I'm really confused at how you went from: > A conspiracy theory is something that the other political side believes in, but which your side rejects fully. to (

I'm really confused at how you went from: > A conspiracy theory is something that the other political side believes in, but which your side rejects fully. to (paraphrase): > both sides can harbor the same conspiracy > There are overlaps, certainly, but ideas labeled as "conspiracy theories" usually boil down to the instinctive left vs right values, but that is not always apparent at first sight. If any group of conflicting political adherents harbor the same conspiracy theory--e.g., JFK's murder was a conspiracy--then it indicates that the conspiracy theory isn't polarized, only that ideology changes how the event was perceived. The conspiracy theory isn't what is polarized; the political implications of "resolving" the conspiracy are polarized.