but ultimately inconsequential. But from the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion to QAnon and the Great Replacement theory, conspiracies have always been the Miracle-Gro of authoritarian politics: germinating paranoia, cultivating fear, and nourishing the toxic knotweeds of repression.