"Conspiracy theory"

Original and obvious meaning: 'theory about conspiracy'. Declassified CIA memo# 1035-960 ("Countering Criticism of the Warren Report") reveals that it has been deliberately given associations of craziness, as though conspiracies do not happen. It is routinely used by the corporate media in their efforts to discredit suggestions that contradict official narratives.

"Conspiracy theory"
Interest of	• Chip Berlet • Ingrid Brodnig • COMPACT - Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories • Marie-Eve Carignan • Aleksandra Cichocka • Conspiracy Files • Conspiracy Watch • Correctiv • Yusuf Desai • Karen Douglas • David Grimes • Todd Leventhal • Mark Crispin Miller • Karl Popper • Jan-Willem van Prooijen • Nathalie Van Raemdonck • Anna Zetchus Smith • Marianna Spring • Stop Funding Hate • Cass Sunstein • Robbie Sutton • Adrian Vermeule
Subpage(s)	•"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"
Declassified CIA memo# 1035-960 ("Countering Criticism of the Warren Report") reveals that it has been deliberately given associations of craziness, as though conspiracies do not happen. It is routinely used by the corporate media in their efforts to stifle critics of official narratives.

The phrase "conspiracy theory" is used nowadays as a pejorative, rather than in its literal denotation, a theory about a conspiracy. It has been widely used since the CIA - anxious about widespread disbelief that the JFK Assassination was carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald - used their Operation Mockingbird assets in the commercially-controlled media to try to discredit all opposition to the US government's official narrative.

Origins

The now-declassified CIA memo "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report"

Certain individuals in the CIA were concerned by books such as those of Mark Lane which presented a highly credible challenge to the Warren Commission's finding of Lee Harvey Oswald as a 'lone nut'. NYU Media Professor Mark Crispin Miller records that the phrase 'conspiracy theory' became popular in journalistic discourse as a label for describing commentators who publicly doubted the findings of the Warren Commission. This is explained by declassified CIA memo# 1035-960, "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report", which reports the widespread disbelief of the Warren Commission report with concern:

"This trend of opinion is a matter of concern to the U.S. government, including our organization [the CIA]... Conspiracy theories have frequently thrown suspicion on our organization, for example by falsely alleging that Lee Harvey Oswald worked for us. The aim of this dispatch is to provide material for countering and discrediting the claims of the conspiracy theorists..." The memo recommends that its recipients "employ propaganda assets [in the media] to answer and refute the attacks of the critics".

Professor Miller suggests that an attempt was orchestrated by the CIA and their friends in the media to soil the phrase 'conspiracy theorist' with connotations of craziness, noting that since 1980 it has taken on an almost purely perjorative connotation, as if the official narrative is never mistaken or mendacious. As Miller notes, the reverse was assumed to be true in the public discourse only a century or so back; distrust of authority used to be very common place, and formed the backdrop of a lot of political negotiations and some fo the laws passed in USA. Conspiracy was formerly understood to be a potent force.

Nowadays however, the label 'conspiracy theorist' has become an ad hominem attack used on those with opinions which threaten the powers that be, as if anyone harboring such thoughts can be safely dismissed as a victim of irrational paranoia, possibly even mentally unbalanced or dangerous. The commercially-controlled media clearly have a commercial interest in casting suspicion on anyone whose primary source of information is elsewhere as inherently suspect, so it is easy to see why they might wish to repeatedly lump together patently absurd ideas together with well-founded doubts about the official narrative under a single labal:'conspiracy theory'.

Wikipedia on Conspiracy Theories

Wikipedia's list of conspiracy theories is an interesting read as a reflection of how commercially-controlled media would like people to behave. The 'Conspiracy Theorist as defective personality' meme is present, with Wikipedia reporting that "The motivations for nations starting, entering, or ending wars are often brought into question by conspiracy theorists." This may refer indirectly to the neglect of economic reasons for war by the commercially-controlled media. In contrast, economic motivations are not questioned by Wikipedia's page on cartel and anti trust law. Acknowledging that "proving the existence of a cartel is rarely easy, as firms are usually not so careless as to put collusion agreements on paper" and that "Cartels usually arise in an oligopolistic industry", Wikipedia avoids the word 'Conspiracy' to describe those hidden arrangements, although American anti trust law such as the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act uses the term. Back then, it seems, conspiracy theories abounded.

