The Browser - Ignorance Barrier

The Legitimacy Barrier

Kaiser Y Kuo | Sinica | 15th February 2025

US policy has long questioned the legitimacy of China’s political system, based on the notion that democratic processes are the only truly legitimate way that governments earn their right to rule. China was supposed to grow wealthier through market reforms and democratise. Yet something else has happened: China’s development has proven to be a “profound rupture in the American self-conception” (6,400 words)

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Conspiracy Theories Of Ignorance

Dan Williams | Conspicuous Cognition | 16th February 2025

Reflections on Karl Popper’s warning about the dangers of “manifest truth”, the optimistic view that humans can readily perceive the truth. It makes truth seem like the default and “creates the need to explain falsehood” when the inverse is often the case. It also gives rise to the “conspiracy theory of ignorance”, the idea that nefarious powers conspire to keep people ignorant of the truth (3,300 words)

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