Truth is an absolute defense against charges of libel and slander, but not, apparently, against the charge of racism.
The meanings of "conspiracy theory" according Wiktionary, my favorite dictionary:
> 1. A hypothesis alleging that the members of a coordinated group are, and/or were, secretly working together to commit illegal or wrongful actions including attempting to hide the existence of the group and its activities. In notable cases the hypothesis contradicts the mainstream explanation for historical or current events. [1960s]
The first sentence describes something that certainly does happen. Organized crime syndicates are conspiracies. If somebody tries to hire a hitman to kill their neighbor, they'll be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Conspiracies are real things that sometimes happen.
The second sentence is where things get interesting. As far as I've been able to determine, this started with the assassination of JFK. Officially, he was killed by a single man who acted on his own and didn't conspire with anybody else. Any theory that posits the gunman was in cahoots with anybody else was a conspiracy theory in the original sense the term. In the aftermath of that, 'conspiracy theory' seemingly became mixed up with the premise of disagreeing with the mainstream explanation. But sometimes the mainstream narrative is a theory about people conspiring. The man who shot Lincoln conspired with others; that's the mainstream narrative in that case and I have no reason to doubt it.
It's all very tiresome.
Why have I suddenly been seeing a bunch of internet comments like yours trying to rehabilitate "conspiracy theory"? Is there some conservative influencer promoting this?
Hunches about conspiracies... okay. Here's a hunch about a conspiracy: Jimmy Hoffa was probably killed by the mob.
Real wacky shit, huh? Here is another conspiracy theory: The reason I'm seeing so many people discussing the term 'conspiracy theory' is because of conservative influencers.
Being genuinely curious is pretty much included in the definition of being a conspiracy theorist.
No need for "conservative influencers" to get this, it's such a simple publicity trick a child can come up with it.