Conspiracy theories serve as cover stories for avoiding hard realities

Evidence

This might explain why the conspiratorial claims in the Mirror World so often seem to contradict one another. For this new political configuration, convincing people of their unproven theories was never the real point—it was only ever a tool. The point, consciously or not, is to foster denial and avoidance. The point is not to have to do hard and uncomfortable things in the face of hard and uncomfortable realities, whether Covid, or climate change, or the fact that our nations were forged in genocide and have never engaged in a remotely serious process of making repair. Denial is so much easier than looking inward, or backward, or forward; so much easier than change. But denial needs narratives, cover stories, and that is what conspiracy culture is providing. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 871

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes conspiracy theory’s surface function (persuasion) from its real function (denial management) - Klein’s instrumental reading of the Mirror World.
• SEED: Could extend to an essay on how market-propaganda ‘cover stories’ (trickle-down, infinite growth) function the same way as conspiracy for ‘soft deniers’.
• XREF: connects to: Conspiracy theories primarily assign blame rather than explain events — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 972; Conspiracy theories satisfy epistemic, existential, and social needs — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 179; the MOC “The Viral Refinery: How Preexisting Fringe Fears Get Smelted Into Mainstream Reality”