Right. I think a "conspiracy theory" is more than just a theory about some conspiracy. I think an important attribute of conspiracy theories is that they are unfalsifiable. Any piece of evidence or witness against them is either labeled to be in the conspiracy or being fooled by it.
Conspiracy theories are thus logically self-consistent theories, which effectively exclude all evidence against them as invalid. Therefore, it's impossible to counter them rationalistically, they can only be countered empirically.
IIR, it was the Bavarian Illuminati who first used that phrase - as part of a double-false-flag op (run through their Society For Truth, before they lost control of that front org to the Invisible Emperor's Legion of Elba).