The reframing of the term 'Conspiracy Theory' is also brought to attention by Daniele Ganser saying the official narrative of 9/11 is by definition (read: the "old" definition) nothing but another "Conspiracy theory". Needless to say that taking back the original meaning of such a major spin keyword (already loaded with the 'defective personality' meme after endless repetitions) can not be allowed by those who brought forth the spin in the first place.

A German editor Phi, who describes himself as senior government official, in section 'Psychological Foundations' remarks that 'Conspiracy Theories are similar to paranoia, a mental disorder...' He goes on to associate this paranoia with the delusion of the people's Führer in totalitarian regimes. The English Wikipedia is more polite but adds 'schizotypy' to the long litany of 'thought disorders' prevalent amongst Conspiracy theorists.

Marginalisation

In the section on assassinations, Wikipedia notes that "the question of Who benefits? (Cui bono?) is also often asked, with conspiracy theorists asserting that insiders often have far more powerful motives than those to whom the assassination is attributed by mainstream society". In the case of the JFK Assassination, since the majority of the US population doubt the Kennedy was killed by a "lone nut", this use of the adjective "mainstream" cannot be interpreted numerically. How then is it best understood? Since the US House Committee on Assassinations, the official US government position is that Kennedy was probably killed due to a conspiracy, this "mainstream" does not necessarily even mean the "government narrative". The "mainstream" in question is the commercially-controlled media, which loves to represent itself as "mainstream" as if any deviation from it is marginal and suspect.

Public attitudes to conspiracies

Full article: Public attitudes to conspiracies

Until the phrase was deliberately tainted by a concerted campaign by the CIA, it had no associations of kookiness. Historically, conspiracy was understood to be an every present danger. The UK Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, for example, said to Parliament in 1856:

"There is in Italy a power which we seldom mention in this House ... I mean the secret societies.... It is useless to deny, because it is impossible to conceal, that a great part of Europe — the whole of Italy and France and a great portion of Germany, to say nothing of other countries — is covered with a network of these secret societies, just as the superficies of the earth is now being covered with railroads. And what are their objects? They do not attempt to conceal them. They do not want constitutional government; they do not want ameliorated institutions ... they want to change the tenure of land, to drive out the present owners of the soil and to put an end to ecclesiastical establishments. Some of them may go further... "

Peter Lavenda on Conspiracy theories

The following is extracted from Peter Lavenda's Prologue to "The Most Dangerous Book in the World: 9/11 as Mass Ritual" a 2012 book by SK Bain. To the extent that the terms 'Conspiracy Theorist' and 'conspiracy theory' have aquired a validity distinct from both their original dictionary definitions and the pejorative usage outlined above, this extract nails it:

“They have one foot in the world of mainstream history and culture, what Robert Anton Wilson used to call “consensus reality”. That’s the world where most of us live. We are all products of that world, and of the ideas and worldview it represents. We are trained in this world virtually from birth: school, church, government, media all conspire to present an image - a picture - of reality that will result in the development of perfect citizens in an easily-managed society. There is a social contract:

we contribute to this society with the expectation that we will receive goods and services in return. We obey the laws that are created by other people, believing that our best interests are being addressed thereby. We fight in wars declared by our governments in order to preserve our society - this carefully-structured, albeit artificial, society.

And all is right with the world.

But conspiracy theorists have their other foot ... well, somewhere else. Not everyone is asleep to the darker mechanisms of reality. In fact, everyone becomes aware of them at some point in their lives. Everyone questions. The very nature of reality itself is at times so hostile to human life that human institutions must be challenged for their inadequate protection of their constituents. Conspiracy theorists seize on this inadequacy as evidence of the tenuousness of consensus reality. There are other forces at work, forces that are unacknowledged by the state, the church, the media because to admit their existence is to admit failure. Thus, when things go wrong, terrorists are blamed, or communists, or witches. This serves to rally the citizens around the government once again, instead of stopping to insist that explanations be given, that evidence is properly analyzed, that the guilty are apprehended and punished. And we once more go to war, against … someone, somewhere.

