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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   28723 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

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  • Innocent black men are routinely killed by corrupt police in large numbers, and the murders are covered up.

  • Donald Trump is a Russian Asset, controlled through Kompromat.

  • The Russians hacked the 2016 election

  • Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist, and the Republican machine helped him cover it up.

It seems to me that these four fit your definition of "conspiracy theory", do they not?

So the second one sounds like an example of a conspiracy theory – it's not just an exaggeration but implies a shadowy cabal who's really in control. Unless the speaker just means Trump is a 'Russian asset' in the minimal sense that his existence is of value to Russia (rather than in the spycraft sense).

The others seem a bit more like rash overclaims than complete fantasies to me though it really depends on how the speaker elaborates on what they mean when questioned. Russia did interfere with the 2016 election, for example, but it does not appear at all likely it made a significant difference to the outcome.

Innocent black men are routinely killed by corrupt police in large numbers,

Not a conspiracy theory, just a retarded belief.

and the murders are covered up.

Are there (a significant amount of relevant) people who believe this?

Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist, and the Republican machine helped him cover it up.

This also seems like a strained framing, a lot of blue tribers believe that Brett Kavanaugh is a rapist (unlikely but unknowable) and believe that Republicans don't care about it because they hate women/whatever (wrong, Republicans just don't believe he is a rapist).

2 and 3 are one point stretched into two. But it's true that Russiagate stuff is definitely conspiratorial thinking, but it's miles more believable than QAnon (so is the Stop the Steal stuff, for whatever that's worth).

Not a conspiracy theory, just a retarded belief.

But is the term "conspiracy theory" not already used in a pejorative sense, such that it can be defined as "retarded belief" in the minds of many? To put it in fewer words, these are one and the same, to some.

Maybe, but we're not many, we're few and (usually) subject ourselves to a higher standard. There is such a thing as conspiratorial thinking, which is distinct from just being stupid, and it could be that, as of right now, it's more prevalent on the right.

Now, I'm of the opinion that Richard Hanania and his consequences have been a disaster for the rat-adjacent discourse, but I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand.

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