Acknowledging disorientation is the first step toward overcoming it.

Evidence

The individual who is going to act seems, therefore, to find himself in a circle in which each moment already presupposes the other, and thus he seems unable to find a beginning, because he only gets to know his original nature, which must be his End, from the deed, while, in order to act, he must have that End beforehand. But for that very reason he has to start immediately, and, whatever the circumstances, without further scruples about beginning, means, or End, proceed to action (zur Tätigkeit zu schreiten); for his essence and intrinsic nature is beginning, means, and End, all in one. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1334 (#expands, via linked claim)

There are no truth-in-advertising labels that tell us which conspiracist claims are warranted. There are no bright lines. Some conspiracy theories are true, and some are false, and, increasingly, many are not theories at all. Confronted with a conspiracist claim, the question is, on one hand, whether we can set aside disbelief in the possibility of a conspiracy and entertain the charge and, on the other hand, whether we can set aside preconceived notions that agents are always out there, plotting with malignant intent. The question is how we assemble facts and draw inferences from those facts. When considering the possibility of conspiracy, do we consider contrary evidence and argument? Can we hold in mind facts that are in tension with one another? — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 40 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Part of the appeal is performative aggression. The new conspiracism delivers dark claims, though the fabrications are erratic, vague, and undeveloped—more angry assertion than revelatory narrative. For angry minds it offers the immediate gratification of lashing out, of throwing verbal stones. It is a particularly gratifying form of vilification precisely because the more unfathomable the accusation, the greater the degree of disorientation, incredulity, and rage it provokes in its targets. Conspiracist accusations leave the rest of us, officials and citizens alike, baffled, our sense of reality threatened, our responses tentative and, it feels, inadequate. Disorientation is one of the dangerous effects of conspiracism, and producing this reaction is one of the new conspiracists’ declared pleasures. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 94 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Unfathomable accusations delight by disorienting their targets — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 94; Assessing conspiracist claims requires dual suspension of disbelief and suspicion — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 40; Circular self-knowledge is resolved by starting to act immediately. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1334 (+1 more)

Related

• Circular self-knowledge is resolved by starting to act immediately. (similarity 0.86)
• Unfathomable accusations delight by disorienting their targets (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Circular self-knowledge is resolved by starting to act immediately. #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1334