It is a great thing about American culture. Following research is good and useful, as is critical thinking.  

CTs are when those are perverted through misleading a reader to appeal to their existing biases to provoke violence/hatred.

Per my reply to Dan, I find this a useful heuristic: 

I think we need a better word for it than conspiracy theory, since some conspiracy theories (COINTELPRO, NSA wiretapping) turned out to be true - I think the language is part of confusion. Maybe hysteria, witchhunt?

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