Why did conspiracy thinking feel so normal in the 1990s and why does it feel impossible to escape today?

In this Mainline Monday episode of the Average Joe Nerdcast, Nate takes a look at how the 1990s didn’t just host conspiracy culture, they quietly trained us for it.

We start before the 90s, tracing how the unresolved fear of the 1980s Cold War anxiety, government distrust, and the Satanic Panic shaped how our parents viewed authority and danger. From there, we move into the 1990s and explore how live news coverage, late-night talk radio, early internet forums, and pop culture like The X-Files made skepticism feel intelligent, responsible, and even heroic.

Then the story turns.

As real-world events like Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, Y2K, and eventually 9/11 unfold, we examine how curiosity became emotional, how doubt turned into identity, and how the early 2000s removed the volume knob entirely, giving conspiracy thinking a megaphone it never had before.

This episode isn’t about mocking belief or telling people what to think. It’s about understanding how we got here, why distrust feels baked into modern culture, and why skepticism without media literacy can quietly turn into paranoia.

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