Let’s side step for a moment and talk about mythology. People conceptualize it as like Greek gods, Biblical tales, etc. From a sociological stand point however it is much more broad. We engage with mythology every day, we often just don’t know it. When you receive a bill from your power company, it is myth that the company in question is an entity, that your money has value, or even that you must respond. None of these things are objectively true - a power company is not a real thing after all, just something we all made up and agree upon. Myths exist within groups to allow complex functioning and social harmony. They exist to unify and orient. But they are never real no matter how hard you believe.

Dark matter, I believe, is one such example. It’s a proxy for lack of knowledge, no different than rain spirits being called to water the crops. It orients and aligns, allows people to continue without the weight of the unknown burdening them.

As I stated above, that doesn’t mean fake, or conspiratorial, any more than taxation is a conspiracy to steal your money. These beliefs are just tools we use as humans to lubricate interaction and establish agreed upon norms. Everything from the Law, to Philosophy, to things like Human Rights are mythological. That doesn’t mean they are wrong or immoral, but it doesn’t make them true either. Humans, objectively, only have the rights we communally grant them.

When you drive your car you choose to follow the rules of the road. To do otherwise is both foolish and dangerous. We all agree on them and act in accordance. At any moment though, someone could swerve and kill you - even while you sit in your office or walk down the street. We just tend to not think about that unfortunate truth because of the burden it would entail. That is mythology working.

It’s doesn’t change reality though.