Epicycles and Conspiracy Theories

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 182 Before the geocentric model of the universe fell and was replaced by the heliocentric model of the solar system, the movement of the planets across the night sky couldn't be explained neatly by assuming simple circular orbits that all go around the Earth. The invention used to "correct" the model had the name "epicycles." The idea was that the planets went around in little circles on their big circular orbits around the Earth, thereby allegedly explaining the phenomenon of retrograde motion using an early, and wrong, model of celestial mechanics. This attempted patch of a bad theory tells us something about conspiracy theories: when the evidence starts going against them, they have to generate epicycles to keep themselves going. This is a way we can know a conspiracy theory for what it is, in fact, at least sometimes. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains epicycles and how we can learn to spot them to figure out which kinds of conspiracy theories (and cult ideologies) are likely to be false. Join him for a clarifying discussion. Join us for the Preserving Liberty Conference at Sea!: https://ndcruise.com Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #ConspiracyTheory