Long Tail Epistemology

Yesterday I run across the blog All Embrasing… by an author calling himself horansome:

A Philosophy Blog (Patent Pending) on, about, around and devoted to the discussion of Conspiracy Theories. ‘All Embracing But Underwhelming’ is the author’s blog-of-progress (TM) detailing his travails, troubles and pleasures whilst working on his PhD project wherein he seeks to sort out Conspiracy Theories, mark out fallacies and generally have a good time. If you’d like to also have a good time with the author why not e-mail him at horansome-at-episto-dot-org.

I don’t think it’s possible to skip the field of conspiracy theory all together if you’re doing research about social knowledge and web 2.0. I’m not sure if 2.0 properties undermine or makes conspiracies easier to create or maintain. Probably both since 2.0 is a general boost of the possibilities for communication. Both conspiracy theory and 2.0 thinking problematizes the agency between ordinary people and authorities.

My unreflected reaction is that 2.0 knowledge properties counteract conspiracies since conspiracies grew in rather secluded thought realms. In this sense perhaps you could say that secluded social services like Facebook might be a better scene for conspiracies than the open realm of the blogosphere. In a blog you can always make your point - if the comment isn’t removed by the author - so the chance for a balanced view might be greater than in more secluded systems.