Saved in:
| Hovedforfatter: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Recurso digital |
| Sprog: | engelsk |
| Udgivet: |
Zenodo
2026
|
| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18979343 |
| Tags: |
Tilføj Tag
Ingen Tags, Vær først til at tagge denne postø!
|
Indholdsfortegnelse:
- <p>The label "conspiracy theory" carries zero informational content regarding the truth-value of any<br>proposition to which it is applied: a false proposition is false whether or not it is so labeled, and a true<br>proposition remains true regardless. Yet the label functions as one of the most effective mechanisms of<br>epistemic suppression in contemporary discourse. This paper identifies the mechanism responsible for this<br>disjunction between informational vacuity and rhetorical power: ad hominem laundering — the process by<br>which an attack on the speaker is disguised as an evaluation of the proposition through the application of a<br>pseudo-epistemological label. We demonstrate that the statement "that is a conspiracy theory" performs the<br>same logical operation as "you are a liar," but camouflages this ad hominem as an epistemological<br>classification. The analysis proceeds through five arguments: (1) a formal demonstration that the label’s<br>truth-value information is exactly zero; (2) a self-selection argument showing that the pool of claims<br>circulating as "conspiracy theories" is structurally biased against deliberate fabrication, since rational<br>fabricators self-select into fiction; (3) a tripartite analysis of receiver responses revealing that the label’s<br>effectiveness correlates inversely with epistemic competence — the signature of an epistemological<br>obstruction device; (4) an analysis of how the label inverts the burden of proof by exploiting information<br>asymmetries; and (5) a demonstration that the label bypasses the examination of boundary conditions,<br>terminating inquiry before evaluation begins. The paper concludes that the label is structurally illegitimate<br>regardless of the truth-value distribution of conspiracy theories, and that naming the mechanism — ad<br>hominem laundering — removes the condition on which its success depends: invisibility.</p>