The term " conspiracy theory " is used to indicate a narrative genre that includes a broad selection of ( not necessarily related ) arguments for the existence of grand conspiracies.

The political scientist Michael Barkun discussing the usage of this term in contemporary American culture holds that a conspiracy theory is a belief which explains an event as the result of a secret plot by exceptionally powerful and cunning conspirators to achieve a malevolent end.

Social critics have adopted this term to refer to how the synthesis of paranoid conspiracy theories, which were once limited to American fringe audiences, has given them mass appeal and enabled them to become commonplace in mass media, thereby inaugurating an unrivaled period of people actively preparing for apocalyptic millenarian scenarios in the United States of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In popular usage, this term is often used to refer to unfounded or weakly based speculation, leading to the idea that " It's not a conspiracy theory if it's actually true ".

In his two volume work The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper used the term " conspiracy theory " to criticize the ideologies driving fascism, nazism, and Stalinism.

Popper even uses the term " conspiracy " to describe ordinary political activity in the classical Athens of Plato ( who was the principal target of his attack in The Open Society and Its Enemies ).

The term can also be used to refer to the designs of such persons or to the practical consequences of their emergent behavior, and also holds a general meaning of intrigue and conspiracy.

The concept of wearing a tin foil hat for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision ; the phrase serves as a byword for paranoia and persecutory delusions, and is associated with conspiracy theorists.

Since then, the usage of the term has been associated with paranoia and conspiracy theories.

The term " secret society " is generally used to describe fraternal organizations that may have secret ceremonies and means of identification and communication, ranging from collegiate fraternities to organizations described in conspiracy theories as immensely powerful, with self-serving financial or political agendas.

He came out of retirement again for a second term as dictator ( 439 BC ) to put down a conspiracy of Spurius Maelius, who supposedly was planning to become king.

Friedman responded to criticism by writing: " In retrospect I probably should have used a more precise term like ‘ engineered ’ by the Israel lobby -- a term that does not suggest grand conspiracy theories that I don ’ t subscribe to .”

After a highly publicized five-week jury trial that was the most closely watched of a wave of corporate fraud trials, Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, and was sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five month term in a federal correctional facility and a two year period of supervised release ( to include five months of electronic monitoring ).

Soon after his release he coined the term " Satan's organization " to refer to this supposed conspiracy.

Although many believe the Black Sox name to be related to the dark and corrupt nature of the conspiracy, the term " Black Sox " may already have existed before the fix.

Because of persistent debate, answered and unanswered questions, and conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination and the possible related role of the grassy knoll, the term " grassy knoll " has come to also be a modern slang expression indicating suspicion, conspiracy, or a cover-up.

Ever since the second red scare of the early 1950s, right wing and extreme right political organizations in the United States such as the John Birch Society have used the term One Worlder to attack liberals and anyone else they feel might be in favor of world government because they fear what they call the New World Order conspiracy.

It has been suggested that the ultimate reach of GM's conspiracy extended to approximately 10 % of all transit systems, but the areas affected by GM's interference include 7 of the currently largest 9 Combined statistical areas ( government term for metropolitan areas ) in the country.

Thapa, he is awarded a term of life imprisonment because he was the seniormost customs officer and thus must be knowing about the conspiracy.

In literary theory, critics find complications in the term " author " beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting.

For referring specifically to a U. S. national and things, the words used are estadunidense ( also spelled estado-unidense ) ( United States person ), from Estados Unidos da América, and ianque ( Yankee ), but the term most often used is norte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, in theory apply to Canadians, Mexicans, etc., as well.

The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music ( in music theory and religious contexts ), or more generally, a song ( or composition ) of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term " national anthem " or " sports anthem ".

The term was coined by Fanya Montalvo by analogy with NP-complete and NP-hard in complexity theory, which formally describes the most famous class of difficult problems.

Professional mathematicians sometimes use the term ( higher ) arithmetic when referring to more advanced results related to number theory, but this should not be confused with elementary arithmetic.

It is either the collective term for ethics and aesthetics — philosophical fields that depend crucially on notions of value — or the foundation for these fields, and thus similar to value theory and meta-ethics.

