They're more like interpretative theories than scientific theories. Different kind of thing. Their validity is in that they seem to pattern-match to a lot of experience, so the only test is really "do they ring true?"; there's not a sense in which they would be scientifically testable.

(well- I should say, this is how I feel about how the high-level impression of Girard's ideas, like the notion of mimetic desire in this article. I haven't read him so I dunno about his actual takes; maybe they're more concrete and therefore falsifiable. For instance the actually detailed scapegoat theory, which I have heard about elsewhere, seems obviously silly to me.)

This [1] cured me of Girard. Read that and then read the rest of the comments here. Don't worry, it's very well written and quite funny. Also provides an implicit side view of Silicon Valley culture.

[1] https://arcade.stanford.edu/rofl/deceit-desire-and-literatur...

evidence for 8 and 9: homoousios vs homoiousios. northern ireland. football hooligans. etc.

in fiction: Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of X, {star,plain}-bellied Sneetches

I had thought Covid would've been a uniting scapegoat, but no, the hairless apes had to make it all about themselves.