What would happen to the conspiracy theories if Donald Trump won?

It’s all fixed! Julian Assange, Infowars, Russia Today, millions of Internet users, and even Trump himself are convinced that ‘the powers that be’ will ensure Hillary is the next US president. The globalists will cheat democracy to maintain the status quo. Obviously. Or as Assange put it, Trump ‘won’t be allowed to win’.

But what if ‘the system’ turned out not to be rigged, and we have a President Donald J Trump in January? It would come as a nasty shock to many Trump fans. The Trumpist movement would in a way be robbed of its purpose. The populist right would celebrate a victory for people power — similar to Brexit — but would there not also be lingering unease? Would the alt-right not be a little disappointed that the globalist tyranny hadn’t done more to stop them?

Conspiracy theory is a form of comfort. People want to believe that their lives are being controlled — even malevolently — so they don’t have to face up the disorder of reality.