Do people mis-use the words Conspiracy Theory?

Question

Opinions anyone?

Answer 1

yes! it's a total conspiracy!

Answer 2

Yes, the founding of America was a conspiracy. Just means people conspired to do something. It is not necessarily a bad thing.

Answer 3

Yes, primarily because a theory is formally defined as a hypothesis with an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting it and no significantly close alternative hypotheses competing with it.

Most "conspiracy theories" do not fit this criteria, not by a long shot.