I think I have a better understanding of conspiracy and conspiracy theory thanks to covid. A conspiracy theory starts with a group of people who has more knowledge than everybody else. This makes the actions of the group look strange and suspicious to another group of people who have reasons to believe that this group is hiding information on purpose and start building theories about the strange behavior they observe. Notice that nobody need to be malicious or anything, and hiding information on purpose is very common. For example if you use a PR firm to get journalists to write about your startup, you are effectively conspiring with the PR firm and the journalists.