> Seriously, the knee-jerk allergy to "conspiracy theories" - and if a reifying generalization ever demanded conceptual analysis, that one surely does - is as unhelpful as the belief that World Events™ are conjured by a cabal of cigar-smoking, kabbalizing rabbis in a Josefov attic.
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> The problem with stereotypical conspiracy theories isn't that they are false - although most of them are - but that even when they are true, they are framed in a way that is radically disempowering. But trying to re-frame activities that clearly constitute attempts at what most people would call "conspiracy" as something else is just as unhelpful.
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Charles Brown: I very much agree that the notion of "conspiracy theory" as automatically false, or that there are no ruling class or government conspiracies in fact, such as the assassination of President Kennedy, has wreaked havoc on left analysis ever since the idea became prominent. In fact, I'm pretty sure denigration of conspiracy theory analysis on the left is some kind of US intelligence brainwashing of the left originating with concern to deflect attention from the John Birch Society cell, including Oswald, within the US military that assassinated Kennedy in a form of coup d'etat.