Author Note: This article is a decent and concise food for thought, as a response to both extremes of the conspiracy-believing spectrum. I wrote this with little mental.
01 Conspiracies Happen
01.01 When Real Conspiracies Get Dismissed
Many avoid labeling real conspiracies as such, primarily because they are burdened with heavy affiliation with extreme groups that irrationally see grand narratives everywhere. However, claiming the existance of secret harmful activities is hardly crazy on its own. The automatic thought-terminating discreditment from labeleing something as a conspiracy theory is extremely dangerous. History is full of harmful conspiracies conspiracies covered up and conducted by powerful people.
01.02 Real Conspiracies Throughout History
Some verified conspiracies that actually occurred:
- The Holocaust was a conspiracy.
- The whole Epstein scandal.
- Edward Snowden’s reveal of Mass Surveillance by the NSA.
- The building of the atomic bomb in WWII (depending on what definition you use).
- FTX gambling with their customer’s money
02 Skepticism Against Grand Conspiracies
02.00 Human Limitations
In my opinion, I think people are too unpredictable, incompetent, and chaotic to be able to conspire on massive scales, especially in the modern age of mass media and recordings. Massive scale conspiracies are hard to cover up because typically takes a single plausible whistleblower. Although I recognize there is plenty of opportunity to smear real whistleblowers and sell doubt to the public.
My general sentiment regarding grand narratives is that no one is fully in-control and very few organizations are sophisticated enough to pull off secret plans on the large-scale many conspiracy theories claim they operate on.
03 Evaluating Conspiracy Claims
03.00 Critical Assessment Framework
I think a few things to keep in mind when evaluating conspiracy theories are:
03.01 Motive
Why would this conspiracy be doing this? (Ex: There seems to be a pretty good reason to fake the moon landing — the prestige of space travel in the eyes of the international community and morale across the nation. Force Russia to spend more money on the space race.)
03.02 Secrecy
Who would have to know about this conspiracy for it to happen? How is it possible that all these people are able to maintain the secret? (ex: Basically all of NASA would have to be on board to fake the moon landing — including normal scientists and engineers which doesn’t seem likely.)
03.03 Feasibility
How possible are the actions of this conspiracy? (Ex: I saw this one video that demonstrated that it might’ve legitimately been a harder technological feat to fake the moon landing than to actually do the moon landing.)