I often see people reflecting on the role conspiracies play in a leftist understanding of the world. I have thought a lot about this and here is my general thought.

What we as leftists do when we engage in reflection on “conspiracy” (a word that has been thoroughly divorced from it’s meaning) is unpack the lies of the bourgeois sources of information. These sources have been deemed authoritative not because they are accurate, can produce concrete evidence, or because of a stellar track record, in fact they are almost always wrong with their predictions. They are deemed authoritative because they buttress the capitalist-bourgeois conception of the world. For example, they literally call class analysis and “Israel is aparthied” conspiracy theories.

When Anthony Blinken says we’re supporting the genocidal war on Yemen because they are a terrorist dictatorship, it is obviously false. When Jerome Powell says there is a low chance of recession, it is obviously false. Etc. Literally everyone, in the know, knows these are lies because the evidence points in literally the opposite direction. Well the same is true of think tanks, historians, authors (fiction and non fiction), academics, and entertainers. Pretty much anyone who is given an authoritative platform from which to share ideas that shape the collective worldviews is engaged in distorting reality in a way that benefits the ruling class. This is due to the ruling class’s monopoly on the cultural means of production.

So, when you are researching FACTS which countermand the prevailing narrative regarding a historical event you are not indulging a hobby of “conspiracy theory” but rather engaged in a factual analysis of the given topic and simultaneously reflecting on the historiography of the received wisdom.

The reality is that if you trust the news reports on current events you are an idiot, and the same goes for the general narrative about history.

That being said you will come upon conspiracies in your research, that is inevitable because they exist. The definition of conspire: to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement. - this literally happens every day, everywhere. If you tell your wife don’t tell the customs clerk that I have a bottle of wine in my suitcase that is a conspiracy. If a business decides to sell your data without informing you or to coordinate a lobbying campaign against antitrust laws, that is a conspiracy (kept secret for PR purposes).

Denying that conspiracies exist is a bourgeois attempt to (1) control the narrative, and (2) disguise that capitalism is anti-democratic and that a small group of people can, and have throughout history, wielded extreme power with extreme secrecy. This is possible because capital provides one with “capital power” as opposed to “people power” and permits them to leverage their wealth to work through others. An honest discussion about small groups of people with aligned interests getting together to deploy secret schemes to protect their shared (class) interests would almost inevitably result in class consciousness. I believe this is why the modern discourse is so allergic to discussing “conspiracies” and plays so fast and loose with the word.

As Michael Parenti said, we are constantly being sold weaponized conspiracies to believe in, e.g. that the Commies are plotting attacks on the US, but actuallly factual analyses are deemed “conspiratorial”. We literally have Tucker Carlson, the most popular news anchor in the USA and likely CIA asset, spreading COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED anti-China covid conspiracy theories to drum up anti-China sentiment resulting in attacks on Asians all over the country, meanwhile we’re told we’re conspiracy theorists for claiming “the US couped guatemala for United Fruit Company” when the organizers of said coup wrote about it openly in their memoirs, the internal communique’s are publicly available, and mountains of testimony from firsthand witnesses exist.

Essentially, something is labeled a conspiracy if it is based on data that exists outside the realm which the sources of information imbued with authority by the capitalist class (i.e. their mouthpieces) consider “relevant”. Their truths are considered correct on their face while anyone else’s interpretations are suspect and carry the burden of proof.

My message is not to let them define your ideas as “conspiracies” and their ideas as “just the facts”. So be rigorous in your own methodology of analysis and look for cold hard facts and you’re on the right track. And if you want a blueprint of how to engage in a materialist analysis of an actual conspiracy (the coup d’etat organized by Napoleon) I recommend reading Marx’s 18th Brumaire.

Also, Michael Parenti’s lectures on “Understanding Deep Politics” and Conspiracy AND Class Power will be very helpful, as will his book “Inventing Reality”