Paraconspiracy & "fringe" culture (including New Atheism/skeptical movement) as vector for American extremism has been clear. A number of analyses of these subcultures consistently points to masculinity issues. It is no surprise masculinity feeds American extremism. Thread

First, a modern classic, Barkun's Culture of Conspiracy describes how rejected knowledge makes moving from one ideology (say UFOs) to another (conspiracy, Nazism, MRA),

This happens both because there are people in multiple camps (such as holocaust denying Forteans), and because everything rejected by mainstream information ends up in the same gutter, and people start to wonder about other things stewing about them

The role of masculinity in cryptozoology, especially Bigfoot, has been addressed multiple times. This is probably the most

Buhs argues that with the decline of heavy industry and related jobs, and media changes in gender roles, Bigfoot becomes a representation of the untamed man, a rejection of the encroachment of urbanism, office culture, and other lifeways making men more like stereotypes of women