And while it would be good form to lightheartedly go through a number of fun but insignificant examples, that's what Chesterton would have done, I'm too tired to think of them and will get to the point.
I happen to like Liz Wheeler, who's interviewing Jimmy Akin (a likeable person with some very good takes in theology leading to his conversion and some very bad one in the case of the nature of inerrancy). So, I look her up. 35, has a husband, has two children, started podcasting in 2020.
AND:
In January 2023, following football player Damar Hamlin's in-game collapse, Wheeler promoted a conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccine was responsible for a "surge" in athlete deaths and injuries.
Can you spot what's wrong, what phrase is being misused?
Conspiracy theory. A conspiracy theory means a result (usually considered unpleasant or dangerous or both by the conspiracy theorist) that is in mainstream media (including public schools as much as big newspapers) attributed to well informed decisions, chance interaction, small players, is in reality the result of some big players conspiring. If Arizona Cardinals lost a match, and someone Catholic, football fanatic and living in Phoenix said "Rockefeller has Calvinist roots, so he conspired to bribe the umpire to let the team with Catholic symbolism lose" that would be a conspiracy theory. If I replied that the match was in 2013 and a symbol of the college of cardinals losing it and so an actual judgement by God, that would not be a conspiracy theory. It may be as ridiculous as a conspiracy theory. But it is not a conspiracy theory. Because it doesn't involve an actual conspiracy about the Arizona Cardinals.
So, "Mussolini caused the death of Matteotti" is a conspiracy theory. "King Victor Emmanuel III caused the death of Matteotti" is a conspiracy theory. The latter is the one favoured by Matteotti's son, by the way, and no, Matteotti's son, like his father, is a socialist, not a Fascist. But why is it a conspiracy theory? Well, because X who "caused the death" did so by hiring some less in the limelight person to do the dirty job for him. Amerigo Dumini is no doubt less in the limelight than Il Duce. He's also less in the limelight than King Victor Emmanuel III. Il Duce could have a motive insofar as Matteotti had denounced elections. King Victor Emmanuel III could have a motive insofar as Matteotti wanted transparency on a petrol deal. When Amerigo Dumini's judges in, I think 1947, had more reasons to smear Mussolini than to smear the King who died that year sentenced him (for the second time) for the murder of Matteotti, they stated that the order was given him by Mussolini.
I would like to know what was written with notaries in Texas, or if Amerigo Dumini was bluffing, back after his release.
Freed in 1927, Amerigo Dumini left for Italian Somaliland, having been awarded a large state pension (5,000 lire). Apparently, he was still viewed as troublesome, since he was detained and interned on the Tremiti Islands. Meanwhile, he warned General Emilio De Bono that he had filed a manuscript detailing Matteotti's murder with notaries in Texas. This claim led to his release and an increase in pension to as much as 50,000 lire. He left for Italian Libya, where his pension was further increased by 2,500 lire (together with a single payment of 125,000 lire).
Well, this at least would involve either of the conspiracy theories being true, since the paying of the pension would imply that someone very important in Italy (Mussolini and Victor Emmanuel III, as Prime Minister and as King, both fit that bill) wanted the papers in Texas not to be disclosed. I wonder if they ever were, and if the judgement in 1947 was based on them, or on any statement by Dumini.
But either of these things, "Mussolini caused the death of Matteotti" and "King Victor Emmanuel III caused the death of Matteotti", is a conspiracy theory, not just because it goes beyond the obvious cause, Dumini. BUT. Because it also does so by means of a supposed criminal conspiracy.
Now, what about the statement "the COVID-19 vaccine was responsible for a "surge" in athlete deaths and injuries"? Is that a conspiracy theory? No. The COVID-19 vaccine is not supposed to be a person. Is not supposed to enter a criminal conspiracy. It is therefore very literally not a conspiracy theory. It is a medical theory. And, when it comes to personal caution, I think it's the kind of medical theory each and every person has the right to entertain and to advice others on. It's not an advice for a specific treatment, it's not medical advice that only medical practitioners can give. But right or wrong, legal or illegal, it is definitely not a conspiracy theory. People should start to remember what words mean.
Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Easter Octave Friday
25.IV.2025
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