"Conspiracy theory" quickly went from "a belief that a group of people is conspiring in secret" to "any belief that runs contrary to the establishment narrative" to "any belief I don't like*. Once a term enters the erstwhile consciousness of the NPCs, it is immediately stripped of all meaning and turned into yet another synonym for "bad".
Often I've noticed that the dumbest of the dumb don't even use the full term any more. They just say "conspiracy", accidentally revealing that they have zero clue as to the meaning of the words they're saying. They're just noises they heard on TV.
"Conspiracy theory" quickly went from "a belief that a group of people is conspiring in secret" to "any belief that runs contrary to the establishment narrative" to "any belief I don't like*. Once a term enters the erstwhile consciousness of the NPCs, is is immediately stripped of all meaning and turned into yet another synonym for "bad".
Often I've noticed that the dumbest of the dumb don't even use the full term any more. They just say "conspiracy", accidentally revealing that they have zero clue as to the meaning of the words they're saying. They're just noises they heard on TV.
"Conspiracy theory" quickly went from "a belief that a group of people is conspiring in secret" to "any belief that runs contrary to the establishment narrative" to "any belief I don't like*. Once a term enters the erstwhile consciousness of the NPCs, is is immediately stripped of all meaning and turned into yet another synonym for "bad".