Ideologies work to shape our unconscious desires and social practices, making it difficult to imagine alternatives to the dominant system. A critique of ideology challenges the accepted narratives, exposing their role in maintaining social control, and invites people to think more critically about the power structures they may unknowingly support. This critique is not only about deconstructing existing beliefs but also about liberating individuals from systems that limit their ability to critically engage with the world and imagine more equitable or just alternatives.
There is a moral aspect to our failing or refusing to critique ideology. By not engaging in the critique, individuals may support or sustain systems that exploit vulnerable groups, whether through political, economic, or social structures; for example, ignoring or failing to challenge an ideology that promotes racism, sexism, or economic disparity allows those systems to thrive unchecked. In this case, moral failure lies in the passive acceptance of the status quo, where the harm caused by these ideologies continues unabated because no one is willing to question or confront them.
To cover for laziness or indifference, conspiratorial thinking offers emotionally charged explanations of the world which seduce the proponent into feeling as though his mind and body have been activated in defiance of some unnamed evil, some secret plot. Rather than engaging in critical analysis, conspiratorial thinking simplifies things down to some narrative of “us v. them,” inviting ones to sidestep vigorous inquiry, oversimplify complex situations, and ignore contradictory evidence. Because the conspiracies offer an enemy, the focus invariably becomes defending the conspiracy, hopelessly entrenching proponents in positions regarding something that does not and, in many cases, cannot exist.
In the era of Trump, our job is two-fold. First, we must, by encouraging questioning, promoting reflection, teaching the value of evidence, highlighting logical fallacies, and modeling critical thinking, help the conspiracists to acknowledge they have lived in fantasy. Second, and perhaps more difficult, we must do the main thing, namely the difficult task of critiquing ideology. These efforts may appear to share some similarities, and perhaps they do, yet the work of critiquing ideology goes to challenging belief systems, not just beliefs. In truth, conspiratorial thinking, as hinted at above, attends certain ideologies.
Humanity, or its critical mass, cannot always be expected to be moral or, perhaps better put, brave. And I write to say we can and must work to save ourselves. We must find a way to not doom with the doomers, but to build anew. We can build anew.