A “conspiracy theory” can be described as an explanation for a phenomenon “in which the causes are attributed solely to a conspiracy of powerful persons with malicious intentions, even though other explanations are more likely.” 451
Woke activists like to label non-woke persons as “conspiracy theorists”. This is an example of projective behaviour (projection = the accusation is a reversal of one’s own behaviour).452
Even new-left ideas already contain conspiracy-theoretical theses: it is assumed that society is subjected to an omnipresent brainwashing so that the proletariat and the middle class accept their own oppression.453
Woke ideology builds on new-left ideas with new conspiracy theories (see Conflict). Allegedly, all white people are involved in a conspiracy: white people are so socialised that they reproduce a white order. Systemic racism is the basic principle of society. According to the philosopher Charles Mills, there exists a “racial social contract” between whites, through which whites maintain their own privileges.454 The critical pedagogue Barbara Applebaum advocates the concept of “white complicity”, in which white people conspire: by deliberately not relinquishing access to privileges, white people make themselves complicit in a racial plot.455
Many of these conspiratorial, anti-racist ideas are based on the concept of “interest convergence”. “Interest convergence” claims that whites only consider the interests of BIPOCs when it benefits them.456 Because of “interest convergence”, systemic racism is permanent despite all efforts, as it always changes in a new way (see CRT and Critical Whiteness).457
These pseudoscientific conspiracy theories serve as an explanation for continuing inequalities. More probable explanations exist but are ignored in the woke view.458