The term leg theory is somewhat archaic and seldom used any more, but the basic tactic still plays a part in modern cricket.

The term " Brownian motion " can also refer to the mathematical model used to describe such random movements, which is often called a particle theory.

According to one theory, the term was loaned to Russian, where-in literary language-it first appeared in " Elysei ", a 1771 poem by V. Maikov.

However, the term naive set theory is also used in some literature to refer to the set theories studied by Frege and Cantor, rather than to the informal counterparts of modern axiomatic set theory ; care is required to tell which sense is intended.

The term " inflation " is also used to refer to the hypothesis that inflation occurred, to the theory of inflation, or to the inflationary epoch.

According to physicist Phil Anderson, the term was coined by himself and Volker Heine when they changed the name of their group at the Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge from " Solid state theory " to " Theory of Condensed Matter ", as they felt it did not exclude their interests in the study of liquids, nuclear matter and so on.

Further difficulties arise from ambiguity regarding the term " theory ".

Category theory is an area of study in mathematics that examines in an abstract way the properties of particular mathematical concepts, by formalising them as collections of objects and arrows ( also called morphisms, although this term also has a specific, non category-theoretical meaning ), where these collections satisfy some basic conditions.

Many scholars employ the term, especially those in the fields of history, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory.

It became the sole `` subject '' of `` international law '' ( a term which, it is pertinent to remember, was coined by Bentham ), a body of legal principle which by and large was made up of what Western nations could do in the world arena.

So in these pages the term `` technology '' is used to include any and all means which could amplify, project, or augment man's control over himself and over other men.

It is of the utmost importance to the people of America and of the world how their governing President `` ends up '' during the four years of his term.

Only when that term is ended and he is a private citizen again can he be permitted the freedom and the courage to discount the dangers of his death.

`` I may possibly be a greater risk than is the normal person of my age '', the President had said on February 29th of the election year, ignoring the fact that no one of his age had ever lived out another term.

Let us not confuse the issue by labeling the objective or the method `` psychoanalytic '', for this is a well established term of art for the specific ideas and procedures initiated by Sigmund Freud and his followers for the study and treatment of disordered personalities.

Mr. Wagner might or might not be a `` new '' Mayor in this third term, now that he is free of the pressure of those party leaders whom he calls `` bosses ''.

This is done at varying speeds, ranging from the slow and fast Shifte Telli ( a musical term meaning double strings ) to the fastest, ecstatic Karshilama ( meaning greetings or welcome ).

the term of loans for working capital is 6 years.

Interim financing of construction costs is provided by a short term loan from The Chase Manhattan Bank.

For the near term, however, it must be realized that the industrial and commercial market is somewhat more sensitive to general business conditions than is the military market, and for this reason I would expect that any gain in 1961 may be somewhat smaller than those of recent years ; ;

If you would feel happier with full collision insurance, there is a small additional charge, again varying from country to country and depending on the term of such insurance.

The collective by which I address you in the title above is neither patronizing nor jocose but an exact industrial term in use among professional thieves.

for, using the fact that N and N' commute Af and so when R is sufficiently large every term in this expression for Af will be 0.

The only other one I shall mention here is his use of the term capitalism.

This is not, however, the case, and development is a term which we can apply to Hardy only in a very limited sense.

`` Disaffiliation '', by the way, is the term used by the critic and poet, Lawrence Lipton, who has written several articles on this subject, the first of which, in The Nation, quoted as Epigraph: `` We disaffiliate.

This term refers to the ability of a material to resist bending stress and is determined by measuring the load required to cause failure by bending.

Incumbent Richard Salter seeks re-election and is opposed by Donald Huffman for the five-year term.

The term " anthropology " is from the Greek anthrōpos (), " man ", understood to mean humankind or humanity, and-logia (- λογία ), " discourse " or " study.

In some European countries, all cultural anthropology is known as ethnology ( a term coined and defined by Adam F. Kollár in 1783 ).

As amoebas themselves are polyphyletic and subject to some imprecision in definition, the term " amoeboid " does not provide identification of an organism, and is better understood as description of locomotion.