conspiracy theory

plural conspiracy theories

1. derogatoryHypothetical speculation that is commonly considered untrue or outlandish.

   Conspiracy theories can be comforting, a way to get one’s bearings during rapid change in the culture or the economy, by providing narratives that bring order.

   2021 April 29, Sabrina Tavernise, “Vaccine Skepticism Was Viewed as a Knowledge Problem. It’s Actually About Gut Beliefs.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

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   Before discussing Norman Mailer's magisterial bid for dominance in this field, I want to use Richard Cordon to anticipate a common liberal objection - the objection that all this is 'conspiracy theory'. One has become used to this stolid, complacent return serve: so apparently grounded in reason and scepticism but so often naive and one-dimensional.

   1993, Christopher Hitchens, For the Sake of Argument

   “So, like I’m Rock Hudson? I’m not sure that’s the answer.” “Ah,” Lola smiles knowingly, “that’s all just a conspiracy theory. He enjoyed the ladies too.”

   2007, Rick Huffman, Baxter Peanut, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 153

   QAnon, whose supporters also call it “The Storm" or “Great Awakening,” is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that burst into greater visibility this summer, after supporters at a Trump rally wearing Q shirts prompted a rush of national media coverage about it.

   2018 September 12, Abby Ohlheiser, “Reddit bans r/greatawakening, the main subreddit for QAnon conspiracy theorists”, in The Washington Post

   President Donald Trump’s presidential memorandum ordering an investigation of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his use of the autopen […] is also nonsensical fan service, amplifying addled MAGA conspiracy theories that contend, with a straight face, that Biden was really a robotic clone.

   2025 June 7, Paul Rosenzweig, “The Biden Investigation Is a Path to Even Greater Lawlessness”, in The Atlantic

   "MAGA really wouldn't exist without conspiracy theories," said Eric Alterman, a journalism professor at Brooklyn College. "These theories don't require evidence. They're about stories people tell themselves to explain why things feel like they're going wrong in their lives."

   2025 July 10, Jesus Mesa, “'We've Been Played': MAGA Faces Its Own Disappointment With Trump”, in Newsweek

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see conspiracy, theory. A hypothesis that posits conspiracy or collusion.

   The main problem with any particular conspiracy theory is not that it's wrong, but that it's inarguable; not that it's false, but that it is unfalsifiable.

   2020, Maj Dr. Ebenezer Kwakye Agyemang (Rtd), DECODING 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS: Outbreak: Conspiracies: Impact, page 153

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   England has had quite enough to do in Europe and Asia, without going out of her way to meddle with America. It was a physical and moral impossibility that she could be carrying on a gigantic conspiracy against us. But our masses, having only a rough general knowledge of foreign affairs, and not unnaturally somewhat exaggerating the space which we occupy in the world's eye, do not appreciate the complications which rendered such a conspiracy impossible. They only look at the sudden right-about-face movement of the English Press and public, which is most readily accounted for on the conspiracy theory.

   1863 January 11, Charles Astor Bristed, “English Insincerity on the Slavery Question. [Letter to the Editor]”, in The New York Times, page 3

   It is impossible, within the limits set for this Answer, to deal in any detail with the conspiracy theory which Dr. Boyd has put forward with such virulence for so many years and which apparently has been adopted by His Majesty's Government, at least in part.

   1923, American and British Claims Arbitration: The Rio Grande Claim. Answer of the United States, Press of Byron S. Adams, The Conspiracy Theory, page 28

   If the zodiac was already developed in 2000 BC, it must have been kept as a cult secret or in some non-Babylonian country; this would be a 1500-year conspiracy theory.

   1998, John H. Roger, “Origins of the ancient constellations: II. The Mediterranean traditions”, in Journal of the British Astronomy Association, volume 108, number 2, page 81, column 2

   But if a conspiracy theory is simply a theory that posits a conspiracy – a secret plan on the part of some group to influence events by partly secret means – […]

   2007, Charles R. Pigden, “Conspiracy Theories and the Conventional Wisdom”, in Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology, volume 4, number 2, Edinburgh University Press, →DOI, page 222

   Signalgate must have been deliberate; tariffs must be a grand plan to crash the dollar in the interest of one economic faction or another. The risk is that ever-more elaborate explanations for stupid actions end up wrongly according those actions a kind of intelligence – rather confirming the insight of the political scientist Robyn Marasco that “conspiracy theory is a love affair with power that poses as its critique”.

   2025 October 2, William Davies, “A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0”, in The Guardian