Indeed, there were many true conspiracies in the nation's history, some of them which sound absolutely false and ridiculous until you read the declassified docu

Indeed, there were many true conspiracies in the nation's history, some of them which sound absolutely false and ridiculous until you read the declassified documents. The CIA's experiments with LSD, the FBI's threats to MLK, COINTELPRO as you mentioned, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, these are all sordid (and true) episodes in US history that perfectly fit the "conspiracy theory" mold. If one of these events happened today and people uncovered it, they would be relentlessly mocked as "Russian trolls" by blue checks on Twitter, ignored by the mainstream media, and blocked by centralized social media gatekeepers like YouTube and Facebook. (Needless to say, the US is not the only country with skeletons in its closet. Many others are worse.) Some so-called "conspiracies" -- not all, not even most, but some -- ARE true. They are usually pretty horrible, and they deserve to be exposed. Do we really want to suppress conversations that could uncover these kind of institutional crimes? It's not like the bought-and-paid-for media is going to do it. My opinion: violent people are going to find something to lash out no matter what. It might be an obsession with a celebrity, an ideology, a conspiracy theory, a religion, a politician, a neighbor or coworker, or something else. Rather than playing whack-a-mole with possible "triggers" for violence, realize that potential triggers are everywhere and adjust strategy accordingly.