Talk:Conspiracy theory

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Paul Krugman (8 May 2006). "Who's crazy now?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. A conspiracy theory, says Wikipedia, 'attempts to explain the cause of an event as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance.'
Sean Illing (11 April 2019). "The Trump-Ukraine story shows the power of conspiracy theories: This book explains why conspiracism is on the rise in American politics". Vox.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019. Nancy Rosenblum: That's right, and I'm so glad you said that, because Wikipedia actually defines a conspiracy theory as a false threat of a conspiracy, and that's not true.

The following Wikipedia contributor has declared a personal or professional connection to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view.

Knuteson (talk · contribs) This user has declared a connection. (special:diff/927825243)

This article was selected as the article for improvement on 9 September 2013 for a period of one week.

Section sizes

Section size for Conspiracy theory (39 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	21,951	21,951
Origin and usage	7,099	9,838
Alleged CIA origins	2,739	2,739
Difference from conspiracy	4,509	4,509
Examples	1,179	1,179
Popularity	8,792	8,792
Types	1,107	4,112
Walker's five kinds	929	929
Barkun's three types	1,279	1,279
Rothbard: shallow vs. deep	797	797
Lack of evidence	6,935	6,935
Rhetoric	6,115	6,115
Consequences	8,742	8,742
Interventions	69	21,646
Target audience	638	6,305
General public	2,458	2,458
Conspiracy theorists	3,209	3,209
Reducing transmission	1,805	1,805
Government policies	4,648	4,648
Public health campaigns	4,543	4,543
Backfire effects	4,276	4,276
Psychology	8,967	28,092
Attractions	10,375	10,375
Causes	4,674	8,750
Projection	2,214	2,214
Physiology	1,862	1,862
Sociology	3,411	6,128
Influence of critical theory	1,192	1,192
Fusion paranoia	1,525	1,525
Viability	4,138	4,138
Terminology	1,972	1,972
Politics	3,455	19,128
Arab world	2,982	2,982
Turkey	4,616	4,616
United States	8,075	8,075
See also	853	853
References	84	84
Further reading	7,844	7,844
External links	542	542
Total	162,600	162,600

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Frequently asked questions

Q:Are conspiracy theories inherently false?

A:A key feature of conspiracy theories is that they are unfalsifiable, in the sense that they rely on circular reasoning and thus resist any attempt to assess their veracity. At best one can say that conspiracy theories are, by definition, not even wrong. This kind of hair-splitting misses the point, however. Conspiracy theories are not descriptions of real events. If they were, they would be called conspiracies.