Reply #94: the "thought police" are those people who want to silence those

[Land Shark]

making inferences based on available information, because the rest of the data is made secret.

STEP ONE. A wall of secrecy is set up.
STEP TWO. Concerned citizens using available information make educated guesses about what's behind the wall of secrecy.
STEP THREE: The thought police come along to denounce these "conspiracy theorists" who are mere citizens doing the best they can.

If it wasn't for the secrecy, people could come along and give out a cite for where the information missing was freely available.

Ah, but when it's not available, we must guess. An educated guess is a theory. The theory results in the conspiracy theory attack if there's any negative inferences to the theory.

Enforced naivete results. Pollyanna raised to political principle.

People use this conspiracy theory attack usually unwittingly because they disagree and want to "win". But the de facto function of conspiracy theory is to *protect* *secrecy* by punishing the thoughts and arguments of those thinking about what's been made secret.

Probably not intentionally, but Manjoo in part is part of the thought police in his ridicule at points.

He could at least make the point there's no evidence the elections were proper, either. But he didn't make that point, did he?