Conspiracy Theories and Real Conspiracies
To believe in any conspiracy, whether true or false, is to believe in a system or sector run not by popular consent but by an elite, acting in its own self-interest. Call this elite the Deep State, or the Swamp; call it the Illuminati, or Opus Dei, or the Jews, or merely call it the major banking institutions and the Federal Reserve — the point is, a conspiracy is an inherently anti-democratic force....
Especially pernicious is the way that false conspiracies absolve their followers of engaging with the truth. Citizenship in a conspiracy-society doesn’t require evaluating a statement of proposed fact for its truth-value, and then accepting it or rejecting it accordingly, so much as it requires the complete and total rejection of all truth-value that comes from an enemy source, and the substitution of an alternative plot, narrated from elsewhere.
I would agree with this first paragraph if he was referencing the 'saviors' of these movements - "Q", resurrected JFK, Trump, etc. - rather than the supposed enemies of these conspiracy theories. These groups can set themselves up as 'saving' democracy since they are pitting themselves against these supposed elites with the 'power of the people'. But in reality they are replacing a supposed totalitarian reality with a real one of lionized authoritarian leaders. So I agree with his general point just would tweak the delivery.
ReplyDeleteI was hesitant about sharing this one because I didn't think the language usage was very clear. It required a translation in my head from "conspiracy" to "any antidemocratic force pulling the strings." Conspiracies erode truth in the sense that they give us a false sense of power over our lives; false conspiracy *theories* erode truth because they require increasingly blatant rejections of evidence in order stay afloat.
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