> The term 'conspiracy theory' was itself a product on CIA influence operations in this country, specifically intended to squash interest in the assassination of JFK.
that's such a silly conclusion though, and really a perfect AP piece. It discredits people while saying nothing.
It doesn't matter if the phrase existed before hand, it very obviously blew-up during the JFK event.[0]
It could entirely well be that the DoD didn't invent the phrase, but it's pretty obvious that it very quickly became a part of the public verbage during heavy interest in the JFK event -- that trend could have easily been the indicator of work towards the discrediting of both the term and those that had too much curiosity towards things they shouldn't question.
Thanks for the correction. I think it would have been better for me to say that counter-intelligence operations in the country have long intentionally colored inconvenient facts as wild conjecture, regardless of their historical foundation.
It doesn't matter if the phrase existed before hand, it very obviously blew-up during the JFK event.[0]
It could entirely well be that the DoD didn't invent the phrase, but it's pretty obvious that it very quickly became a part of the public verbage during heavy interest in the JFK event -- that trend could have easily been the indicator of work towards the discrediting of both the term and those that had too much curiosity towards things they shouldn't question.
[0]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=conspiracy+the...