Paranoia becomes institutionalised. It is appropriated by the government as its own prerogative. The state determines the nature and quality of the paranoia: it creates intelligence agencies whose sole purpose is to give a form to paranoia, to enshrine paranoia as one of the necessary qualities of an observant and caring state. To prove that paranoia is an acceptable characteristic of the paternalistic regime.

The citizens are not allowed to become paranoid unless it is at government direction and sanction. Individual cases of paranoia are frowned upon. The state tells us that if we are not paranoid the way it is paranoid—and about the same things—it’s because we don’t have all the facts: about "terrorism", fundamentalism, communism, foreign countries, weapons of mass destruction, sleeper cells. The state has all the facts: classified documents, wire-tap transcripts, intelligence feeds, high-altitude reconnaissance images, none of which the citizen is permitted to see.

It does not realise that the logical conclusion of all this paranoia is suspicion of the state apparatus itself.

What the conspiracy theorist often fails to realise, however, is that those working for the state are often just as clueless as the average citizen when it comes to the origin and function of the forces at work to subvert it. The strength of a conspiracy, after all, rests in the limited number of persons who are aware of its existence and parameters. No one has the entire picture. Each member of the state apparatus only has possession of a single piece of an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Putting together all these disparate pieces—particularly when one does not have the original picture to work from—is a soul-destroying enterprise that consumes decades of work and years of one’s life. This is especially true when the state has in its arsenal of lies the techniques of disinformation and misdirection, of false testimony and planted documents.

Anyone who works with this material eventually comes to that realisation. But the motivation to keep digging is still alive; the urge to uncover one more piece of the puzzle, one more document, is perhaps a central characteristic not only of the conspiracy theorist but of human nature itself. The more intelligent of the theorists soon come to realize that Hansel and Gretel have left breadcrumbs everywhere, in no discernible pattern. Thus, the inclination among some of the best to stop looking for the children and start looking for the Witch.

The deeper one delves into the conspiracy literature, the more one is struck by the tendency of some theorists to look beyond the documents and the tangible evidence of government malfeasance or political conspiracy to more transcendental sources of power. One begins with the government agents, the spies, the politicians, the military, and soon gravitates towards the secret societies: the Freemasons and the Illuminati (among so many others). This involves studying their texts, their social structures, their stated goals, their secret conclaves, their antinomian beliefs and practices.”

Michel Parenti on Conspiracy theories

Journalist Michael Parenti has pointed out that politicians and corporate leaders naturally work to further their own monetary and power interests, often in a conspiratorial manner. "To believe otherwise is to believe in Coincidence Theory, the truly nutty idea that the interests of the very wealthy are magically maintained by chance, year after year." In his "Dirty Truths" (City Lights Books, 1996), Parenti points out that "conspiracy" can simply mean that ruling class individuals "are aware of their interests, know each other personally, meet together privately and off the record, and try to hammer out a consensus on how to anticipate and react to events and issues."

Incompetence theories distract from understanding malice. Limited hang outs are like using Newton's Laws to describe the way the universe works at the subatomic level. Newtonian physics is useful for building a bridge, but is an incomplete description of reality. http://www.oilempire.us/map.html

Michael Parenti offers the following "alternatives" to conspiracy theories:

• Somnambulist Theory: The wealthiest 1 percent sleepwalk through life, never giving a thought to their vast wealth or how to keep it.
• Coincidence Theory: Things repeatedly happen by chance in ways that magically maintain the interests of the very wealthy, year after year.
• Stupidity Theory: The very rich are befuddled, incompetent and ineffectual. They just don't know how they keep that power.
• Spontaneity or Idiosyncrasy Theory: Stuff happens (in a way that keeps the system in place.) Again and again. Over long periods of time.
• Aberration Theory: Dirty tricks of the CIA and so forth are "atypical departures" from the norm.

The above theories would have us believe our inequitable tax system, corporate-owned media, unjust social conditions and other wrongful policies are momentary aberrations, isolated from the central goal of our political system. Again, that goal is protecting the money and power of the wealthiest 1%. Parenti points out that the wealthiest 1 percent naturally defend their interests, just as farmers or steelworkers defend theirs. He also notes that the CIA is by definition conspiratorial, "using covert actions and secret plans, many of which are of the most unsavory kind. What are covert operations if not conspiracies?"

