I wish the USA would stop calling people conspiracy theorists for critical thinking, especially as we see more what used to be 'conspiracy theories' actually come to fruition. It actually hinders critical thinking and is a bad path to go down.
* Logically consistent in niche fields that could be verified if more information was public (Room 641A); these should really just be called "theories"
* Harmless garbage ideas perpetuated by dumb people (flat earthers); these theories deserve open ridicule
* Propaganda created by intelligent people with the intent of causing harm (Uranium One); these should simply be illegal as libel
Those are important distinctions. Some conspiracy theories are straight up garbage, they do not deserve any modicum of respect... legitimate theories are in the minority.
The "Uranium One conspiracy theory" was a libelous attack on a political candidate. That attack is a prime example of legitimate conspiracies.
* Harmless garbage ideas perpetuated by dumb people (flat earthers); these theories deserve open ridicule
Those theories are anything but harmless, actually kill people and sabotage decades of medicinal breakthroughts, which saved millions of lifes.
On top of that, as someone with experience in database marketing, people act as if they are being personally spied on. If you are tracking 800k people and you have 20 employees, the issue isn't really having another person looking at your data, the issue is the unethical ways organizations are using that data to manipulate you and the rest of society.
It's the difference between "The government conducts unethical surveillance" and "The government is spying on me."
When everything is remembered forever anything you've done can be retroactively traced backed to you when you become a person of interest.