"Let me be clear: I am in no way arguing that conspiracy theories are harmless."
This annoys me.
As was the case with the pervasive NSA spying pre-Snowden (your phone can listen in!) and early Covid lab-escape hypotheses, "conspiracy theories", can also simply be true (or likely), and denying them is harmful.
Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" for example, and you'll get another look on "conspiracy theories" and what the USA as a country is willing and capable of doing. Strange that this angle is not covered in this piece. By not acknowledging this you are pushing people with non-mainstream hypotheses even further away, it is indeed counterproductive.
Simply defining conspiracy theories as theories that are not true or not held by the majority is too simple and an impossible definition.
This annoys me.
As was the case with the pervasive NSA spying pre-Snowden (your phone can listen in!) and early Covid lab-escape hypotheses, "conspiracy theories", can also simply be true (or likely), and denying them is harmful.
Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" for example, and you'll get another look on "conspiracy theories" and what the USA as a country is willing and capable of doing. Strange that this angle is not covered in this piece. By not acknowledging this you are pushing people with non-mainstream hypotheses even further away, it is indeed counterproductive.
Simply defining conspiracy theories as theories that are not true or not held by the majority is too simple and an impossible definition.