The tendency to blame a single entity for disparate negative events isn't about logic but about satisfying a deep psychological need for order and control. This "derangement syndrome" provides a simple, pre-made narrative that assigns blame and creates a sense of understanding, regardless of evidence.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was established in 1983 to overtly perform functions that had become too scandalous for the CIA to do covertly. Its founder admitted it was created to fund foreign groups that would be compromised if their funding was traced directly to the CIA.

The term "decel" (decelerationist) is often used as a cudgel to dismiss pragmatic concerns about AI's negative externalities, such as taxpayer costs for data centers. This tactic conflates valid questions and responsible criticism with sci-fi alarmism, effectively shutting down nuanced conversation.

A former CIA operative suggests that government secrecy is frequently a tool to hide administrative incompetence, premature announcements, or procedural errors, rather than to cover up nefarious, large-scale conspiracies. This perspective reframes public distrust from calculated malice to bureaucratic failure.

The AI systems used for mass censorship were not created for social media. They began as military and intelligence projects (DARPA, CIA, NSA) to track terrorists and foreign threats, then were pivoted to target domestic political narratives after the 2016 election.

Humans crave control. When faced with uncertainty, the brain compensates by creating narratives and seeing patterns where none exist. This explains why a conspiracy theory about a planned event can feel more comforting than a random, chaotic one—the former offers an illusion of understandable order.

Simply stating that conventional wisdom is wrong is a weak "gotcha" tactic. A more robust approach involves investigating the ecosystem that created the belief, specifically the experts who established it, and identifying their incentives or biases, which often reveals why flawed wisdom persists.

Conspiracy theories are often logically fragile because they require believing in a group of conspirators who exhibit perfect psychopathy, flawless competence, and complete information control over long periods—an impossibly stable combination in the real world.

The human brain resists ambiguity and seeks closure. When a significant, factual event occurs but is followed by a lack of official information (often for legitimate investigative reasons), this creates an "open loop." People will naturally invent narratives to fill that void, giving rise to conspiracy theories.