This is an excellent tutorial on conspiracy thinking. It psychology overlaps with urban legend. I’ve been fascinated by the phenomenon since I took a course in social psychology some time ago. The absence of critical thinking plays a part, but as someone here pointed out, some persons seem to be hard-wired to believe conspiracies. Another expert says they come from:
There is a Huge difference between the knowledge of the things you cite and the truly delusional
anti-factual conspiracies that the trump crowd is putting out.
There has long been a denial of facts by those in power simply by calling them conspiracies- or fake news as is now the pejorative slur from protofascists. For how long has the United States denied its culpability in the conspiracies i cite? I use this forum not to condone Q level nonsense, but to help us all recollect that painting something as a conspiracy theory does not make it untrue. The conspiracies I cite were denied by those in power for decades, a denial which has allowed the power of untrue conspiracies to flourish. That is the critical point I am making. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.