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The Conspiracy Theory Label as Weapon

Call someone a conspiracy theorist and you no longer have to answer their question.

The phrase "conspiracy theory" didn't become a go-to dismissal by accident. In 1967, a CIA memo (1035-960) specifically recommended using the term to discredit critics of the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination. The strategy was elegant: don't engage with the argument, just label the person making it. Once the label sticks, anything they say sounds unreliable — regardless of the evidence behind it.

This doesn't mean every conspiracy theory is true. Most aren't. But the label has become a reflex that shuts down inquiry before it starts. A journalist asking uncomfortable questions about intelligence agencies, corporate fraud, or government surveillance can be neutralised not by proving them wrong, but by categorising them alongside people who believe the earth is flat. The serious and the absurd get filed in the same drawer — and that's the point.

The real danger isn't that some people believe wild stories. It's that a two-word phrase can make legitimate investigation socially expensive. When asking questions carries the risk of being labelled a crank, fewer people ask questions. And that silence benefits whoever doesn't want to answer them.

Pay attention to when the label appears. Is it being used to address an argument — or to avoid one?

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