I read a book a while back on the debunking the 9/11 truthers. The author made a good point that many if not most of these theories feed a pyschological need to impose order on a chaotic world. People want to believe that JFK was killed by the coordinated efforts of professionals because we don't want to think that any of us good be done in by one nut. The same sort of thing is the psychology behind the truthers.
One thing that drives conspiracy theories is the psychology of the person believing them. When Reagan won the election in 1980 there was a conspiracy theory about an October surprise that involved Daddy Bush sneaking off to Paris to negotiate a hostage deal with the Iranians. In order to fit this event into the time alloted in the Bush schedule, the theory placed him as a passenger in a very fast plane called the SR-71 so he could get there and back fast enough. I am not making this up. I heard a lot about that back then. I would guess there were people who could not accept that Reagan won the election fairly so they found this explanation gave them some resolution. It looks like this same thing drives the birthers, the inability to accept that Obama could possibly have been elected president, so they look for an out and the squirrely events surround the birth certificate feed that.
Picture Hillary, hearing those rumors about Bill having his vein drained by a young intern. She just could not accept that, and concocted this elaborate vast conspiracy about people out to get him, just so she would not have to deal with the possibility that Bill was just a disgusting lech. You might recall that he did the finger wagging denial and only when the heat was turned up later by the law that he did the apology speech and confessed to her. That was the official narrative. Maybe she knew all along and the conspiracy theory was a ruse so she could try to save face. I feel for her deeply in that, so I wouldn't blame her for doing anything short of running a hat pin through that lunkhead's skull. But the reality is that both parties run dirty tricks operations against each other and the Clintons went from a provincial operation in Arkansas to the big leagues of national politics and got in over their heads where they could not buy off and paper over their shenanigans.
The one common element of enduring conspiracy theories is that they are not falsifiable. The satanic ritual abuse hysteria died out because one could excavate the church or daycare and find out there were no secret tunnels and dead animals. But when you look at the grassy knoll in Dallas, you can't prove there wasn't a guy behind the fence with a gun, and there is an 18 hour block in October 1980 where you can't prove Daddy Bush wasn't on the SR-71 shuttling to Paris and back, you can't prove that some vast league of minions were not conspiring to send a comely Jewess to seduce Wandering Bill, and you can't prove that Mama Obama was not in Kenya when she squirted out The One. Sure, these may seem unlikely, silly, or maybe slightly plausible, but a believer will not be pried from them if they are tenacious enough.
