Conspiracy theory

[Syzygys]

The expression "conspiracy theory" usually has a negative connotation and I would like to clear it up. Just because an speculation about a clandestine, secretive event can be called a conspiracy theory, that doesn't mean the theory is not correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

"A conspiracy theory alleges a coordinated group is, or was, secretly working to commit illegal or wrongful actions, including attempting to hide the existence of the group and its activities. In notable cases the hypothesis contradicts what was, or is, represented as the mainstream explanation for historical or current events. The phrase is also sometimes used dismissively in an attempt to portray a person or group's views as being untrue or outlandish."

A very simple example would the the JFK assasination. There is an official version, that has a few holes in the story and there are many "conspiracy theories", that might or might not describe/explain the event better. Just because there are many of them that doesn't mean that one of them is not the actual truth and contradictory to the official version...

Nowadays the media treating the expression in a negative way and almost everybody who is described as conspiracy theorist treeated as lunatic, even if later find to be correct...

P.S.: This thread is dedicated to String....

[EndLightEnd]

Yes that is what a conspiracy theory is...

Was there any other point to this thread?

[clusteringflux]

The expression "Conspiracy Theory" could not exist without first there being the discovery of an actual conspiracy.
To exercise the obvious further take the example of a real conspiracy to take over the US government in the 30s by several prominent business families including the Rockefellers and DuPonts. This event has been virtually erased from modern teachings of history. Why?
One could say that it's a conspiracy theory that there is a conspiracy to cover a conspiracy that was once a conspiracy theory.
Who, in this case, is the crackpot may I ask?

[Syzygys]

Yes that is what a conspiracy theory is...

Was there any other point to this thread?

Nope, just pointing out the obvious...

[charles brough]

The expression "Conspiracy Theory" could not exist without first there being the discovery of an actual conspiracy.
To exercise the obvious further take the example of a real conspiracy to take over the US government in the 30s by several prominent business families including the Rockefellers and DuPonts. This event has been virtually erased from modern teachings of history. Why?
One could say that it's a conspiracy theory that there is a conspiracy to cover a conspiracy that was once a conspiracy theory.
Who, in this case, is the crackpot may I ask?
I have to admit I never heard of this. Can you give us more details? I suspect the reason it is covered up, if true, is that it pits one class against another and our system encourages everyone to think of us all in the US as a single way of thinking.

Actually, I find there is a growing class friction in the US. The affluent class has adopted their own separate ideology. It is based on the economics of ludwig Von Mises, internationalized by Milton Friedman and influenced by Southern and Midwestern religious and race issues as well as a view that the world is divided into "good" and "evil."

Some would call that a conspiracy theory. Myself, I see it as the swarm theory. People do what they are motivated to do, not what they say they are, will or should do. The affluent class is motivated to increase corporate profits to swell their stock portfolios in every inhuman way possible. They found a fanciful economic theory to justify their feeling of being the elite, of unequality, based upon a belief that the old religions are "good for the masses" and thus to push the inerrant Bible stuff and anti-abortion, Creationism. This is what I define as the Religious Right. It exists now in all mainstream religions.

charles
http://atheistic-science.com

[swivel]

Because of the people who devote their spare time to the creation and spread of conspiracy theories, the negative connotations are well-deserved in my opinion.

This is the national pastime for the paranoid and the delusional.

[John99]

let me take a crack at this.

Conspire - To act in commiseration.

Theory - Maybe, maybe not.

[Syzygys]

Because of the people who devote their spare time to the creation and spread of conspiracy theories,

So let's say if people devote their spare time to collecting stamps, stamp collection should have a negative connotation?

What if one is a fulltime, paid conspiracy theorist? Does he deserve to be taken seriously?? :)

[Fraggle Rocker]

* * * * NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR * * * *

So far, this thread doesn't have much to do with linguistics. It started out with an attempt at a definition but it has wandered off topic.