ok. ok. i will disbelive the story and get off the fence just for your sake. does that lay it to rest? and you’re right about one thing, the fact that i’m not following this story and don’t care much about what the media is putting out. i can predict (my type of probablistic argument) what the leftists are going to do and how they are going to do it from long history and motivation. if i really needed my kind of answer to this question, i’d just go check the roster of parents for these people and make sure they exist and had a child at the school. period. end of discussion about impersonators. your way is way to prone to error for my liking.
but, i’ll say you’ve given me some insight into the way you (i’ll call you “probalistic” thinkers) like to puzzle. and you’ve also giving me some new insight into what you derisively call “conspiracy theories.” for me any criminal activity involving a coverup of two or more people (i.e., most of all economic or political crime) is by definition a conspiracy. it’s only a theory because there is no evidence or facts to support it. those generally come with time if they come at all. all you have initially is just motivation and history to create suspicion. you apparantly stack up probablities to get your answers. btw, anything that is not a fact, taken for philosophical ground, truth or a first proposition, or proven by the rules of logic from the previous is exactly an assumption.
I’ve gotten into fights with people over terminology before, but I don’t find it useful.
I think most of us know what we mean by “conspiracy theory”, and it isn’t the literal “theory about a conspiracy”.
If you don’t want to use that term in the normal way, just give me the term you would like to use in it’s place, and I’ll be happy to oblige for the purpose of this conversation.
I have also adopted the word “conspiracist” which isn’t really a word, to mean “a person who is prone to believe a conspiracy theory” — although it also could well mean “a person who is PART of a conspiracy” (since the word isn’t a real word, I felt I should be allowed to define it, but whatever).