ABSTRACT

Conspiracy theorizing can sometimes have regrettable features that speak for suppressing it. Yet, given that an adequately knowledgeable citizenry is a prerequisite of a healthy democracy, the public should be informed about politically important events, including political conspiracies. In this article, I focus on the relationship between informing citizens about political conspiracies and the kind of conspiracy theorizing that arguably should be suppressed. More precisely, I maintain that informing citizens about political conspiracies threatens to lead to the kind of conspiracy theorizing there is reason to suppress, and I examine how the potential drawback ought to be dealt with. I propose that informing citizens about political conspiracies should both proceed in light of pertinent research on conspiracy theorizing and pay heed to adequate knowledge about the circumstances in which conspiracies are publicized.

摘要

阴谋论有时会有令人遗憾的特征，这些特征代表着要压制它。然而，鉴于知识渊博的公民是健康民主的先决条件，公众应该了解政治上重要的事件，包括政治阴谋。在这篇文章中，我重点关注向公民通报政治阴谋与可以说应该被压制的那种阴谋论之间的关系。更准确地说，我认为让公民了解政治阴谋有可能导致那种有理由压制的阴谋论，我研究了应该如何处理潜在的问题。