Disputed event: The rise of conspiracy theories particularly since the Warren Commission report into John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
First allegations: A letter to The New York Times in 1863 first hypothesised the existence of conspiracy theories.
And they would have gotten away with it too: ... if only public institutions were not so good at undermining their own public confidence unaided.
Conspiracy theories suggest that conspiracies are unrealistically successful and that groups of conspirators can act with near-perfect competence and secrecy.
A conspiracy to conspire to create conspiracy theories would require complete loyalty among the team members.
It would take only one conspirator to break ranks to blow open the conspiracy-conspiracy.
If such a secret organisation exists, members might elect to simply sit back and let the general public come up with conspiracy theories themselves, since they seem quite good at it already.
So how would you go about starting a new conspiracy theory?
It could be fun to try.
The fundamental point to remember is that evidence either supporting or contradicting a theory is too easily manufactured or destroyed, since conspiracies by their nature have unlimited resources and armies of secret operatives at their fingertips.
Conspiracy theories are based entirely on the belief of those sharing or listening to the theory.
Any contradictory information can be readily dismissed with "they would say that, wouldn’t they?"
Start with a standard subject: celebrities, dodgy government activities, suppressed technologies and historical events.
But please, if you are conspiracy-theorising just for fun, maybe steer clear of mass death or murder, because kindness is a higher human virtue than notoriety.
