• A small earthquake in Maine and a fatal F-16 crash in Michigan have given rise to a new and extreme conspiracy theory claiming that 50,000 Chinese troops have invaded the US.
• There's nothing to that claim, and the proliferation of that conspiracy theory and others like it can actually threaten national security if they spread unchecked.
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Every evolution of American politics gets the conspiracy theories it deserves.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, an alarming number of Americans believed that the September 11 attacks were an inside job; during President Barack Obama's time in office, others maintained that the commander-in-chief was actually a Muslim terrorist and domestic military exercises like the vaguely-sinister-sounding Jade Helm were actually preludes to martial law.

Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the dominant conspiracy theory is known as "QAnon," the gist of which is that Trump is secretly waging a campaign against a global network of elite pedophiles while a "storm" of revelations about the nefarious role of Democrats and deep state operatives in undermining the United States is on the horizon — all of which is becoming public knowledge thanks to a gaggle of keyboard detectives following the "bread crumbs" of intel from "Q," an anonymous poster who claims high-level security clearance and prophetic insights into America's coming apocalypse.

All of this is to say: When a bunch of random people on Twitter start claiming that China has launched a military invasion of the United States through Maine, it is both deeply alarming and totally unsurprising that some people might take them seriously.

Here's how the latest outgrowth of the QAnon conspiracy goes, according to assorted kooks on social media: A small earthquake that struck Maine on December 8 wasn't, in fact, an earthquake but the result of nearly 50,000 Chinese soldiers entering the United States at the US-Canadian border only to be eliminated by "anti-personnel bombs" — but not before a US F-16 was shot down over Michigan.

Some conspiratorial social media users reportedly circulated photos of mobile howitzers being transported by train across the state as evidence of a US military response to a purported Chinese incursion.

—matthew t. warax