I believe you'd have to be cloistered in a room of silence for the last decade or more to have avoided people referring to something as a "conspiracy theory" with a tone of ridicule and dismissiveness. That is not unusual. It actually seemed to be something that was being pushed as the normal reaction. It was legitimizing what is known as an Appeal To The Stone fallacy. Which is framing something as ridiculous without proof of it being ridiculous and thus using that as the justification to not discuss or think about specific topics. Evidence is not looked at or considered once the Appeal To The Stone is accepted and the ridicule is used to steer people away from consideration and discussion.
That has been going on for a long time. They carefully conditioned people not even think about what the words Conspiracy and the word Theory actually mean. They are separate words and they have meaning. People don't even consider those meanings they simply utter the phrase, or they run away from a topic when they hear someone else utter "conspiracy theory".
Recently I've noticed a new phenomena. I have noticed it happening enough that I thought I should write about it.
"Nah, man that's just a conspiracy".
I've noticed that people have just stopped using the word theory. This is a clear red flag that they don't actually understand the word and are just reflexively uttering words. They are going immediately for the Appeal To Stone and are thus sheltering their mind from thinking. That is uncomfortable, it's a conspiracy. I'm glad I said it's a conspiracy because now I don't actually have to think about that uncomfortable topic.
Reality doesn't care about your mental comfort.
Truth and falsity are not dictated by whether you are comfortable or not.
Yet, that still is not the issue.
They dropped the word theory. This clearly indicates they have no clue what they are talking about.
Why?
Conspiracy is a crime. People are actually tried and convicted for conspiracies every year. Without the word THEORY you are actually stating the thing the people you are arguing with are saying and you don't even realize it.
"Nah, man that's a conspiracy."
"Exactly, it's a conspiracy, so let's prosecute them!"
"Nah, man it's not real."
"Your saying it s a conspiracy theory?"
"Yeah."
"So when you said it's a conspiracy you were making a mistake?"
"No, I wasn't making a mistake. It is a conspiracy."
"You do realize without the word theory you are stating it is happening, and that is what I was claiming."
"It's not real."
"That is usually what people call a conspiracy theory, yet even people that speak conspiracy theories are not saying it is absolute. They are providing it as a possibility based upon evidence and knowledge that they have encountered. The more evidence you have then that theory becomes more and more probable. Yet simply calling it a conspiracy theory doesn't mean it is wrong. Even the official explanations are technically speaking often conspiracy theories. Yet if you drop the word theory then you are not giving a reason NOT to listen to it, you are stating it is fact. Conspiracy is a crime, so if it is a fact then it should be prosecuted."
"You're an idiot!"
"Ad Hominem, Appeal To The Stone, what next?"
Certainly, people who use the term "conspiracy" in the context you mention are doing it wrong. I would say that the phrase "conspiracy theory" as used in popular culture has a slightly different (and more negative) connotation than the two words alone would lead you to believe. In my opinion, a "conspiracy theory" is something for which serious or even incredible claims are made for which there is little or only circumstantial evidence. Of course, sometimes people are quick to use the term without knowing what evidence actually exists.
I tend to be a skeptic. If someone makes serious claims I expect serious evidence. Conspiracy theories, as I identify them, are often rampant with speculation and light on hard facts. But there are many different kinds and some are more serious than others. At the end of the day, it isn't up to the skeptic to prove a negative, it's up to the conspiracy theorist to provide the proof of what they are claiming.
It's really important matter because people learn the chanters soon and when they hear about the Conspiracy Theorists all around then they also start this stuff and they conclude every stuff like it's conspiracy, but we have to understand one thing, if we are saying conspiracy then that's an absolute subject and people nowadays mixing the absolute subject matter words into normal way, and we have to understand the conspiracy and conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theory is an theory which is included all the theory towards particular subject it's not about the truth or false it's about someone's own research and analysis and their theory so these are different concept and we have to understand it. Thanks for sharing this post with us and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂
Curated for #informationwar (by @wakeupnd)
Relevance: Sharing the truth.
Our purpose is to encourage posts discussing Information War, Propaganda, Disinformation and other false narratives. We currently have over 7,500 Steem Power and 20+ people following the curation trail to support our mission.
Join our discord and chat with 150+ fellow Informationwar Activists.
Ways you can help the @informationwar
Hi friend! I am the first time on your post. It's really interesting post on life philosophy. Are you a philosopher?
In truth, I might say that the humans that straight away label something a "conspiracy", or a "conspiracy theory" with the tone of ridicule in their voice are the ones giving into a social preference. they need to ridicule the person with the idea they do not like so that it will disgrace others into no longer listening. they do not want the stigma of what you labeled a "conspiracy idea".
I'm glad that you wrote this and made mention of Argumentum ad lapidem as I had never previously known of it's existence. I mean I knew, but I didn't know of it as an official logical fallacy.
I have noticed that among students in the last 2 or 3 years, even though it is in a different language, the 'theory' part has become truncated from the term while maintaining its meaning as 'conspiracy theory'. When remarked on they generally corrected by adding it back in. I wonder if in the youth media the terms are being intentionally manipulated...interesting idea, I will keep my eyes open.
Well said and done. Folks have all the knowledge at their finger tips and fail to learn the truth... Words matter...
Why we can so easily believe in conspiracy theories is that we are social animals and our status in society is far more important (from an evolutionary point of view) than the truth. Hence we continually compare our deeds and beliefs with our peers, and then change those actions and beliefs to fit. This means that if our social group believes in something, we will tend to follow our flock.
The cultural influence on lucid thought is so devastating, most people don’t even value true knowledge and understanding, no less actively seek it. Being the “winner” is more important than discerning the truth, and if you can do that with appeal to stone, ad hominem, punching someone in the face, then why bother trying to figure stuff out?
