Conspiratorial thinking happens when people feel like they are not getting honest answers. The media feeds this when it fails to ask the right questions.

That's probably one way conspiracy theories happen. They also happen because it's been an evolutionary advantage to look for patterns and reasons even though sometimes there are none. Creating or subscribing to a conspiracy theory also can create a sense of belonging for an individual within a smaller group that subscribers to the theory that they'd never get in the main stream. There is a great documentary about the flat earth society that drives that point home well.

They also happen because when people are deeply committed to being “in-the-know” at the expense of sounding rational, it’s a fairly cheap way to feel like you know something that the sheeple don’t ;)

^^ THIS ^^

In the absence of the truth, there will ever only be theories.

Not really, the truth when presented to a conspiracy type will be rejected because it does not match their preferred worldview.

Unless one of those people is my cousin Charlene. Then everyone already knows and that's on you.

That's what the GP is saying. It's very difficult to keep a conspiracy secret unless one of the conspirators ensures all of the others are dead.

Or only one. As an example.

> Assuming Charlene isn't a murderer or a ghost

Honestly it's a coin toss

Now I'm picturing a séance and the medium is saying "That's nice Charlene, but this lady would really like to speak to her late husband, Bob, now."

brilliant

The real conspiracy is how crazier conspiracies are pushed to discredit fairly well documented ones.

They don't have to be crazier, but you have to have enough out there to make people wonder what's what. Eventually people will lose all confidence in official sources --which seems to be happening slowly.