Editing Conspiracy theory (section)

== Origin and usage ==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' defines ''conspiracy theory'' as "the theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties; ''spec.'' a belief that some covert but influential agency (typically political in motivation and oppressive in intent) is responsible for an unexplained event". It cites a 1909 article in ''[[The American Historical Review]]'' as the earliest usage example,<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM'' (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009, s.v. '''4'''</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Allen|title=Reviewed Work: ''The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise: Its Origin and Authorship'' by P. Orman Ray|journal=[[The American Historical Review]]|volume=14|issue=4|pages=835–836|doi=10.2307/1837085|jstor=1837085|date=July 1909|hdl=2027/loc.ark:/13960/t27948c87|url=https://archive.org/details/missouricomp00rayprich|quote=The claim that [David R.] Atchison was the originator of the [Missouri Compromise] repeal may be termed a recrudescence of the conspiracy theory first asserted by Colonel John A. Parker of Virginia in 1880.|hdl-access=free}}</ref> although it also appeared in print for several decades before.<ref name="JoMS-1870">{{cite journal|journal=The Journal of Mental Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VsRMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141|last1=Robertson|first1=Lockhart<!--author Robertson as listed on page 134 of the journal-->|author2=Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane (London, England)|author3=Medico-psychological Association of Great Britain and Ireland|author4=Royal Medico-psychological Association<!-- authors 2-4 as listed at WorldCat oclc=1194357571-->|title=The Report of a Quarterly Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, held in London at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, by permission of the President and Council, on the 27th January, 1870. [in Part IV. Psychological News.]|editor1-last=Maudsley|editor1-first=Henry|editor2-last=Sibbald|editor2-first=John|volume=XVI|number=73|location=London|date=April 1870|publisher=[[Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts]]<!--frontispiece lists [[J. & A. Churchill]]; google books and WorldCat both list Longman-->|oclc=4642826321|quote=The theory of Dr. Sankey as to the manner in which these injuries to the chest occurred in asylums deserved our careful attention. It was at least more plausible that the conspiracy theory of Mr. Charles Reade, and the precautionary measure suggested by Dr. Sankey of using a padded waistcoat in recent cases of mania with general paralysis—in which mental condition nearly all these cases under discussion were—seemed to him of practical value.}}</ref>

The earliest known usage was by the American author [[Charles Astor Bristed]], in a letter to the editor published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 11 January 1863.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last1=Bristed|first1=C. A.|title=English Insincerity on the Slavery Question.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96772461/first-use-of-conspiracy-theory-by/|access-date=2 March 2022|work=The New York Times|date=11 January 1863|pages=3}}</ref> He used it to refer to claims that British aristocrats were intentionally [[United Kingdom and the American Civil War|weakening the United States during the American Civil War]] in order to advance their financial interests.

{{blockquote |text=England has had quite enough to do in Europe and Asia, without going out of her way to meddle with America. It was a physical and moral impossibility that she could be carrying on a gigantic conspiracy against us. But our masses, having only a rough general knowledge of foreign affairs, and not unnaturally somewhat exaggerating the space which we occupy in the world's eye, do not appreciate the complications which rendered such a conspiracy impossible. They only look at the sudden right-about-face movement of the English Press and public, which is most readily accounted for on the conspiracy theory.<ref name="nyt" />}}

