"Surely they can't really believe that"? is the question I keep coming back to when thinking about ludicrous MTG and her ilk. The best I've come up with so far is that they actually don't, but pretending they do grants them membership into a club of like-minded people.
Espousing the believe that space lasers paid for by Jewish financiers started the California wild fires is so wacky that no one with more than an 8th grade education would believe it; but it's the not-so-secret "pass-phrase" that lets you into the club.
It also serves a another purpose as a carrier for the cultural memes of the group. Using the space laser example, it combines antisemitism, anti-elitism (the 'financiers'), denial of the climate crisis and global warming, and a reminder of California as the Sate they love to hate. That's some pretty efficient messaging.
All of which reinforces the dictum to take them seriously (as a threat to democracy), but not literally.
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