Conspiracy theory is normalized schizophrenia
As someone who has a mentally ill relative and studied abnormal psychology, what's always struck me is how conspiracy theory mimics schizophrenic thinking exactly. Paranoid schizophrenics suffer from the persistent delusion that there is a conspiracy. Many of them are so creative that they're able to craft very elaborate narratives with a few scraps of information--narratives, I might add, that sound very convincing because they will often be full of rich detail (like dates, names, places, what people allegedly said or did).
Conspiracy theory is just schizophrenic thinking that has been mainstreamed into American society and repackaged as anti-disinfo. Anti-disinfo agents like Alex Jones saw there was a gold mine in exploiting this type of thinking and earned millions of dollars writing books, hosting radio shows and podcasts pushing it, in the process normalizing it. And now, thanks to them, millions of people have been indoctrinated into thinking schizophrenically, being taught that they're finally unveiling "truths" about why their lives are messed up, they can't get a job or developed things like cancer. (It can all be explained because of The Jews/Illuminati/One World Order, etc.)
They are taught how to develop the disordered thinking of schizophrenics, too, as in how to cull together completely innocuous events and string together a richly detailed narrative about how "they" are "behind" X, Y or Z, particularly how to jump to conclusions about what they are seeing and hearing.
The irony is that as the American and British public becomes bogged down in conspiracy theories, thinking they're discovering "truth", they are being blinded to the real conspiracies around them. They become obsessed with George Soros as great Puppetmaster, but never learn about how Rupert Murdoch in the 1970s-1990s completely dumbed down journalism and media in the US and UK by establishing near-monopolies in both country and pushing his toxic brand of Rightwing politics. They become obsessed with The Illuminati, but never learn about how Neoliberal and Libertarian Elites (the Koch Brothers, Reagan and Thatcher) completely destroyed capitalism. Bottom line, conspiracy theories isn't about uncovering the truth; it's ironically part of the plan to dumb down and confuse the public by teaching them how to think schizophrenically so that like in Orwell's 1984, they can convince themselves that 2+2=5 and really believe it.