Collaboration so seamless it defies accounting invites conspiratorial explanation
Evidence
Now that we have been faithful partners for years and can finish each other’s sentences (on paper anyway), we must confess this work would not have been half as good without the other, or half as good without the names above. That does not appear to add up. Perhaps this is a conspiracy after all. The final product did turn out suspiciously well. Who, then, is to blame? With all the characters above, it cannot be the work of a lone gunman. — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 26
Categorization
- CANDY: A light, self-aware joke ending the acknowledgements: two authors whose work ‘does not add up’ to the quality produced must be a conspiracy — and with so many named helpers it can’t be a lone gunman.
- XREF: connects to: Studying conspiracy theories does not itself confer conspiratorial skill — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 22; The ‘everything is connected’ principle turns ordinary business links into conspiracy architecture — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 842; Transparency efforts can amplify rather than dispel conspiracism — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 318 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Transparency efforts can amplify rather than dispel conspiracism
#expands(0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 318 - Assessing conspiracist claims requires dual suspension of disbelief and suspicion
#qualifies(0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 40 - Corporate conspiracy in The Parallax View is deliberately centerless and unaccountable
#exemplifies(0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 141 - Structural analysis of capitalism is the antidote to conspiracy theories
#responds-to(0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 755 - Formal two-sided balance distorts rather than serves truth in reporting conflict
#complicates(0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 866