Correct, not all conspiracies are government focused, but most are and typically the government ones bubble to the top as the "enemy within" or "enemy above" and are more pervasive. That comment really was meant to be disingenuous. I don't think Merriam-Webster has been compromised, nor is Wikipedia. I was using it to highlight your deflection and rationale of the Wiki definition. Presenting "you can't trust Wikipedia since it's been compromised" as an argument has no merit(absence of proof) as to the validity of the Wiki definition(dismissed as a conspiracy.) If you removed that dismissal I would have agreed and continued on the premise that the "fear' portion of the definition was not warranted.

Scientifically, a theory is a proven hypothesis. We get to the theory by presenting and establishing verifiable, reproducible evidence. It seems that many conspiracy theories are supported more so by faith of the believer or a systemic extension of one conspiracy in confirmation bias.

What level of evidence is needed to establish a conspiracy theory?