What Constitutes A "Conspiracy Theory"?

[Foxfyre]

Like what?

There is a really neat thing called google. Type something like "conspiracy theories proven true" and see what you get.

Or, try "Operation Northwoods." Especially if you believe that "our government" would never plan to harm Americans.

I have no illusions about what the government is capable of doing. I looked up Operation Northwoods. It was something that was proposed but never carried out. I 'm asking what conspiracy theory has ever been proven to be true?

There are massive speculative conspiracy theories that President Trump and/or his campaign colluded with the Russians leading to his election as President #45. Will that be proven true? Your guess is as good as mine. It hasn't yet.

There are very large numbers of people promoting a conspiracy theory that an extraterrestrial spaceship crashed in the New Mexico desert northwest of Roswell NM. My own Congressman of some years ago did his own in depth research and investigation and was unable to find out the truth one way or the other. Will it ever be shown to be true? Or disproved? Your guess is as good as mine.

The conspiracy theories abound re the J.F. Kennedy assassination. I have seen one documentary on one of the science channels--Discovery or the Smithsonian or some such--that suggested a credible conclusion but it hasn't gained any traction. So will the conspiracies ever been shown to be true? Your guess is as good as mine.

Did we land on the moon? Some conspiracy theorists say we did not. Is there sufficient proof?

Did the Holocaust happen? Some conspiracy theorists say that it did not. Is there sufficient proof?

Did somebody do something to bring down the Twin Towers and Bldg 7 and it wasn't the terrorists at all? My goodness there have been conspiracy theories re that. Will they ever be shown to be true?

So off the top of my head, I can't really come up with a major conspiracy theory of any consequence that proved to be true beyond any doubt.

Off the top of my head -- Watergate?

As someone else posted, every investigation of anything begins as a "theory" until the ones can be confirmed, are confirmed. "Conspiracy theory" the idiom, and "conspiracy theory" the literal term, are two different things.

Given the placement of the OP in Announcements and Feedback I presumed it was asking for USMB's official position on what should be placed in which forum. I don't see that that got an answer though.

Maybe because it has been moved to the conspiracy theories forum?

Any number of investigations might constitute accusations of conspiracy theories, but Watergate was investigation of an actual crime with the goal to discover who was culpable in planning, carrying it out, covering it up. Not much of a conspiracy theory there.

I see a conspiracy theory as an effort to propose a different scenario than the official one; i.e. the official government position on the Roswell incident is that a scientific weather balloon crashed in the desert. Witnesses to the event were unconvinced resulting in 70 years of speculation of what actually occurred in the desert that day. The conspiracy theory of course is that the government in a huge conspiracy has covered up the fact that an alien spacecraft crashed there.

Another would be that there were others beside Lee Harvey Oswald firing rifles in Dallas the day Kennedy was shot, and we have had more than a half century of speculation about all manner of possibilities about that as well as who master minded it, all extra curricular from the official government account.

And of course the more current conspiracy theories surrounding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on 9/11. I still see new threads popping up with all kinds of new 'evidence' regarding that 15 years later.

 

[Soupnazi630]

When I saw this, I thought of this thread:

Naww. Clear difference between critical thinkers and conspiracy folk. Critical thinkers use "likely probability" to sort thru evidence and prioritize their search. Conspiracy theorists too often START with a list of villains and bad guys and only retain the evidence that satisfies their initial "confirmation bias"....

Unlike the 9/11 truth movement who do not point fingers but provide evidence that the official story is Swiss Cheese. They merely call for an investigation. It is interesting that the biggest crime on American soil has never been investigated.

Except that it was investigated and investigated quite well.

They have never poked holes in it in any way big or small.

They never investigated who did it.

Yes they did

 

[P F Tinmore]

When I saw this, I thought of this thread:

Naww. Clear difference between critical thinkers and conspiracy folk. Critical thinkers use "likely probability" to sort thru evidence and prioritize their search. Conspiracy theorists too often START with a list of villains and bad guys and only retain the evidence that satisfies their initial "confirmation bias"....

Unlike the 9/11 truth movement who do not point fingers but provide evidence that the official story is Swiss Cheese. They merely call for an investigation. It is interesting that the biggest crime on American soil has never been investigated.

Except that it was investigated and investigated quite well.

They have never poked holes in it in any way big or small.

They never investigated who did it.

Yes they did

So, who did it? The FBI did not finger Bin Laden for the job.

 

[daisiesRwild]

conspiracy theory is the bull propaganda fed to you to keep us dumbed down and hide their stuff simple

 

[Slash]

I see a conspiracy theory as an effort to propose a different scenario than the official one; i.e. the official government position on the Roswell incident is that a scientific weather balloon crashed in the desert. Witnesses to the event were unconvinced resulting in 70 years of speculation of what actually occurred in the desert that day. The conspiracy theory of course is that the government in a huge conspiracy has covered up the fact that an alien spacecraft crashed there.

Another would be that there were others beside Lee Harvey Oswald firing rifles in Dallas the day Kennedy was shot, and we have had more than a half century of speculation about all manner of possibilities about that as well as who master minded it, all extra curricular from the official government account.

And of course the more current conspiracy theories surrounding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on 9/11. I still see new threads popping up with all kinds of new 'evidence' regarding that 15 years later.

I kind of like that. I'd also say conspiracy theories tend to not be black and white proven true (thus the theory).

IE claiming someone takes money to change their vote based on some random unproven claim is a conspiracy theory. Claiming they took money based on an investigation that turned up the check stubs and proved it to be true is not.

Most conspiracy theories also tend to focus more on the "could it have happened this way" and ignore the possibility of it. Chemtrails for example. Used for some weird government plot. Every plane in WWII had contrails that were supposedly some chemical thing. So you are saying that days before surrender, Hitler was still ordering his pilots to load their planes up with this stuff? That we put them in test planes on their very first flights? That N. Korea and the US are allied in chemtrail use? And that of the millions of people that have worked in the aviation industry, not one has blurted out about it? We can't keep a blow job in the white house or meeting with Russians secret but that's the one that gets out?

Many of them you have to buy into the least plausible scenarios and they use the least knowledgable scientists and inflate stats. If you can look at it and start naming the formal fallacies in an argument, I tend to just turn it off.

 

[BlackSand]

Specifically?

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[Weatherman2020]

Specifically?

Anything involving Russia, grassy knolls or planes hitting the Pentagon.