Philosophy is *taboo - just think about that... take a conversation deep - to the root causal factors - and you’ve just killed the conversation. You’re a snooze, a bore, out of step with culturally-sanctioned behavior, and thus crazy or a loser. You may as well have just sneezed in the punch bowl.
The easiest thing in the world is to laugh someone into losing an argument; especially if the truth lies below intellectual sea level for the culture. Everyone will perceive the bully as the winner if he frames it right.
All the world is deceived, my friend. Our job isn’t merely to push a boulder up a hill, but to push a fallen moon back into orbit. The odds are desperately slim; but it’s literally our only option to save humanity. So keep on, and here’s to miracles...
Philosophy - What It Means, and Why It Matters
Yep. Sometimes it works out, but it is rare. That makes it worth it still. The alternative is surrender. Not my style.
Agreed, brother.
Several years ago I began using the phrase "a concerted cooperative effort" and more recently have adopted one of "their" more common terms and call their shenanigens "an agenda".
I don't know if it helps or not as most people I talk with either have a good understanding of what has happened to the common man in America over the past 100 years, and why, or they don't believe what the date is on the calander until it is confimed to them on a well known tv network.
I fight back against their tactic of stealing lingual territory and repurposing it. I often refer to is as word hijacking and have written numerous word hijacking posts. I make it clear I do not recognize the authority of miscellaneous humans to redefine a word in a way that clearly is not a synonym for the original meaning. If they want to create a new word, fine, go for it. I will fight back when they try to steal existing words and turn them into weapons. I will not cede that lingual territory.
If two or more people make a plan...that's a conspiracy.
Convict them all.
send them to jail!
Northern Trust Wins Patent for Storing Meeting Minutes on a Blockchain
proof-of-conspiracy...
I haz idea.
Suppose we call em
True Believers!
or maybe just
Believers
for short.
(I'm a skeptic)
Just the facts...please...show me the facts.
Can we just go straight to the "Appeal to the Water" and start waterboarding those that do not understand...I was going to say more but then thought twice about it lest someone think I was starting a conspiracy. ;-}
Full upvote for the closing picture.
I didn't see that coming.
Nice close :)
Great observation! I had not noticed it, but now that you point it out, I DO realize you are correct!
"Reality doesn't care about your mental comfort."
Yup. THAT.
This is a really interesting observation. Our language is changing and not for the better.
Only if we acknowledge their right to change it. I am convinced that is one of the things we need to do to fight back. Refuse to cede the lingual territory to them.
I agree, but what a job that is to educate the population that these things even exist...
Yep. Things truly worth doing are often challenging. I do know what you mean.
In fact you would have to be out if it since the Kennedy assassination when they first invented the term conspiracy theorist in order to denigrate anyone looking into the assassination beyond the official narrative. They have been using it ever since then.
Yes, but it was possible for people not to encounter it. Now it is so often lobbed as a grenade at anything someone doesn't want to listen to much like racism, etc. So it is impossible to avoid now.
In the past you only encountered it IF you had an interest in certain topics. Now all you have to do is say something someone doesn't want to hear. They can smile and say "conspiracy" as they virtue signal and suddenly feel good about themselves rather than actually listening to what was making them uncomfortable.
In the past we didn't have the internet, the average person would never even have these debates and if they did it would be with someone they know in person, not strangers anonymously. I like to tell such people that I am not discussing a conspiracy theory, I am discussing conspiracy facts.
I prefer to tell them I am discussing possibilities as often the facts are not available without a time machine.
that's funny you should mention that because I have a theory about Trump's time machine, it sure would explain a lot.
Heh. It can leave you wondering. Right along with that day when you suddenly wonder how intentional and planned the things he says that people think are "stupid" actually are.
It seems to me a lot of those "stupid" things to say occur at exactly the right time. Right about when the media is starting to pay attention to something else.
I do the @newsagg and comparing the left leaning sites to any other source it is VERY obvious how Trump obsessed they are. They often fail to report on much more major things while they keep talking about the same Trump centric things.
Then they start to talk about other things and Trump will say something, or tweet something and suddenly they are back in the Trump zone.
I'm starting to think he may be doing that by design. Actually I've been suspecting that for awhile. Yet I am increasingly leaning towards that being probable.
His every tweet is carefully calculated and he knows that they can't help but to cover every single tweet breathlessly so when he is watching TV and it is not about him he can just tweet something and change what's on TV to being about whatever he wants it to be about. Twitter is like a remote control for him.
What is really bad about people using the conspiracy theory card is the fact that it can easily be proved that the CIA absolutely programed people to do disbelieve anything when the phrase is used.
This actually means that using the card proves that you are either a dupe or a shill. Not something anyone should allow themselves to be associated as. Thus playing the card can only make you look bad.LOLOLOLOL
I think you have observed a case of the everlasting battle between laziness and ignorance. Where on one side appealing to authority, while on the other attempting not to exhaust oneself using too many difficult words.
In some cases, conspiracy “theory” could almost more accurately be labelled conspiracy “theorem”.
I say Conspiracy Hypothesis. :)
isn't that still illegal?
Probably. Many of the people likely have no idea what a Hypothesis is and might think I am being cruel to animals and talking about a Hippopotamus.
a hypothesis is a guess.
so instead of 'conspiracy theory'
we should instead say
'illegal guess'
Perhaps.
I do however have my own reservation with the word "illegal". I think it is a powerful word, cleverly used to monopolize the right to judge what is commonly accepted as morally good and bad.
I'm laughing, but that's probably mostly because I no longer see it as a too farfetched scenario. In a not too distant future you might very well face jail time for such a "cruel racist statement".