Originally Posted by JayUtah

I read about the hysteria a few years back associated with some child sexual abuse case in which a large number of people were convicted on the testimony of children and were later set free when the case was re-examined. It seemed people were operating under the delusion that "children never lie." As I recall, the investigators had asked leading questions and had proposed scenarios which the children "confirmed".

This is exactly why conspiracism is bad and why there is a compelling social value in combatting it and the uncritical mindset that engenders it. Hysteria in this case obviously led to the imprisonment of innocent people, but it goes beyond that. Child abuse is an actual phenomenon. Raising a hue and cry over it on an unfounded basis taints our ability to identify and punish it by diluting the strength of legitimate claims. Similarly, we know that the U.S. government requires constant vigilance in order to keep its officers and agents honest. Vigilance based on poorly formulated arguments and selectively chosen data, and arguably deriving from malicious motives, taints the idea of vigilance itself. Conspiracy theorists are not helping by "keeping the government honest". They're making the problem worse.