Stepping stone

When Dr. Michael Dugan took his first postdoctoral research appointment in 1985, he considered it a steppingstone to a permanent theoretical physics post on a college faculty.

Dr. Lunine said that with steppingstones, people would look back positively at what had already been accomplished and be more likely to continue supporting a Mars program.

For many of the Capitol rioters and others who believe Mr. Trump won, it was not a large leap to “Stop the Steal” from a pathway of conspiratorial steppingstones that included the “Pizzagate” claim of 2016 that Democrats were running a child sex ring in the back of a popular Washington pizza parlor, the debunked allegation that a low-level Democratic National Committee aide was murdered for leaking Hillary Clinton’s emails and many more.