So his assumption would be that politicians do not believe in "nutty irrational things" or less so than the general public. A questionable assumption for which

So his assumption would be that politicians do not believe in "nutty irrational things" or less so than the general public. A questionable assumption for which he himself provides the counter example: Here's a government boffin who seriously believes that it would be a great idea for the government to behave exactly like conspiracy theorists expect it to behave in order to convince them that the government would never behave like that. Amazing.