[zepto]

“ This is conspiratorial thinking. The whole "wake up, sheeple" mode of political argument is based in the paranoid belief that clandestine groups and powerful actors have a certain degree of control and agency over the world, and that there are those in possession of awareness or knowledge who can "reveal" the truth to the masses.”

Except nothing in the quote says anything about clandestine actors.

You are adding that.

Also nothing about warning people has anything to do with paranoia or ‘wake up sheeple’.

Again you are adding something out of whole cloth that simply isn’t present in what he is saying.

There is nothing ‘paranoid’ about saying that a liberal democracy can become authoritarian if it adopts certain priorities and practices, or warning of this when those practices are being adopted.

Commenting on an observable trend is not the same as claiming that there is a conspiracy behind it.

On the other hand, dismissing ideas as ‘conspiracy theories’ can be a way of simply discrediting one’s political opponents, so we need to be careful not to do it casually.