Weak assent fuels emphatic political claims rather than restraining them.

Evidence

The new conspiracism sets a low bar: if one cannot be certain that a belief is entirely false, with the emphasis on entirely, then it might be true—and that’s true enough. This is the logic behind “Even if it’s not totally true, there’s something there.” The new conspiracists do not necessarily believe what they say. But they do not disbelieve it either. As we have argued, classic conspiracy theory is about making sense of the world. But to assent in the way the new conspiracists do is something different. Their assent is forceful and has the stamp of certainty—the election was “rigged!” But when probed, the language of certainty often gives way to the language of “true enough.” And “true enough” is good enough politically. Because the weak ground of assent does not cause hesitation or humility. It is not a barrier to publicly asserting emphatic claims about reality. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 108

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The insight that a LOW evidentiary bar can coexist with HIGH assertional confidence — and that weak grounds don’t produce hesitation — is the chapter’s core mechanism and is genuinely paradigm-level for understanding delegitimation.
• DEFINE: Establishes the technical meaning of ‘true enough’ as distinct from both belief and disbelief.
• XREF: connects to: Public assent, not private belief, is what drives conspiracism’s political effects. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 123