Philosophy of Reality

The term “conspiracy theory” is meant to be used as a semi-derogatory description of an unlikely explanation about a specific event. The term literally means a theory about a conscious plot to produce specific actions usually undetected by “the average person”.

For example, there are many conspiracy theories about who killed JFK. The lists include the FBI, Cuba (on Castro’s orders), Russia, etc. Yes he was killed, and Lee Harvey Oswald is implicated in the action, but depending which story you hear, he was either a patsy, a decoy, or under orders via whichever specific organization the story calls for.

There’s conspiracies about the Pearl Harbor attack, secret organizations (which everyone seems to know about), connections with space aliens, secret plots from almost every organization, political group, business, actor/actress, alive or dead, etc., etc., etc. The only real connecting factor is that they are almost all fanciful and wrong.

Skipping the details, the question I want to discuss is: How do these types of stories get started to begin with?
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