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That's not exactly a "conspiracy" though, is it? It might be wrong-headed or incorrect, but where is the shadowy cabal who planned everything out?
Like, if the 2020's election was stolen, it was stolen by a specific group of bad people, who could, in theory, be rooted out or put on trial. I think believing false things about how the world works is slightly different from a conspiracy theory. There's probably some better word for it, at the very least.
If systemic racism was real you could do the same. Easier even, because grades, and grading of tests, are not anonymous.
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Fair enough, and that was a bad example on my part. A better example is the Russiagate hoax. That's a conspiracy theory. And probably 90% of Democrats still believe it or pretend to.
I don't think there's a substantive difference between the two parties in terms of their ability to believe false things, even outlandish conspiracies. It's just that the left is able to put the imprimatur of respectability on things, thereby allowing high status people to maintain false beliefs long after its obvious they are false.
2016 election was stolen: Aww, you're sweet.
2020 election was stolen: Hello, HR
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ESR's coinage of "prospiracy" might fit this case. There's no shadowy cabal of racists conspiring to squelch African-American test scores, but if there's e.g. a lot of racists in the education system who each neglect African-Americans (and who might admit this to each other after building trust, but don't need to discuss it with each other and wouldn't dare discuss it with non-racists) then (in that version of the theory, anyway) that could explain the observed gap.
IMHO, all other things being equal, believing in a prospiracy requires a lower burden of proof (and thus is more forgivable when it's a mistake) than believing in a large conspiracy. "Racists control public education" has some obvious contrary-evidence issues but it's not as bad as "a cabal of racists regularly meets to plot their control of public education".
If one conspirator breaks and admits their secrets to the public, the conspiracy would be revealed! The secrets would be out in the open! And depending on the size of the conspiracy, the biggest secret would be: how do you get that many people to keep a secret without anybody cracking earlier?
If one prospirator breaks and admits their secrets to the public ... not much would change, right? Everybody knows some people are jerks who are motivated by self-interest rather than principle, but that doesn't mean 90% or even 0.9% of people in similar positions will be jerks too. Just one bad apple, am-I-right? The "secret" is vastly more robust.
No, based on the past track record of people confessing to e.g. having killed JFK, people will just assume you're a crank.
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If one conspirator breaks and admits their secrets to the public, the conspiracy would be revealed! The secrets would be out in the open! And depending on the size of the conspiracy, the biggest secret would be: how do you get that many people to keep a secret without anybody cracking earlier?
This generalized argument against conspiracy theories is pretty poor because:
I am in favour of tabooing the concept of "conspiracy theories" in general.
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