Any time you see 'conspiracy theorist' in a media context you should stop and remember that virtually every FBI indictment ever handed down includes 'conspiracy

Any time you see 'conspiracy theorist' in a media context you should stop and remember that virtually every FBI indictment ever handed down includes 'conspiracy to commit mail fraud'. In this context, conspiracy simply refers to two or more people working together to conduct a criminal activity. However, FBI agents are not generally referred to as 'conspiracy theorists' even though their job is to investigate actual conspiracies. The sociocultural use of the phrase 'conspiracy theory' is of course quite different. It's much more like a critique of religious belief - i.e. the notion there's an all-powerful, all-seeing force behind all events. Could it be the UFO aliens? Black helicopter-flying government agencies? The ancient gods and goddesses of Greek and Egyptian and Hindu theology? The more recent avatars of the Abrahamic traditions? Now, today's media probably consists mostly of people for whom (Frank Herbert quote here) "religion is a kind of puppet show to amuse the populace and keep it docile, and who believe essentially that all phenomena - even religious phenomena - can be reduced to mechanical explanations." Even so, it's unlikely that the Guardian would describe the religious beliefs of millions of their readers as 'conspiracy theories' as the phrase is perjorative and intended to belittle or disparage. Regardless, some large-scale 'conspiracy theories' seem to have quite a bit of truth to them. For example, consider the notion that there was a deliberate conspiracy to fabricate evidence of WMDs in Iraq c. 2002-2003 run by the American and British governments in collusion with corporate media outlets from the NYTimes to FOX News and the BBC. Is that a 'conspiracy theory' or a credible allegation that still deserves serious criminal investigation?