Conspiracy claims gain credibility by mixing precise detail with untestable vagueness

Evidence

The attraction of the concentration-camp legend, similar to that of the black helicopters, lies in its combination of specifi city and vagueness. On the one hand, the maps and lists of place names that routinely accompany such stories suggest unimpeachable validity. As Richard Hofstadter long ago noted, this emphasis on detailed factual claims is part of the conspiracists’ insistent emphasis on empiricism. For the same reason, many of the accounts contain not only highly specifi c charges but a pseudoscholarly apparatus of footnotes as well. On the other hand, concrete though the claims are, they turn out to be miragelike in their tendency fi rst to blur and then to vanish. In this case, almost all of the locations labeled concentration camps turn out to be existing federal facilities, military or correctional, to which the general public does not have routine access. Hence nefarious activities can be attributed to them with little likelihood that the claims will be quickly rebutted, and the same security arrangements that shield them from public view may be blamed for the public’s supposed ignorance of their true purpose. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 383

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A conspiracy group’s fictional image can outshine its real tiny history — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 269; Conspiracy symbols thrive by being both concretely observable and permanently elusive. — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 370; Specific fabricated detail confers surface plausibility on conspiracy claims — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 381 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Conspiracy symbols succeed by combining concrete specificity with vagueness #corroborates (0.92)
• Conspiracy theories become unfalsifiable by dismissing skeptic evidence as planted #expands (0.80)
• Vague conspiracist forms like innuendo exist to evade accountability for their claims #exemplifies (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 96