&gt;Unfortunately these are lumped together to discredit genuine conspiracy theories ( market manipulation, Hillsborough etc ) when they exist. It is a powerful tool to diminish investigation.<p>You make it seem as if this association between &quot;rational&quot; and &quot;irrational&quot; conspiracy theorists is itself a conspiracy to discredit the former with the latter, which probably happens, but it&#x27;s also the case that the conspiracy theorist community (or communities) and conspiracy sites often choose not to discriminate between rational and irrational theory themselves. Conspiracists tend to interpret skepticism or attempts to debunk (read, <i>actually prove</i>) their theories as attempts to &quot;silence the truth,&quot; making it difficult to clean house.<p>Although it also doesn&#x27;t help that the more outlandish conspiracy theories are the ones that enter public consciousness through the media. But those outlandish conspiracy theories are also the most fun - would anyone watch an X Files about normal, boring conspiracies - tax evasion, surveillance and  occasional human experimentation, rather than aliens and the Illuminati?