I don’t think talking about “conspiracy theories” as a category is very useful. Some have already been proven true, others are obviously wrong, and some are even satire which got taken seriously.
“The earth is hollow” and “The government is listening in on our phone-calls” have both been rather common theories, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare them. Depending on your view on conspiracies, you could argue that people who believe in the Covid lab theory are as crazy as flat-earthers, or reversely, that because MK Ultra happened, we should take the idea of lizardmen seriously.
This argument doesn’t conflict with the post very much, only a little bit. I’ve been called “conspiracy theorist” before for saying things which definitely happened, and which aren’t even burried or censored in any way, and I reject the idea that I’m “bad at epistemology” because I paid attention to the Snowden files. (I’m not saying that you will claim this about me, but it’s a common false-positive which results when “conspiracy theories” are made equal, and when any skepticism is assumed to be skizophrenia rather than competence)
I don’t think talking about “conspiracy theories” as a category is very useful. Some have already been proven true, others are obviously wrong, and some are even satire which got taken seriously.
“The earth is hollow” and “The government is listening in on our phone-calls” have both been rather common theories, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare them. Depending on your view on conspiracies, you could argue that people who believe in the Covid lab theory are as crazy as flat-earthers, or reversely, that because MK Ultra happened, we should take the idea of lizardmen seriously.
This argument doesn’t conflict with the post very much, only a little bit. I’ve been called “conspiracy theorist” before for saying things which definitely happened, and which aren’t even burried or censored in any way, and I reject the idea that I’m “bad at epistemology” because I paid attention to the Snowden files. (I’m not saying that you will claim this about me, but it’s a common false-positive which results when “conspiracy theories” are made equal, and when any skepticism is assumed to be skizophrenia rather than competence)