I’m not insisting that’s what the word means. That’s how it’s defined in the dictionary. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire https://www.dictionary.com/

I’m not insisting that’s what the word means. That’s how it’s defined in the dictionary. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspire It’s usually used to describe something secretive, or illegal, or wrongful on some level (and anything can be considered wrongful or harmful depending on your perspective), but that’s certainly not a required condition by definition. Just about everything the government does is by definition part of a conspiracy. Everything the government does in secret is most certainly part of a conspiracy. The word has just be morphed into having a seperate implied meaning, where people simply describe something as a “conspiracy” or “conspiracy theory” as a way of dismissing a claim or criticism without actually engaging with it on any level. This article describes a conspiracy fact, and as far as I can tell, none of the facts reported in the article are in dispute. One of the parent commenters postulates a motive, a claim which is dismissed by suggesting that would be a conspiracy. That response lacks any level of substance whatsoever, because it is factually a conspiracy no matter what the motive.