I can never tell whether these things are jokes, like the Illuminati Trilogy. I've seen Michael Tsarion, a guy who can casually relate the Lizard People with the Nike swish logo, and he acts entirely reasonable, except for the content of what comes out of his mouth.
(The guy has a sense of humor: a couple of us watched in amazement as he offhandedly mentioned Bush in passing, rolling his eyes with some sarcastic comment about how impressive a decisionmaker Bush is.)
I heard a claim that conspiracy theories lead to reactionary, regressive politics. It's probably true; they ignore social relations in favor of a bunch of villains -- shut down the villains, and we can all happily live as the Founding Fathers intended us to.
"I love it when someone humanizes the Founding Fathers, as opposed
to deifying them. You always see people in Congress stand up and
say 'The Founding Fathers were... gods,' but it turns out they
were... whoring slaveowners."
― Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
(I heard that claim from "The Anarchism of Fools: Conspiracy Theory as a Substitute for Social Critique", given at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference.) http://resourcepage.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/the-anarchism-of-fools-conspiracy-theory-as-a-substitute-for-social-critique/
Tayssir