i wish I could visit alternate universe where some of the most destructive conspiracy theorists just wrote science fiction instead. I want to scream sometimes— if you have a neat idea and know you probably can’t back it up because it’s too advanced or probably not true… just write fiction! You don’t need to lie! Tell a story! It might even be fun!

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@futurebird The scary thing is these people not only think its true, they think there are tons of facts to back it up, we are just "sheep" for not seeing it.

The requirement for a good theory, "conspiracy" or otherwise, is that it can be falsified. Without that, the theory is "not even false" (a justified criticism of String Theory). Any theory can have a ton of facts which seem to confirm it. Conspiracy theorists don't just imagine them.

E.g. a current "conspiracy" theory is that the Covid virus was not in fact novel, but just the annual flu plus a psy-op. Yes there are ton of coincidences which seem to support it (e.g. virtually no flu cases), but these can have alternate explanations. But this is a decent theory because it can be falsified by e.g. exhibiting the genome compared to the flu.

@sdgathman

This gets into a bit of muddy water.. I agree with what you are trying to say, and thats the important part... but when it comes to science and the concept of falsifiability im not sure its the best.

When i think of most conspiracy theories all of them are falsifiable in general but not falsifiable by you (or any random member of the public for that matter).

Take the moon landing as an example. People claim it never happened... Well I cant personally prove it directly either way. To truly prove it youd either need inside access to NASA or you'd need the money to go to the moon and check... So while I myself cant verify it, in general it can be verified.

@futurebird

Yeah, the problem there is not trusting the source of existing evidence. Earthbound telescopes do not have enough resolution to image the debris. But, a home scientist can buy a laser and confirm the existence of the reflector left behind.

Also, the eye witness testimony of the astronauts that made the trip should count for a lot. I can dig the general distrust of government - but throwing out the testimony of multiple eyewitnesses is where they lose me.
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