Problem with conspiratorial thinking isn’t the sense that those in power are screwing you over, but the diagnosis that it’s being done in a personal way. People love to imagine a cabal of horrors at the top when the reality is that’s an easier issue to solve than what we’ve got.
It’s the more banal evils of the bureaucracy, the creeping “norms” of a self-referential circle of thousands of orgs, schools, networks, all made up of former students who mostly said yes to teacher as teacher taught them more and more insane and radical things - that is our problem. It’s a web, a class with interests, all of the above. Not a cabal. A cabal would be what, a few dozen at most? No, this is 10% of the population or more. It’s organic “collaboration” that springs from unacknowledged but common premises in worldview.
The problem with conspiratorial thinking isn’t that it makes the right people clutch their pearls in horror, it’s that it lends itself to “just get my guy in and the problem will be solved” mentality. “One weird trick” mentality. Any real victory requires battling a hydra on multiple fronts in an intelligent way, and conspiratorial thinking is often a detriment to the ability to do this effectively.
I’ve already said too much on this subject so I will condense to this: you’re not battling a cabal of powerful, evil actors, you’re battling the phrase “best practices”.
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