& secondly, and on a less trollsome note ❌
Personally i find a lot of interest in conspiracy theories, & not just from an aesthetical/anthropological "poetical weirdness" POV (tho i surely enjoy that too).
They can certainly be appreciated on a symbolic/metaphorical level as addressing stuff that is not easily approached more directly. And some of that may be unsavoury, ie "Lizards", though there's nothing inherently unsavoury in UFOlogy or cryptozoology, for example, that undermines the benefits of keeping scientific inspiration available to enthusiastic lay people.
I'm surprised Eden misses the overlap between (mainly pre-internet, the internet has disrupted this rather) indie investigative journo types with conspiranoidery. There certainly used to be a current of (stereotyped as hairy, lone wolf type) bold, intrepid investigators who delved particularly into the murk of military bases, big science, often on the fringes of peace and eco movements.
Their credentials as serious journalists were always rubbished, but they came up with scoops and worked alongside activists, and probably it's impossible to tell how far they were wasting energy chasing windmills or not, since they were often exposing stuff that wouldn’t tend to be confirmable.
This current still exists, now submerged in and part of the blossoming of conspiracy theorising on the web. I know you will say "but it's misdirected", but it isn’t _always_ misdirected, look at stuff like
these activities are worthwhile imho.
& also, it's important more generally to keep a culture of scepticism alive.
(and i don't think it's a "mindset", that's rather patronising. We modern humans have ample brain-space for multiple, even conflicting belief systems)
and finally, it's different from what eden characterised above as making people passive, though perhaps connected. That is a feature of the "post-truth" media in this era that's not restricted to conspiracy theorising - this article (pre 11/9)
https://theawl.com/when-truth-falls-apart-b4667d39575b identifies it plausibly as a specific republican comms strategy. Maybe that's too specific, but it's a widespread phenomenon - this is also quite good on that
this video will make you angry, but maybe that's another thread?