
Conspiracy theory of everything - Pausanias
https://www.ft.com/content/99bc4afc-21f2-11e8-8138-569c3d7ab0a7
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Pausanias
Quoted from comment section:

 _There are conspiracy theories and there are carefully considered theories
about events that suggest a conspiracy. Adam Smith was rather good on how
small groups of people can cohere to conspire against the public good in their
own interest. Most of our public life is a complex interconnecting set of such
small-scale conspiracies.

As to conspiracy theories, we should remind ourselves of their function and
why they emerge. Like grimoires in Early Modern Europe, they are texts and
ideas that explain the world to the uneducated but the uneducated cannot be
blamed for this. They are left in the dark, given half-truthful narratives
that they are intelligent enough to distrust.

Conspiracy theories emerge because there is a vacuum in social truth-telling
and they fill that vacuum. The vacuum is created by those in power or
dependent on power developing a theory for that hold on power that just does
not fit as the 'whole truth'. The cracks show (Watergate, Gulf of Tonkin,
whatever) and the official theory looks dodgy.

The entire of our society is built on a contestation of half-truthful
narratives, stories we tell ourselves to justify our situation or our hold on
power or our lack of power. If the 'deplorables' choose to fill a vacuum with
their own tales, it is only because our tale lacks credibility for them and
often should lack credibility for us.

The current crisis over the Salisbury nerve agent is typical. The Prime
Minister jumps in with assertions and propagandists create narratives (on all
sides) that are clearly a 'story' designed to get people behind particular
tales of perfidy, She may be right but the assertions are premature.
Alternative explanations are dismissed.

The lack of intellectual integrity in exploring the complexities of Russian
state control of its assets past and present and the motivations and interests
of the many parties involved and the opportunity to tell the public the facts
without assumptions until investigation is complete is lost and creates the
space for surmise and distrust.

From this perspective, a conspiracy theory is simply an act of defiance where
you create your own falsehood as a story you chose over the incredible tales
of those who are determined on not handling an issue with transparency._

