Combatting Conspiracy Theories

On 4/6/2023 at 11:51 PM, TheVat said:

Would be interesting to take a more random sample, see how many proved true.  I hypothesize it would be a small percent.

Some of the ones on that Readers Digest list aren't really conspiracies.  The FBI surveillance of Lennon was agents following a well-established routine, SOP with those profiled as left-wing influencers and activists.  We can deplore it as a bad agency policy, but it doesn't really fit the definition of conspiracy.  Same with the Dalai Lama - the CIA regularly compensates foreign "assets" for working with them, and I think that's been widely understood to be part of their SOP for decades.  The Big Tobacco suppression, however, would qualify as a conspiracy - a covert and organized effort to silence people and destroy evidence.  

The Big Tobacco suppression may qualify as a conspiracy. But does it qualify as a conspiracy theory? Prior to the exposure of Big Tobacco, was there a notable conspiracy theory which accused Big Tobacco of this?

Edited September 17, 20232 yr by Nevets