Pseudoscience

The most infamous academic paper on this topic is the working paper entitled just "Conspiracy Theories" by insiders Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule of Harvard Law School, published on January 15, 2008 which claimed that "the best response [to "conspiracy theorists"] consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups". This is typical amongst the whole genre in adding an academic gloss to the comforting lie that authorities' versions of events are more or less always reliable and well intentioned, and anyone who suggests otherwise is crazy if not downright dangerous.

Late 2015 and early 2016 has seen at least pseudo-scientific papers on the topic of "conspiracies", which some have suggested may be indicative of an organised campaign to equate dissent with mental illness. Certainly, it is interesting that such superficial work has received wide press coverage. A 2016 paper by Oxford physicist Dr. David Grimes, for example, was published by a supposedly highly reputable PLOS-One, in spite of a simple statistical error and a very simplistic approach. The BBC reported on this paper uncritically under the headline "Maths study shows conspiracies 'prone to unravelling'", and cited Grimes' conclusions that “the Moon landings "hoax" would have been revealed in 3.7 years, the climate change "fraud" in 3.7 to 26.8 years, the vaccine-autism "conspiracy" in 3.2 to 34.8 years, and the cancer "conspiracy" in 3.2 years.”

Demonisation and censorship

When the internet allowed widespread access to diverse opinions, the label "conspiracy theory" has been working overtime as authorities try to sideline and competition to their favoured official narratives. A dramatic awakening since around 2005 has lead to increasing efforts to censor such alternative ideas. In 2008, Cass Sunstein, adviser to US President Barack Obama and husband of the US Ambassador to the UN, coauthored File:Cass sunstein conspiracies.pdf, a paper purporting to be a serious academic treatment of how governments should respond to "conspiracy theories". In 2015, French President François Hollande compared "conspiracy theories" to Nazism and called for their dissemination on the internet to be made illegal.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
"Black genocide"	The extinction of black people.
"Discredited and disproven"	ON affirming phrase.
"White genocide"	The extinction of white people.
Donald Trump/Conspiracy theories	Wikipedia has an article listing all the "conspiracy theories" promoted by Donald Trump.
Earthquake machine	A weapon of mass destruction which would trigger an earthquake
Eurabia	A term: portmanteau of Europe and Arabia.
Euromyth	The European Union is surely powerless and omnibenevolent. The original "misinformation"?
Irish slaves myth	Wikipedia considers this topic a "conspiracy theory"
Kalergi Plan	The original Great Replacement conspiracy theory?
Kennedy curse	A series of unfortunate events. Why does the Kennedy family have such bad luck? Coincidence?
New world order	A fusion of Government, Trans-National Corporations, Banking & Organized Crime.
Project Ireland 2040	The Great Replacement in Ireland?
Voting pencil	Wikipedia considers concerns over election integrity a "conspiracy theory"

