To say that people have been dishonest isn't the same as saying they've engaged in a 'conspiracy'. It just means they haven't told the truth... But, of course, a charge of dishonesty has to be refuted on the merits while labeling an argument a 'conspiracy theory' allows you to dismiss it out of hand.
And if you'll have a difficult time refuting the claim on the merits, that gives an added incentive to play the 'conspiracy' card.
...
it suddenly occurred to me: most of the characters calling me a conspiracy theorist spent a big chunk of the last decade pushing the claim that Vince Foster had been whacked in a safehouse in Northern Virginia and then dumped off at Fort Marcy Park to make it look like a suicide. And then, well ... suddenly the sun started shining a bit brighter and the blue sky sloughed off its clouds. And somehow all seemed well with the world. Or at least with my neighborhood -- I don't want to project.
Shades of Mr. Weismann...
Word for today -
Screed. 1 a : a lengthy discourse b : an informal piece of writing
...
Interesting that Webster's has not yet caught up with common usage, which (at least locally) has invariably been pejorative.
Update: dead tree Webster's is more perceptive (and verbose) than online Websters, and _does_ note "esp. a diatribe".
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