The shift in narrative seems to reflect the transition from Trump to Biden, and the need to maintain China as a bad actor (but not the *only* one now), and also the need to justify not taking the vaccine against the virus that they believe is a bioweapon.
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One of the reasons conspiracy theories are so dangerous is that they lead to a cycle of scapegoating b/c the regressive logic of conspiratorial thinking can only be maintained by implicating an ever-expanding group of "conspirators" involved in the conspiracy &/or the "cover-up".
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Conspiracy theories are appealing b/c they claim to provide explanations for otherwise inexplicable or uncontrollable events. But this comes at a cost. Maintaining the belief leads to 'crippled epistemology' — a rigid style of thinking that rejects disconfirming information.
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Conspiracy theories serve a palliative function by allowing people to attribute external events/circumstances to some person or group, which produces a sense of control over one’s environment (b/c the risk is less random when it’s attributed to a powerful, nefarious actor).
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I also think there’s probably a connection between the loss of trust in shared knowledge and collective knowledge-producing mechanisms, and the disregard we’re seeing for our collective responsibility to get vaccinated. It’s just a total breakdown.
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Society depends on trust in shared sources of knowledge. Much of what we "know" is based on the testimony of others, rather than firsthand experience or observation. (eg, most of us have never seen the North Pole — but we believe it exists and we know where it is.)
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Functioning societies depend on these shared, socially-mediated sources of knowledge. It's the glue that holds societies together. Conspiracy theories ask us to give up more & more of our trust in each other, in our knowledge-generating mechanisms, and in what we “know”.
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So that’s the cost of conspiracy theories. They ask us to give up on our trust in knowledge, in knowledge-producing institutions, in shared sense-making, and in each other. And so ultimately, they ask us to give up on the fabric of society altogether.
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It seems the logical extension of this is that we lose some of our sense of being a society at all — of being bound together and of being bound by the same reality. As a collective responsibility, vaccines depend on an understanding that our experiences are inextricably bound.
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The same dynamic is also very apparent when it comes to climate change, which presents a clear threat to our continued existence, given that we share a planet with people who reject the idea that a shared reality even exists. It’s among the greatest challenges facing humanity.
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