The term is also used as a way to discredit [[Dissenting opinion|dissenting]] analyses.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Starcevic|first1=Vladan|last2=Brakoulias|first2=Vlasios|date=14 April 2021|title='Things are not what they seem to be': A proposal for the spectrum approach to conspiracy beliefs|journal=Australasian Psychiatry|volume=29|issue=5|pages=535–539|doi=10.1177/10398562211008182|pmid=33852369|s2cid=233242206|doi-access=free}}</ref><!-- Quote from said ref, "the term 'conspiracy theories' is often misused [...] especially [...] to disqualify the opponents"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Starcevic|first=Vladan|last2=Brakoulias|first2=Vlasios|date=April 14, 2021|title='Things are not what they seem to be': A proposal for the spectrum approach to conspiracy beliefs|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642093532|journal=Australasian Psychiatry|volume=29|issue=5|pages=535–539|via=Sage Journals}}</ref>}}--> Robert Blaskiewicz comments that examples of the term were used as early as the nineteenth century and states that its usage has always been derogatory.<ref name="CSICOP">{{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/nope_it_was_always_already_wrong|title=Nope, It Was Always Already Wrong|last1=Blaskiewicz|first1=Robert|website=The Skeptical Inquirer|publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|access-date=11 December 2015|date=8 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212122454/http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/nope_it_was_always_already_wrong|archive-date=12 December 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> According to a study by Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, in contrast, in the nineteenth century the term ''conspiracy theory'' simply "suggests a plausible postulate of a conspiracy" and "did not, at this stage, carry any connotations, either negative or positive", though sometimes a postulate so-labeled was criticized.<ref>McKenzie-McHarg, Andrew (2019) "Conspiracy Theory: The Nineteenth-Century Prehistory of a Twentieth-Century Concept", pp. 78, 76. In Joseph E. Uscinski (ed) ''Conspiracy Theories & the People Who Believe Them''. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref> The author and activist [[George Monbiot]] argued that the terms "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy theorist" are misleading, as conspiracies truly exist and [[theories]] are "rational explanations subject to disproof". Instead, he proposed the terms "conspiracy fiction" and "conspiracy fantasist".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Monbiot|first=George|author-link=George Monbiot|date=2024-05-04|title='You're going to call me a Holocaust denier now, are you?': George Monbiot comes face to face with his local conspiracy theorist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/may/04/youre-going-to-call-me-a-holocaust-denier-now-are-you-george-monbiot-comes-face-to-face-with-his-local-conspiracy-theorist|access-date=2024-05-04|work=The Guardian|language=en-GB}}</ref>

=== Alleged CIA origins ===
[[File:WarrenReport-cover1.jpg|[[The Warren Report]]|thumb]]

The term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the [[CIA]] in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the [[Warren Commission]], by making them a target of ridicule.<ref name="Brotherton2015-4">{{cite book|author=Robert Brotherton|title=Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories|chapter=Chapter 4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=awrcCQAAQBAJ|date=19 November 2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4729-1564-1}}</ref> In his 2013 book ''Conspiracy Theory in America'', the political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith wrote that the term entered everyday language in the United States after 1964, the year in which the Warren Commission published its findings on the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]], with ''The New York Times'' running five stories that year using the term.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TilCeCKDujQC|title=Conspiracy Theory in America|last1=deHaven-Smith|first1=Lance|date=15 April 2013|isbn=9780292743793|pages=3|publisher=University of Texas Press|quote=The term 'conspiracy theory' did not exist as a phrase in everyday American conversation before 1964.&nbsp;... In 1964, the year the Warren Commission issued its report, ''The New York Times'' published five stories in which 'conspiracy theory' appeared.|access-date=27 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160906032935/https://books.google.com/books?id=TilCeCKDujQC&printsec=frontcover|archive-date=6 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Whether the CIA was responsible for popularising the term "conspiracy theory" was analyzed by Michael Butter, a Professor of American Literary and Cultural History at the [[University of Tübingen]]. Butter wrote in 2020 that the CIA document ''Concerning Criticism of the Warren Report'', which proponents of the theory use as evidence of CIA motive and intention, does not contain the phrase "conspiracy theory" in the singular, and only uses the term "conspiracy theories" once, in the sentence: "Conspiracy theories have frequently thrown suspicion on our organisation {{sic}}, for example, by falsely alleging that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] worked for us."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Butter|first1=Michael|title=There's a conspiracy theory that the CIA invented the term 'conspiracy theory' – here's why|url=https://theconversation.com/theres-a-conspiracy-theory-that-the-cia-invented-the-term-conspiracy-theory-heres-why-132117|website=The Conversation|publisher=The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited|access-date=23 November 2020|date=16 March 2020}}</ref>