> I think Lacan’s point that a paranoid’s disorder is to be found in
> the form of the illness and not in the content is applicable here.
> When a husband who is suspicious of a cheating wife fixates in such
> a way that the suspicion becomes a general attitude which thereafter
> conditions all incoming experience, he has developed a disorder
> regardless of whether or not his suspicions are founded or even
> fully corroborated. So when you grant a conspiracy theorist a
> suspension of disbelief and say “Ok I’ll follow, I accept your
> evidence… now what?” It has been my experience that they don’t use
> these “facts” to inform a program of action but, instead, as a
> justification for looking for more “facts” – so it functions like a
> drive. This is fine for the disenfranchised citizen trying to get at
> least a little surplus enjoyment from an alienated existence but it
> is pathological for a news organization. For me, this isn’t just
> idiocy, it is insanity.