The Atlantic's Shadowland Series

"Conspiracy thinking has shaped the world for centuries, destroying great institutions, eradicating knowledge, endangering democracies, and ending lives."

Conspiracy thinking has NOT shaped the world for centuries and never has. Nor has it ever destroyed a single institution. Education? Nope. Liberal. Culture? Nope. Liberal. Family? Nope, liberal. Culture? Nope. Liberal. Corporate America? Nope. Police? Nope. Social Media? Nope. Hollywood? Nope. Government? It depends on the administration.

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called mankind "peoplekind." [1] That's the level of political correctness in Canada. To my American friends, don't worry about Trump. Like the Earth orbiting the sun, your turn will come again, the pendulum will swing to your side, and I'm sure you'll rub a few conservative noses in the dirt to get even. And as a bonus, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will most likely announce her retirement if Biden wins the White House and Democrats takes the Senate.

And no, conspiratorial thinking has never eradicated "knowledge." It’s too much for a philosopher to unpack that statement in an article. See Philosophy of Mind in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose.

And no, conspiracy theories have never endangered democracies. In fact, it enhances them by generating debate. That is if social media companies from Silicon Valley ever get off our *ss in their blatant censorship. News flash. If something is deemed as "nonsense," then you don’t need to censor it. Censoring David Icke for his reptilian and 5G claims was a foolish move.

And no, conspiracy thinking doesn't endanger lives. People who believe in conspiracies rarely take action. The Pizzagate shooter didn’t actually kill anyone (even though he could have killed many). That shows that he had a relatively stable head on his shoulders. Neo-Nazi shootings happen because they're angry and egotistical racists. Not because they believe in conspiracy theories. Yes, they have conspiratorial thinking, but it's not the final trigger that causes them to act. Fighting against the "Liberal Agenda" is more than enough to set people off.

The fact of the matter is that more people die from getting hit by lightening then dying from a conspiracy. The only ones that die inside are the souls of the Facebook and YouTube censors that don't believe in free speech.

It's a private platform.

Yah...yah. In reality, both should be considered public utilities. It won't, but...

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

The bigger problem is that all of these false statements are in the first sentence of the first article. As a philosopher...as a writer...as a conspiracy theorist...as a human being...how can I not rip it to shreds with a good debunking series?

The writers continue their nonsensical claims with their second sentence.

"These theories threaten not just individual facts, but the idea that empirical truth exists at all."

Sigh.

Contrary to what you may have been taught by scummy liberals, conspiracy thinking has never threatened "objective" truth. Empiricism through the lens of an unfalsifiable theory is nothing more than ideological junk science. See Philosophy of Science in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose.

Liberals continue to push the junk science of climate change as the harbinger of death and the idea that there's no such thing as biology. Don't worry, I'm not anti-trans. Trans people can continue to believe that they're another gender. I allow religious people the right to think what they want. It would be irrational to deny that right for liberals and the trans movement. I'll even call you by whatever pronoun you want. Just pick one. But you can't have twenty or an infinite amount of pronouns. Like everyone else, you can have one, or two (like women).

Why am I so accommodating? Because that's what mature people do in false democracies. We accommodate your silly requests. Be it religious, cultural, social, political and such.

The Atlantic's Shadowland series is supposed to highlight the existential "danger" and "power" of conspiracy theorists. Umm...last I checked, most brand name conspiracy theorists were banned from all social media. Not much power there. Even if we define power as the ability to influence people...again, there’s not much power.

People listen to conspiracy theorists, but they don't exactly live their life through them. Sometimes, it's just a fun activity to listen to someone outside of your ideological bubble. The idea that people are "highly vulnerable" to conspiratorial thinking is complete nonsense.

How do I know? Because most listeners of "conspiratorial thinking" have cars, buy things from the grocery store, watch TV and movies, play video games, go on social media, and talk to people on the phone. Things that normal people do. They might watch/listen to Alex Jones and David Icke (not on social media of course), but it doesn't mean that their world revolves around them. That honor is reserved for people in the silly climate change movement who believe that a "climate Armageddon" will destroy the world.

The reality is that the more liberal/progressive people are, the more fake and disingenuous they become in their ideologies and actions.

A sad course of events, but that's the way the game is played. So stick around for the liberal shredding and above all...identify with whatever makes you happy. But like every other ideology in the world, don't call it science, and don't impose it on other people. Why not? Because that's rude and immature. And you're not rude and immature are you? no siree.

Also, I didn't include Robin Sloan's satirical article "The Conspiracy Museum," as part of the series. Debunking a fictional article is an oxymoron.

References:

[1] Livsey, Anna. Justin Trudeau tells woman to say 'peoplekind' not 'mankind.' Guardian. February 7, 2018.