J, that’s a good passage you’ve quoted (13:50 above) and I very much agree with it, though I would also point out the ideological element to such conspiracy – these things are often right out in the open, such as the Project for a New American Century; these people are actually proud of their activities; they really believe that they’re doing good.
But the passage does not discredit the term “conspiracy theory”. The term does, however, suffer from ambiguity; ambiguity that conspiracy theorists relentlessly exploit in defence of their unsupportable assertions.
Conspiracy theory, especially anti-scientific and anti-rational conspiracy theory, is very useful to the powerful. Sensationalist 9/11 conspiracy theory has served as a smokescreen for the policy of torture to extract false confessions for creation of a misleading narrative, which in turn has provided cover for the US exploitation of jihadism. The assertion that global warming is a hoax manufactured by a conspiracy of climate scientists has protected vested interests’ profits for over three decades since the alarm was raised in the 1980s. Covid conspiracy theory is currently providing governments with support for their failure to control the pandemic.