there is a socioeconomic class that controls or owns, or at least occupies key manangement positions in our society. without making any value judgements, it is perfectly natural that they will fear and oppose any policy change that might potentially threaten their position. after all, that is the nature of classes. in a constitutional democracy, this class need not necessarily be a tyranny, and if benign and effective, may actually count on the support of the majority of the citizenry.

extremist elements of this class who wish to consolidate or extend their position of leadership, or who feel it eroding in times of stress, must convince their more moderate fellow class members, as well as the citizenry in general, that the entire body politic is threatened by external enemies and that defeat of those enemies depends on a united front and ideological consistency that denies those enemies any foothold. they must convince the society as a whole that the enemy exists, that he is organized, capable, and that he is highly motivated to fundamentally change the system into something else, usually something evil. the right needs a conspiracy like the nazis needed jews, or like the jihadists need israel.

here is where your leftist conspiracy is born. yes, there are leftists, and some may even be crazy, but whether they are a threat or not remains to be seen. on the other hand, the leadership managerial/ownership class in our society undeniably has political and economic power, and has repeatedly demonstrated the ability and will to use it to combat threats to its hegemony; "threats" that often were eventually found to be perfectly acceptable and reasonable.

but in order to mobilize opposition there must be a threat. in the past, anarchists, socialists, communists, and now the vague bogeyman "leftist" or "liberal" played this role. At least, the communists had a state and an army and had some credibility as an enemy. but they were external, and now they're inconveniently extinct. but one can always find an evil leftist, its a convenient term. anyone who opposes them is a leftist, and if their opposition resists being branded as such, then that is evidence of their perfidy and treachery and leftitude. if the accused protests total ignorance of such a conspiracy, then he is either lying, or a naive or ignorant fool. after a while, mere opposition is not enough to earn one the leftist label. just failure to enthusiastically promote the witch hunt is sufficient to merit suspicion. eventually, even total silence and apathy becomes apostasy. witch hunt is not just a convenient metaphor, political conflict today definitely has a medieval/inquisitorial flavor to it. and that environment inevitably breeds zealots. are you with me so far?

there is no way to prove to these people they are wrong. totally unlike, and just the opposite of scientific hypotheses, these leftist conspiracy fantasies can be proven, but they can never be disproven.