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Conspiracy mindset"	“a small part in motivating the endorsement of such seemingly irrational beliefs is the desire to stick out from the crowd, the need for uniqueness”	Roland Imhoff Pia Karoline Lamberty	2016
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“Work in online misinformation details how alternative media intentionally fabricate conspiracy theories, spreading false allegations ranging from reptilian presidents to staged terrorist attacks”	Robbie Sutton Aleksandra Cichocka Karen Douglas	June 2017
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“[Conspiracy beliefs] are — almost by definition — not shared by the majority of people.”	Roland Imhoff Pia Karoline Lamberty	2016
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“history has repeatedly shown that corporate and political elites do conspire against public interests. Conspiracy theories play an important role in bringing their misdeeds into the light.”	Robbie Sutton Aleksandra Cichocka Karen Douglas	June 2017
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“they are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs... One limitation... is that the field is lacking a solid theoretical framework that contextualizes previous findings, that enables novel predictions, and that suggests interventions to reduce the prevalence of conspiracy theories in society.”	Jan-Willem van Prooijen Karen Douglas	2018
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“a small part in motivating the endorsement of such seemingly irrational beliefs is the desire to stick out from the crowd, the need for uniqueness.”	Roland Imhoff Pia Karoline Lamberty	2016
Marie-Eve Carignan	“Early findings show that there really is a rapid uptake of different conspiracy theories, particularly in the United States and France. Similar theories about other diseases that took years to establish themselves only took a few weeks to take hold, super quickly, because people are absorbing so much information! That’s what’s alarming.”	Marie-Eve Carignan	5 April 2020
Conspiracy belief	“[Conspiracy beliefs] are — almost by definition — not shared by the majority of people.”	Roland Imhoff Pia Karoline Lamberty	2016
Conspiracy belief	“belief in conspiracy theories is positively associated with intuitive rather than analytic thinking. Consistently, higher education predicts lower conspiracy beliefs, a finding that is partly mediated by a tendency among the less educated to attribute agency and intentionality where it does not exist, and stronger analytic thinking skills among the higher educated.”	Jan-Willem van Prooijen Karen Douglas	2018
Conspiracy theories/Academic research/Projection	“they are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs; and they are social as conspiracy beliefs are closely associated with psychological motivations underlying intergroup conflict”	Jan-Willem van Prooijen Karen Douglas	2018
Conspiracy theories/Academic research/Projection	“[Conspiracy beliefs] are — almost by definition — not shared by the majority of people.”	Roland Imhoff Pia Karoline Lamberty	2016
Piers Corbyn	“Piers Corbyn is a danger to our families, teams + to the people who believe the garbage he bangs on about. People may not agree with all their MP does but threatening to hammer us to death and burn down our offices is vile. Anonymous online trolls aren’t the major problem here.”	Piers Corbyn Sarah Owen	18 December 2021
Document:Evolution of the 9/11 Controversy From Conspiracy Theories to Conspiracy Photographs	“Most 9/11 conspiracy theories contest every point of the official account. They base this refutation [sic] on their interpretation of both forensic anomalies at the accident [sic] sites whose existence the official account concedes and attempts to explain, and of evidence whose existence and trustworthiness the official account either rejects or ignores. Their interpretive practice, in other words, both reinterprets and finds conspiratorial details, ripping them out of their place within the official account's framework and inserting them into a conspiratorial one. The conspiracy theorists assert that any unexplained anomaly, or any anomaly for which they can provide a better explanation than the official account offers, causes the official account to fail, because each of the government's assertions requires and builds upon the truth of others. If some of the hijackers are still alive, they argue, or if the towers’ collapse was not caused by the plane collision, or if something other than American Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, then the entire official account would be revealed as a series of lies.””	Mark Fenster	2008
Julia Ebner	“Across Europe, conspiracy theories that mix old antisemitic tropes with new ones that demonise migrants and Muslims have gained huge traction since the refugee crisis in 2015. A recent study showed that a stunning 60% of Brits believe in at least one conspiracy theory.”	Julia Ebner	February 2019
