I am sure most of you are like me and recall when "Conspiracy Theorist" as a label was trotted out without considering whether it was accurate or not. It was like engaging mental spam filters. By uttering that label the person stating it could then justify in their mind why they would cease listening or engaging with the person other than in a mocking, belittling way. I don't see that as often these days.
I do see the label "Controlled Opposition" being used with about the same regularity as I used to encounter the conspiracy theorist label. It also appears to be used the same way. It is kind of like the person wants to publicly state why they are not reading, not listening, and possibly are ad hominem attacking the person. It is a signal. It often simply means the following:
- I disagree with something you said.
- Perhaps not everything but I stopped paying attention when I encountered the one triggering thing.
- I am speaking this out loud so I can signal why I don't want to listen to you.
- I am speaking this out loud so I can justify why I am attacking your character, your intelligence, and your existence.
- I am not going to listen to what you have to say because it may be mentally contagious and we can't have that.
- I am going to mock you and belittle you as long as we continue talking.
This is one of those weird things I notice in chatting and text format discussion these days. People like to publicly announce their own shortcomings as though it is a good thing.
Another example of this is TLDR.
Why bother telling someone TOO LONG, DIDN'T READ? Do you always tell people when you are lazy?
Do you then continue to argue and discuss with them after you stated you didn't bother reading what they wrote?
Why would anyone announce this?
It is a weird world. Sometimes it is called a clown world and that is often very accurate.