Welcome to Hacker New, where a sizeable proportion of the readership actually believe this stuff. Also, the NSA read and store everything you do on the Internet.
However, the discussions on technology issues are of a very high standard, which is why many of us are here.
For the vast majority of internet users, this is true.
Clarification: Maybe not actually read as most people understand the term, but collect, store, and analyze.
That's not how the world works. If someone says "I think the government did 9/11", then it doesn't matter how many people agree with him. His opinion is still idiotic.
Similarly I do not have to respect anti-vaxers or Scientologists, just because there are many of them.
(to be clear, I'm highly skeptical of overt conspiracies in general. But if a significant portion of my peers (HN readers) believe a thing, at the very least I try to seriously consider their point of view. Because I'm not infallible. Apparently you are?)
This is the main fallacy of the conspiracy theorist, that those who reject the absurd conspiracy have closed minds.
For more on this, see here: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/answering-consp...