Vs. my pet conspiracy theory is that the 3 letter agencies are all false flag operations by the kooks, to convince us "normals" that trusting government is a ridiculous idea...

/s...maybe

That would be more comforting than the idea of people actually being that stupid.

Well, the International Flat Earth Research Society was founded while MKULTRA was active...

But I have met at least one genuine flat Earth believer, who was a Biblical literalist and considered it must be true to match his other beliefs.

Any theories on what’s going on with audiophiles?

It doesn't need much of a theory to me. People who don't understand the engineering involved are being taken advantage of by charlatans selling phony products with explanations that almost make sense at first glance and induce a placebo effect due to that and price (so they do "sound better"). The audiophiles (and likely some amount of sellers) naturally try to defend their purchases, but they're trying to reason based on the nonsense they were sold, and end up in a feedback loop of nonsense. People getting older and trying to reclaim their faltering hearing probably plays a part in it too.

It's people that want to spend money on their hobbies and have fun collecting "cool" gear, but end up going overboard with it.

A mere hundreds on cables? Obviously that's not enough to get clear instrument separation or presence.. you must spend more: https://www.referenceanalog.com/products/nordost-valhalla-2-...

Does that mean you also think the qanon / maga movements are false flag operation by a 3LA to make actual conspiracy theorists look bad?

Because a lot of them went to that.