'Conspiracy theory' has become a new weapon for power in all its forms to neutralise challenges to 'official stories', or 'official history as i call it, a term I loathe. They have made the term so loaded that the mere use of the term immediately disparages anyone who says, 'I believe there are serious problems with this official account'. "Conpiracy theorist! Conspiracy theorist!.. put on your metal hat and take your meds!" Well, the one thing i know from the past 60 years of history is this: power lies. All power - government, corporate, military, agencies.etc. They lie. So, I'm a student of history, and history is about looking at and looking back at contemporaneous accounts and applying the historical method and review. So let's agree that there is a spectrum, from people who believe that aliens built the pyramids and are living now in Atlantis, and Q-Anon, to others who raise serious questions about official explanations by corrupt bastions of power. You are right, we shouldn't lump them all together. I have never forgotten that Woodward and Bernstein were sort of conspiracy theorists. They suspected that the US president and others had conspired to do criminal activities. They were lucky. In their hard work and research, the help of Deep Throat, John Dean coming forward, and Nixon's tapes, they were able to prove that their suspicions were right. That's how much help they had in proving their case. Power has smarted up since the 1970s. Now it's harder to prove their lies, and anyway they can just cry out 'Conspiracy theory! Conspiracy theory!"

I prefer not to use the word theory when talking about unfounded conspiracies since it make me think of the scientific definition. How about conspiracy fable?

I agree that many people are too quick to dismiss conspiracy theories out of hand. I have read a lot about both the JFK assassination and 9-11 and still believe there were conspiracies around each event. People can easily dispute exactly who was involved and who knew what, but there's plenty of reasons to believe that the people who benefited from each event were not only capable of such treachery, but had plenty of loyal people who would keep their secrets. In a non-political vein, how can people say that conspiracies are too tough to keep secret when, for example, we have never gotten a real answer to what happened with Jimmy Hoffa? We all know he was murdered, but that shows how easy is is to keep a conspiracy secret for several decades if you have loyalty like the Mafia has.

One other thing that makes it easy for me to believe in conspiracies when it comes to the assassination of pols who are on the left, like JFK, his brother, MLK, Malcom X, and even Paul Wellstone, is that, unlike assassination attempts on conservative pols (who are on the side of great wealth and power), is that they always have help for the patsy who may get conveniently caught by the authorities, including a backup assassin or two. That is why they always succeed, because the hit involves professionals while hits on conservative pols really are done by lone wolf nutjobs and rarely succeed.

I agree. However, most people here will not be able to understand what you have posted...they will only get a portion of what you said and their responses (so far) show that I am right.

My favorite "conspiracy theory" concerns the Kennedy assassination and those who dismiss it as "only a conspiracy theory when someone suggests that the "official" explanation may not be correct, by saying: "It is only a conspiracy theory." without considering/investigating the contrary evidence. When I hear someone dismiss statements that Oswald may have not been the only shooter by saying something to the extent that "conspiracy theories", are too unlikely to be true, especially in regard to a presidential assassination, I point out to them that the Lincoln assassination was in fact, a conspiracy.

Nope! People can say anything about anything. I don’t need to give my time and attention to every batshit crazy theory some moron decides to come up with.

I’m honestly tired of giving them way more credibility than they deserve.

Been putting your research time into the ''lizard people'' theory? How about Hillary Clinton running a pedophile ring out of that pizza kitchen?