“[C]onspiracy theories act as a bridge between…ideology and…reality. [I]n the case of 9/11 you had a lot of left-wing conspiracy theorists who see America as the root of all evil, and when they saw America attacked…they needed some fantasy that would show how this act was actually created by U.S. evil,” says Jonathan Kay, author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground.