Classic conspiracism treats visible facts as misleading surface hiding concealed truth

Evidence

And in insisting that the truth is not on the surface, classic conspiracism engages in a sort of detective work. Once all the facts—especially facts ominously withheld by reliable sources and omitted from official reports—are scrupulously amassed, a pattern of secret machinations emerges. The dots are woven into a comprehensive narrative of events. Warranted or not, classic conspiracism is conspiracy with a theory. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 13

Categorization

• DEFINE: Characterizes classic conspiracism’s detective-work structure versus the theory-less new conspiracism.
• XREF: connects to: Conspiracism is the belief that hidden evil powers control human destinies — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 65