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I think the term "conspiracy theory" is perhaps unhelpful, and it also seems that people are lumping together phenomena that aren't necessarily all that closely
by bloak 6y ago
I think the term "conspiracy theory" is perhaps unhelpful, and it also seems that people are lumping together phenomena that aren't necessarily all that closely related. If there's a group of people with some strongly held belief, not supported by evidence, about the government doing something evil then perhaps we should call it a "shared paranoid delusion". It's hardly a "theory" if they already believe it and it hardly involves a "conspiracy" seeing as it's perfectly normal for the government to plan things in secret, even things that aren't "evil".
- ezekg 6y agoHow is calling something a "delusion" more helpful?
- nojokes 6y agoI am not sure that this is a helpful definition. There are many opinions that could be described as "paranoid delusion" by its opponents but still have a high probability to be true. For example many politics from Eastern Europe tried to warn their Western colleagues (before 2008) that Russia is not up for good relations with EU. This was labeled as Russophobia i.e. paranoid delusion. Trying to understand global politics is a very difficult task and there are probably many false beliefs even on highest level. It is also up to interpretation.