I wrote about why President Trump is having so much trouble fighting back against the Epstein story.

The fact Trump used to exploit, and now frustrates him, is that conspiracy theories are as hard to eradicate as a contagious disease. They offer the allure of secret knowledge — you’re not one of the sheeple who accept whatever NASA tells you — and entry into the community that knows the truth. They provide satisfying, if inaccurate, answers to vexing mysteries. (Why does my child have autism? Why do my neighbors support a politician I do not?)

Speaking of “sheeple,” I looked into the history of the term back in 2021.

The man who did the most to popularize “sheeple” was a man named Bill Cooper, a radio broadcaster, author, and all-purpose nut. His paranoia en­compassed extraterrestrials, AIDS, the Illuminati, and — once again, though he was long dead by the time Cooper was active — poor Dwight Eisenhower.
In 2001, Cooper became convinced a neighbor was surveilling him and pointed a gun at that neighbor’s head. Sheriff’s deputies later came out to serve a warrant, and Cooper started a firefight that ended with him dead. There is possibly a lesson there. Cooper’s work is, however, experiencing a revival now. Amazon lists one of his books as a best-seller, and QAnon adherents sometimes allude to it.