Conspiracy theories are as old as witch hunts 

To millions of people across America, Hillary Clinton sits atop a global network of satanic child-traffickers and is battling an underground resistance led by Donald Trump to maintain her malign influence. That is the core tenet of the QAnon movement, a conspiracy theory that originated in obscure corners of the internet before being seized upon by members of the Republican elite for their political advantage.

QAnon is at the heart of Gabriel Gatehouse’s The Coming Storm. But the book begins with a conspiracy theory from centuries earlier, about witches in medieval Europe. The scrawls of the German inquisitor Heinrich Kramer became the book Malleus Maleficarum because its author happened to live near the inventors of the earliest printing presses. The text would form the basis of  the persecution of women for centuries. The technology of printing, Gatehouse writes, disrupted the power structures of feudalism and brought about its end.

Something akin to the same thing is happening today, he argues, demonstrating how easily lines can blur between real-life conspiracies and the frenetic joining-of-dots that marks conspiracy theories. Gatehouse does this most deftly when he chronicles the Clintons’ rise to power, from the murky milieu of Arkansas politics to the often equally suspect world of operating a global foundation while being paid for speaking engagements and consultancy. Did the couple get rich while undertaking a life of public service? Absolutely. Were favours done for major donors? Almost certainly. And there are, of course, credible accusations of sexual assault and harassment by Bill.

None of this means that allegations that the Clintons have murdered dozens of potential enemies or whistleblowers escape the realms of the conspiracy theorist – but by following some of the characters from the 1990s down the rabbit hole, we can see how it might.