The truth is behind the headlines.

Some of One Nation Senator Malcolm Robert's more bizarre conspiracy beliefs are finally attracting attention from the electorate, but it's important to understand that he isn't an embarrassing by-product of this brand of populism, it is a central pillar of the movement.

Roberts has long spruked insane delusions about chem trails, 15 minute cities, and has praised Alex Jones as a "beacon of hope around the world". He has been muttering his proclamations for years but was far easier to ignore when his party was confined to the fringes of political afterthought and weren't being elevated to the mainstream by a billionaire who, herself, has leant into multiple Covid, Climate Change, and "Great Reset" conspiracy theories.

Hanson, meanwhile, has questioned whether the Port Arthur Massacre was a false flag attack, while openly celebrating a US President who continues to push demonstrable lies about election fraud.

Populism, by its nature, rests upon the notion that all of the complex problems that society is compelled to address actually have very simple solutions.

To hold this world view, it necessitates a deep mistrust of expertise, of institutions, and of science, and anyone else that dares explain why the "simple solution" has already been dismissed from calculations.

These are the natural adversaries of anyone intoxicated by overconfidence as a result of the Dunning Kruger Effect; a phenomenon by which those with the least amount of knowledge on a complex topic are so deficient in knowledge that they do not understand how much they don't know.

Within that context, the visible impatience from those who spent decades studying the minute nuances of a topic can be indiscernible from arrogance, or potentially even intentional obfuscation.

But there is also a key reason why these conspiracy theories are not immediately disqualifying for a lot of the party's core supporters.

Polling data has consistently shown that One Nation's support is strongest among people without a university degree, particularly when combined with older age and living in regional or rural Australia. These are, in many ways, those that have benefited the least from globalisation and those that suffered the most from growing economic inequality.

Conspiracy theories offer an explanation for their loss of status and wealth that appeals to our natural instinct to blame misfortune on the malicious acts of others. It is cathartic to attribute grievance to the immorality of a nefarious "elite" rather than our own failure to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

Indulging in alternate realities also allows adherents to make themselves experts of their own making without confronting the rather tedious obstacle of academic study. Malcolm Roberts believes himself to be aware of many things that "so-called-experts" aren't. By dismissing the established consensus as a lie, he has made himself the authority on the "truth".

This appeals viscerally to a demographic who have felt maligned, under valued, and belittled by a handful of self-righteous intellectuals that often become the most recognised voices of progressive ideology. A noisy minority, no matter their mandate, make for irresistible Sky News sound bites.

For many of these Australians, the indifference to norms, the impoliteness, and even impropriety, is part of the attraction. They believe they have found someone who is finally telling them that their mediocrity is the consequence of nebulous oppression that they are on the cusp of redressing. It's as though a paternal figure finally reassured them that it's not their fault.

That they seek salvation in a political machine funded and operated by a billionaire who has extracted more wealth from this country than anyone in history is... frustrating... but also testament to a sincere resentment within our community we should urgently seek to address.