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Def conspire5/2/2023 ![]() How conspiracy theories differĬonspiracy theorists, of course, see the world very differently. As the philosopher Karl Popper argued, the relevant question when explaining dramatic historical events is not “who wanted something to happen?” but “why did things not happen exactly in the way that somebody wanted?”. Or control the actions of other individuals and organisations with competing (and often concealed) goals and agendas. It’s impossible to entirely prevent cock-ups, errors and betrayals. This is because between any one case of collusion and the wished-for outcome are all kinds of unforeseen and unforeseeable elements. More importantly, these conspiracies rarely work out according to plan. They cannot be reduced to a single, common denominator. In other words, plots and cover-ups exist in the world, but they are multiple, and in most instances unrelated. What these very real instances of secret collusion have in common is that they involved different actors, with disparate aims and goals, limited to certain locations and time frames. Comparable scandals are to be found in other countries around the world. From revelations about the CIA’s domestic spying programme and the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, to the more recent findings about extraordinary renditions, mass surveillance or Russia’s attempted interference in elections. ![]() Consider the myriad political scandals that have rocked the United States over the past half century. The first important difference is in the very nature of the alleged conspiracy. There are fundamental differences between the kind of conspiracies that do happen and that we do need to worry about, and the far-fetched claims typically expounded by conspiracy theorists. Having researched conspiracy theories for many years, I would argue that we can do better. They are ways of sidestepping the problem of definition rather than solving it. Neither of these approaches is satisfactory, however. For that reason, the argument goes, we should treat even the conspiracy theories we don’t believe as unproven rather than untrue. This involves arguing that while some conspiracy theories may currently sound implausible, there is always a chance, no matter how slim, that they could be proved to be true at some point in the future. Another approach is to embrace an agnostic position towards all claims of conspiracy.
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