Whilst we should not be throwing the cognitive psychology / 'epistemic vices' baby out with the bath water, I think that there's insights to be had in looking towards the political (and I'd include Political Theology in this).
David Smail taught me to look at two big I's: Interest and Ideology to help understand people and institutions. Each of these needs a bit of unpacking because they are multi-dimensional and furthermore there's a degree of overlap (e.g. people have an Interest in not having their Ideology contradicted). But that doesn't need to be done here in order to make the link.
I think that interest/ideology (and ultimately power) connect to the idea of CTs as 'political objects'. So I'd speculate that a CT has embedded within it certain assumptions about:
A moral theory/order and/or
A theory of resource allocation and/or
An onto-epistemology or metaphysics... (perhaps some other things too)
And that one of the functions of a CT is to reinforces or defend these basic assumptions about how the world works in order to support a person's or group's fundamental Interests and Ideology.
The more I read up about it, the more « conspiracy theories » look like « terrorism »: a word that expresses moral condemnation for ideological reasons rather than an objective reality. Also I find it interesting that the word is almost always used by left-wingers against their opponents. There is a very good case to be made that « the patriarchy » in feminist discourse is a conspiracy theory, yet nobody seems to make it, probably because the concept is part of the left’s arsenal and hence not attractive to the right.
Whilst we should not be throwing the cognitive psychology / 'epistemic vices' baby out with the bath water, I think that there's insights to be had in looking towards the political (and I'd include Political Theology in this).
David Smail taught me to look at two big I's: Interest and Ideology to help understand people and institutions. Each of these needs a bit of unpacking because they are multi-dimensional and furthermore there's a degree of overlap (e.g. people have an Interest in not having their Ideology contradicted). But that doesn't need to be done here in order to make the link.
I think that interest/ideology (and ultimately power) connect to the idea of CTs as 'political objects'. So I'd speculate that a CT has embedded within it certain assumptions about:
A moral theory/order and/or
A theory of resource allocation and/or
An onto-epistemology or metaphysics... (perhaps some other things too)
And that one of the functions of a CT is to reinforces or defend these basic assumptions about how the world works in order to support a person's or group's fundamental Interests and Ideology.
The more I read up about it, the more « conspiracy theories » look like « terrorism »: a word that expresses moral condemnation for ideological reasons rather than an objective reality. Also I find it interesting that the word is almost always used by left-wingers against their opponents. There is a very good case to be made that « the patriarchy » in feminist discourse is a conspiracy theory, yet nobody seems to make it, probably because the concept is part of the left’s arsenal and hence not attractive to the right.
Surprised by the absence of the social side of CTs, the community building is a major force driving these things...
Very interesting