Conspiracy Theories

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A conspiracy theory is explanation of an event or circumstance that accuses powerful actors of working in secret for their own benefit, against the common good. I think calling something a conspiracy is a way of weaponizing, like, challenges to certain practices. Like i think with the coved one, it might have been a somewhat, maybe misguided and ultemately completely backfiring attempt to increase the common good,. But it did violate norms of transparency and honesty. And i think one of the reasons i think it backfired is just undermined even more than normal, like the amount of trust people have in something like the c d c.

David and Tamler continue their discussion of Leo Tolstoy’s 'Confession.' When we left him last time, the famous author had bottomed out just years after writing two of the greatest novels ever written. Our eventual death, Tolstoy thought, strips life of all meaning and purpose – all answers to the question “so what?”. How does he emerge from this state of suicidal depression? What role does faith or “irrational knowledge” play in his account? What’s the meaning of the cryptic dream at the conclusion of the memoir?

Plus, bombarded with this recommendation, we were going to talk about a certain article that came out in Qualitative Research about masturbating to Japanese shota comics – we even had a guest – but had to scrap it. Instead, we discuss a recent study on conspiracy theories that shows that liberals are just as likely to believe in them as conservatives. Mostly we just talk about the conspiracies.