The conspiracy theories illustrate just one particular way in which human reasoning is capable of jumping the track.
In the scientific discipline, one goes by the rule known as “Occam’s razor”: If several candidate theories appear capable of explaining the same set of facts, test the simplest hypothesis first.
A priori, the simplest hypothesis is just as likely to prove incorrect as the other ones, but if it is indeed incorrect it will likely take less time and less work to find out, so the attention can be given to the next hypothesis, and hopefully a step can be taken in the direction of discovering the truth.
Occam’s razor is just a wise precaution to increase the chances of approaching the truth as quickly as reasonably possible, trying to keep luck out of the equation. It does not guarantee that the truth will be found, it only minimizes the chances of getting lost on an unproductive track.
It seems that the most avid customers of conspiracy theories are animated by precisely the opposite principle: If several theories appear capable of explaining the same set of facts, adopt the most convoluted one, and reject all the others, which are presumably better feedstock for the idiots and the gullible…
It’s like claiming to possess superior reason by boasting the privilege of performing an end-run on reason itself. Hard to imagine a better way to get lost in some utopian landscape. Could this be the most comfortable refuge one can find when refusing to recognize that reality is overwhelming in one way or another?
Could the power of denial and the power of abstraction come from the same fundamental human capacity, just a tool to be used, with various degrees of productivity?
