by

“only asking questions”

Jesse Singal

This is a common tactic for people who profit off of conspiracy theories: they make extremely inflammatory insinuations, but they keep things just vague enough to allow themselves some plausible deniability. This allows them to seem — at least to credulous readers or listeners — like they’re in possession of forbidden knowledge of the utmost importance, but without ever having to prove what they’re claiming, which is convenient since they can’t prove it, what with it not being true. 

These sorts of conspiracy entrepreneurs, if they are talented at what they do — and clearly Bret Weinstein is — will always have a ready audience of credulous, disillusioned, addled (there’s that word again) types, especially in 2024: trust in authority seems to have plummeted as a result of social media misinformation, real missteps on the part of the authorities themselves, and all the other causes of the epistemic fracturing we appear to be experiencing.