This comes from Don’t Expect Police to Shoot at Crowds by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., and while the topic of his essay is certainly appropriate, it touches on topics other than the obvious one in the title.
The quote below almost seems like a throwaway line. But it's something many of us have probably thought about. "Conspiracy theory" is a line we hear all the time in an effort to demean someone's argument. Anyway, here's Jenkins:
Conspiracy theory is a dumb term and should be abandoned when people really mean “false narrative.” Theories can be right or wrong. Conspiracy is merely a word for cooperation toward a criminal end. But our media use “conspiracy theory” as a dismissive pejorative to avoid showing what the evidence says. Many states, including states Mr. Trump won, conducted the election in ways not strictly compliant with state law due to the pandemic. A sharp drop in the rejection rate for absentee ballots needs explaining, though it was likely due to greatly relaxed security requirements.
"A dismissive pejorative to avoid showing what the evidence says." Yes, exactly.
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