Talk:Conspiracy theory
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{{Press
|author=Paul Krugman
|title=Who's crazy now?
|org=The New York Times
|date=8 May 2006
|url=http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/opinion/08krugman.html
|quote=A conspiracy theory, says Wikipedia, 'attempts to explain the cause of an event as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance.'
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827000859/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/opinion/08krugman.html
|archivedate=27 August 2019
|author2=Sean Illing
|title2=The Trump-Ukraine story shows the power of conspiracy theories: This book explains why conspiracism is on the rise in American politics
|org2=Vox.com
|date2=11 April 2019
|url2=https://www.vox.com/2019/4/11/18291061/trump-ukraine-barr-whistleblower-investigation
|quote2=Nancy Rosenblum: That's right, and I'm so glad you said that, because Wikipedia actually defines a conspiracy theory as a false threat of a conspiracy, and that's not true.
|archiveurl2=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001173139/https://www.vox.com/2019/4/11/18291061/trump-ukraine-barr-whistleblower-investigation
|archivedate2=1 October 2019
|accessdate2=1 October 2019
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Semi-protected edit request
Just a small edit request, on the first sentence of the wiki for 'conspiracy theory'...
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.
Can it be re-written as
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful groups, often political in motivation, and frequently concealed), when alternate explanations are more widely held as true by the general public. Fredderf24 (talk) 22:23, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
:This doesn't strike me as an improvement, so I'd oppose such an edit. I'll also note that the current lead sentence of the article is the result of a well attended RFC (see archive 20/21) and is the result of a lot of discussion by a lot of different people, and it should not be rewritten lightly - I doubt anyone wants to kick that process off again. MrOllie (talk) 22:30, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
:{{tq|when alternate explanations are more widely held as true by the general public}} <--- Not what our cited sources say, so no, it's not an improvement. - LuckyLouie (talk) 22:40, 12 March 2025 (UTC)