Event 201	“[M]y team has been monitoring the public response. And on various social media channels and cable networks, there's been some conspiracy theories that are around about the potential that pharmaceutical companies or the UN have released this for their own benefit... if conspiracy theories like this come up already, so we are on the edge of hysterical reactions.”		18 October 2019
Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy	“The riots on January 6th were a reminder that conspiracy theories are not simply the purview of kooks in basements connecting the dots. For human psychology, they are a dangerous and ever-present temptation, one that through the affirming appeal of collective effort has the power to undermine democracies, overthrow governments and set history on new courses. The threat they pose is a real one, and needs to be treated as such.”	Dylan Barry	16 July 2021
Michael Gunner	“The BS that’s flying around on the internet about the territory is coming from flogs outside the territory – mostly America, Canada and the UK,” Mr Gunner told a media conference on Thursday. People who have nothing better to do than make up lies about us because their own lives are so small and so sad. If anybody thinks we’re going to be distracted by tin foil hat-wearing tossers sitting in their parents’ basement in Florida – then you do not know us Territorians”	Michael Gunner	25 November 2021
Mental health	“The logic of the conspiracy meme is to question everything the ‘establishment’ — be it government or scientists — says or does... Conspiracy theories can be useful for scientists who are so far out of the mainstream in their field that they seek to appeal to alternative funding sources or publication outlets. They also might occasionally surface when a scientist's mental health deteriorates to the point that he or she loses touch with reality.”	Ted Goertzel	2010
Mark Crispin Miller	“One definition of conspiracy theory that I favor is something that, if true, you couldn't handle it.”	Mark Crispin Miller	27 September 2021
Official narrative	“There is an Establishment history, an official history, which dominates history textbooks, trade publishing, the media and library shelves. The official line always assumes that events such as wars, revolutions, scandals, assassinations, are more or less random unconnected events. By definition events can NEVER be the result of a conspiracy, they can never result from premeditated planned group action. An excellent example is the Kennedy assassination when, within 9 hours of the Dallas tragedy, TV networks announced the shooting was NOT a conspiracy, regardless of the fact that a negative proposition can never be proven, and that the investigation had barely begun. Woe betide any book or author that falls outside the official guidelines. Foundation support is not there. Publishers get cold feet. Distribution is hit and miss, or non-existent.”	Antony Sutton	2002
Brian Paddick	“Hopefully there will be people in the police service, the security service and in government who will realise how important conspiracy theories are. And how important it is... that every attempt is made to try and counteract them.”	Brian Paddick
Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories	“You might think that this memorandum would be fairly central to any discussion of the current prevalence of conspiracy theories, yet is not indexed in the new Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories (briefly reviewed in this issue). Which says quite a lot about said Handbook.”	Robin Ramsay	2020
Cass Sunstein	“Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law.”	Cass Sunstein Adrian Vermeule	15 January 2008
UK/Torture	<nowiki>“Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States, and also let me say, we believe that [[[U.S. Secretary of State]] Condoleezza Rice] is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop.”</nowiki>	Jack Straw	2005
Dale Vince	“Anyone who says the climate crisis is not happening or it's not man-made, honestly, I think they're a dangerous fool, because it's like denying the Holocaust happened”	Dale Vince	29 June 2023
Zach Vorhies	“As a trained scientist I have a multifaceted view of the world based on evidence and fact. Therefore any claim that someone has fringe beliefs or theories should be checked against http://trends.google.com and see what the views of the rest of america are and what they search for. They may find that many beliefs that are slandered as fringe are actually mainstream beliefs of we-the-people.”	Zach Vorhies
John Young	“Well, conspiracy theory was invented by the spies. No one does more more conspiracy theory than spies do. The national security apparatus cooks up conspiracy theories all the time, but they put out this story that is just conspiracy theory, as though it's contemptible. But in fact, they're the ones who cook up the threats that are far more complex and bizarre than anything we ordinary people could ever cook up and they get billions to fight it. So they're almost diabolically conspiratorially. So let me call myself a sceptic and I'm willing to learn, welcome criticism. I don't mind these terms of being a dissident, a conspiracy theorist. Those are all throwaway terms. (interview with RT Jan 2, 2011)”	John Young

