You treat that weaponized phrase, so-called "conspiracy theories" as if using it is entirely justified and those so called out are indeed the whackos the phrase would paint them as being.
While it's theoretically possible someone's theory about a given event could contain any number of unsupported thoughts and ginned-up nonsense, one should just as quickly realize that a large number of government officials are liars and no-goods.
Rightly did HL Menken say, "“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.” Those in government are insane and intolerable and it only plays into their hands when a propagandized citizenry moves against the electorate to pretend it's The People that are somehow crazy.
The "conspiracy theory"-as-weapon epithet is acknowledged to derive from a 1967 C|A memo, to be used in the face of growing, accurate criticism of the JFK assassination and the Warren Commission Report's (9/24/64) nonsensical conclusions lies about it. E.g., the magic bullet.
Success with their push-back against informed citizens regarding the JFK assassination gave government movers and shakers the confidence to pull the wool over most everyone's eyes concerning ridiculous claims about the Apollo missions (as Alberta's Child rightly yet quietly noted above).
As one considers unvarnished history, one will be forced to concede by the weight of tremendous evidence that our government and its accomplices are regularly up to great mischief, cover-up, misinformation and outright lies about those activities, e.g., Trump-Russia collusion and 1/6 Trump "insurrectionists." The coup and insurrection has been on-going from the left, and the falsely-documented 44th President, now in his third term, is "leading from behind" with great swaths of it.
So please, don't play into the hands of the Left, using that term as if it rightly slaps at crazies that put forth real evidence and sound reasoning. It's a stone cold fact that many malefactors in our government have been willing to murder us by the thousands. With the plandemic, that's ramped up to the tens of thousands, and via boosters, perhaps hundreds of thousands if not millions.
If you can't yet see, dig in and get informed. FR is a good place to start, as there are many patriots here.
Good post.
I keep being reminded of a meme:
“Anyone got any good conspiracy theories? All of mine have come true.”
A major problem, as I see it, is that too many people are uncomfortable with anything outside the manipulated mainstream consensus. Humans want to fit in and be liked. Yeah, sure: everything needs to be run through a filter of logic, probability and known science. However, way too much of what has been accepted as *known* keeps being upended by discoveries of revisionism, hidden facts and outright falsehoods.
Personally, I ran into this situation about 25 years ago when researching a local issue that ended up leading to a myriad of rabbit holes. I cannot pinpoint the time when the unease turned into a huge gut-punch. I had to withdraw and regroup and cease talking to anyone outside a small circle of trust. Then I watched those same rational, sometimes fairly unimaginative, folks reach similar conclusions and go through the same response I’d experienced. Over the years, some would sidle up to me and whisper:”How did you know back then?” Others would say “You were right.”
Not that it mattered, in the end. Most will still go along to get along.
Anyone had former skeptics just shake their heads and declare:”Alex Jones was right all along.”? I have and from what I can discern, this demoralizes more than empowers the speaker.
Most of what we “have always known” keeps turning out to be false.
When that becomes inescapable, what’s left?