People I normally respect have bought in on some crazy-ass conspiracy theories.  Elon, Balaji, PMarca... all super smart, and all tweeting crazy shit. I did some research to see why people get hooked on conspiracy theories:
https://www.charterless.com/p/do-your-own-research-the-psychology

Writing about DAOs @ charterless.com.
Ex-FB, Amherst College.
Always an Eagles Fan.

questioning authority is a great thing about American culture, it doesn't make Americans conspiracy theorists. 

if anything people aren’t questioning msm narratives enough, that’s the more “terrifying”

It is a great thing about American culture. Following research is good and useful, as is critical thinking.  

CTs are when those are perverted through misleading a reader to appeal to their existing biases to provoke violence/hatred.

Per my reply to Dan, I find this a useful heuristic: https://i.imgur.com/oJiMZQ7.png

I think we need a better word for it than conspiracy theory, since some conspiracy theories (COINTELPRO, NSA wiretapping) turned out to be true - I think the language is part of confusion. Maybe hysteria, witchhunt?