Conspiracy theories: Or how our Neanderthal brain responds to the complexity of modern technology

The Backgammon version of this is that the dice are rigged-- it illustrates the complexity

This week, Disorder had a fascinating discussion with Julia Ebner (listen on Apple Podcasts here or on Spotify here) about why conspiracy theories are so essential for extremist movements to articulate their ideas and worldviews. In a separate add on for paid subscribers in Tuesday’s upcoming substack for the second part of the Julia Ebner episodes, I will share some of my questioning that I prepared for her on this point, but that we were unable to get to in the recording time…

But first, to show how every domain of life now appears to evolve its own conspiracy theory, I share with you the main conspiracy theory that emerges in the backgammon domain…

NAMELY THE VERY BIZARRE IDEA THAT THE DICE IN ONLINE MATCHES ARE ALL RIGGED AND THAT SPECIFIC PLAYERS ARE TARGETED BY THE ONLINE BACKGAMMON PLATFORMS TO SUFFER IN SPECIFICALLY BRUTAL WAYS.

But before delving into here ARE TWO funnies:

1:

2:

‘Imagine believing that scientists, historians, and journalists have dedicated their lives to deceiving you—while a reality TV star with a history of fraud and a well-documented record of lying is somehow your one true source of honesty.’

Now to the heart of the matter the following is copy and pasted and anonymized from a Backgammon Facebook group called Backgammon News

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I have just had a debate with someone about free speech in the backgammon community. As far as I see it there are four basic options when faced with the opinions of the 'dice are rigged' 'XG is wrong' propagators.

1 Ignore (but this may result in newcomers or improvers thinking their opinions are respected/true)

2 Mock (feels a bit rude/cruel sometimes)

3 Ban them from commenting or posting (free speech issues)

4 Debate with them (like trying to draw water from a stone)

Which of 1, 2 , 3 or 4is the right way to deal with this or even better have you got a fifth suggestion?

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Tell them,

“There are no bad numbers, only bad players.”

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you can easily get proof that the dice aren’t rigged by going about it scientifically. Just record all rollouts of X amount of games online and compare with the same amount of games offline. It would probably be most accurate after 1000 games but already after 300 you should be able to see that there’s nothing unusual about the digital dice compared to physical rollouts. I even believe someone has done this a while back - proving that the dice are in fact not rigged. So yeah…

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It’s sad that we have a small but vocal minority who repeatedly push unfounded claims like “dice are rigged” or “XG is wrong.” Although they represent only a fraction of our community, their constant noise disrupts meaningful discussions, misleads newcomers, and undermines the intellectual depth that makes backgammon such an amazing game. In contrast, we have Mochy’s moving tribute to Thomas Rönn, which beautifully highlights what backgammon truly is: a passionate, lifelong pursuit of mastery, deserving of respect and dedication.

Perhaps the best solution isn’t ignoring, mocking, banning, or endlessly debating these claims. Instead, we could actively shift our attention toward engaging in discussions that genuinely advance the community—deep analysis, strategic insights, and sharing meaningful experiences. We all know those repetitive claims to be false, yet we still find ourselves responding to them. Maybe if we consciously redirect our energy to conversations that inspire, educate, and enrich our community, we’ll naturally reduce the noise.

For more of this hysterical and yet tragic subcommunity’s intelligent debate of this conspiratorial issue pls join the pay for sub stack.. it concludes with the priceless:

I’d prefer a group only for the purpose of unsubstantiated backgammon conspiracies where such posters can be directed to find their desired sympathetic audience. They can even name it Truth Backgammon if they wish.