There’s also a wide class of conspiracy theories that are the favorites of the mentally ill (mostly paranoid schizophrenics and those with delusions of grandeur) and the dimwitted (mostly about the government being all powerful and wanting to kill us with no rational motive, ie FEMA camp stuff, which then gets mixed into their personal politics).

The government doesn't need to do anything to discredit legitimate conspiracy theorists, these types of people exist independent of the government.

There are absolutely smart, open minded, intelligent “conspiracy theorists” but because they’re not obsessive whack jobs they are unrecognizable by that term.