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)	20,717	20,717
Origin and usage	6,937	9,668
Alleged CIA origins	2,731	2,731
Difference from conspiracy	4,304	4,304
Examples	1,179	1,179
Popularity	8,642	8,642
Types	1,090	4,095
Walker's five kinds	929	929
Barkun's three types	1,279	1,279
Rothbard: shallow vs. deep	797	797
Lack of evidence	6,680	6,680
Rhetoric	6,097	6,097
Consequences	8,540	8,540
Interventions	73	22,638
Target audience	2,002	7,602
General public	2,411	2,411
Conspiracy theorists	3,189	3,189
Reducing transmission	1,775	1,775
Government policies	4,625	4,625
Public health campaigns	4,396	4,396
Backfire effects	4,167	4,167
Psychology	8,745	27,774
Attractions	10,346	10,346
Causes	4,608	8,683
Projection	2,214	2,214
Physiology	1,861	1,861
Sociology	3,386	6,027
Influence of critical theory	1,131	1,131
Fusion paranoia	1,510	1,510
Viability	4,313	4,313
Terminology	1,908	1,908
Politics	3,410	18,838
Arab world	2,973	2,973
Turkey	4,571	4,571
United States	7,884	7,884
See also	853	853
References	84	84
Further reading	7,655	7,655
External links	569	569
Total	160,581	160,581

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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.

Talk:Conspiracy theory

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