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:911 and the Orwellian Redefinition of Conspiracy Theory	article	20 June 2011	Paul Craig Roberts	"While we were not watching, conspiracy theory has undergone Orwellian redefinition..." A "conspiracy theory" now refers to any ideas or facts that are out of step with the official narrative as put forward by government and the commercially controlled media.
Document:A 21-Truth Salute	webpage	2 August 2011	Zen Gardner
Document:Beyond Conspiracy Theory	paper	February 2010	Lance deHaven-Smith	The article posits a new framework for the analysis of Deep political events and Conspiracy Theories. The term SCAD (State crime against democracy) is explained and developed as a way of connecting the dots across multiple suspect events.
Document:Conspiracies and Conspiracism	article	28 June 2010	James Fetzer	This is an effective rebuttal of the claims of Chip Bertlet in his book "Toxic To Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating" which uses the terms "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracist" in the establishment's now de-rigeur pejorative sense.
Document:Conspiracy Theory meets Conspiracy Fact	Article	1 April 2020	Michael Buergermeister	This is all merely a bad dream, merely a dystopian nightmare. This has nothing to do with reality.
Document:Countering Criticism of the Warren Report	memo	19 July 1968	CIA	An explanation of how the CIA added pejorative connotations to the phrase "conspiracy theory". The document instructs spooks in the use of "propaganda assets" in the commercially-controlled media to undercut any criticism of the JFK assassination official narrative, especially suggestions that Oswald may not have been the "lone nut" as the Warren Commission claimed.
Document:Elites Link Anti-Government Thought to Mental Illness	webpage	11 March 2016	Daily Bell Staff
Document:Evolution of the 9/11 Controversy From Conspiracy Theories to Conspiracy Photographs	Wikispooks Page		Donald Stahl	An examination of the photos of the World Trade Center, how clearly they contradict the claims of "collapse", and how the US government has played fast and loose with its changing 9-11/Official narrative and with the law to try to hide this fact.
Document:I get abuse and threats online - why can't it be stopped?	Article	18 October 2021	Marianna Spring	The Disinformation Specialist at the BBC gets criticism online for her "fact checking". Internet censorship is the answer.
Document:MPs given guide to spotting conspiracy theories	Article	10 May 2024	Marianna Spring Jennifer McKiernan	Penny Mordaunt has commissioned a booklet for MPs on conspiracy theories.
Document:On The Psychology Of The Conspiracy Denier	Wikispooks Page		Tim Foyle
Document:The JFK Assassination - Conspiracy Phobia on the Left	book extract	1996	Michael Parenti
Document:The State Against The Republic	webpage	13 March 2015	Thierry Meyssan	Meyssan's prediction that pervasive online censorship is coming
Document:What are 15-minute cities? The truth about the plans popping up from Oxford all the way to Melbourne	Article	14 February 2023	Michele Theil	15-minute cities have become the latest "conspiracy theory". This article aims to debunk "misinformation" surrounding this public policy.
Document:White House Must Establish Disinformation Defense and Free Expression Task Force	open letter	29 April 2021	Electronic Frontier Foundation Center for American Progress Poynter Institute Free Press Access Now Public Knowledge Common Cause PEN America Andre Banks Ashley Bryant Win Black Center for Democracy & Technology Digital Democracy Project Katy Byron Simply Secure Voto Latino	A number of alleged "free-speech organizations" begging to join the US government in implementing censorship in an Orwellian-named "Free Expression Task Force".
Document:Why we love to hate conspiracy theories	article	12 September 2010	Denis Rancourt
File:Cass sunstein conspiracies.pdf	paper	15 January 2008	Cass Sunstein Adrian Vermeule	A classic Official Narrative-type exposition of Conspiracy theory and Conspiracy Theorists with recommendations on how governments should deal with them. It is the principal source of the now widely-used expression "Cognitive Infiltration"
The Power of Unreason	paper	August 2010	Jamie Bartlett Carl Miller	A critique and deconstruction of an 'Official Narrative'-type paper on 'Conspiracy Theory' from the 'think-tank' publisher Demos. It includes an exchange of correspondence between its authors and a Wikispooks editor which is continued on the discussion page.

 

Official examples

Name
15-minute city
9-11/Insider Trading
9-11/WTC Controlled demolition
9-11/WTC7/Destruction/Foreknowledge
Biden–Ukraine corruption scandal
Big pharma
COVID-19/Origins
COVID-19/Origins/Isolation
COVID-19/Purposes
Chemtrails
Climate lockdown
Committee of 300
Deep state
Election/Fraud
Fearporn
Golden billion
Great Replacement
High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program
Hollywood/VIPaedophile
Hunter Biden/Laptop
Illuminati
Ivermectin
Lizard
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370/Blaine Alan Gibson's research
Open borders
Pizzagate
Russia/Encirclement
SDS
TACMAR
The secret war against Sweden
UK/Deep state
US/Deep state
Urban depopulation

Rating

9 December 2017 Robin  An overview into this pejorative so beloved of the commercially-controlled media
The phrase "conspiracy theory", as this page demonstrates, was created by the CIA to tackle dissenting views about the culpability of Lee Harvey Oswald. It continues to try to equate scepticism in government with dangerous craziness.

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See Also

• Radio show about the term "conspiracy theory"