Online conspiracy circles galvanize to proclaim Baltimore bridge collapse a ‘black swan event’

Far-right commentators have declared Tuesday’s dramatic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge a “black swan event”, a niche phrase that has recently captured the imaginations of “deep state” conspiracy theorists.

The phrase “black swan event” was popularized in 2001 by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Lebanese American statistician and essayist, to describe unforeseen happenings in the financial world with cascading consequences, such as the 2000 dotcom crash. He later extended his metaphor in the context of historical or significant national security events.

In recent months, conspiracy theorists have hijacked the concept and folded it into deep state narratives, which posit that a clandestine network of powerful individuals are secretly running the US government.

Read more: The Guardian