mack 'Given the way 'moon landing' and 'chem-trail' issues have been used to smear-by-association and shut down many legitimate inquiries' Yeah, but so is '9/11', and as you know, that certainly is legitimate.
We're all familiar with these 'conspiracy' articles that pop up with regularity in the media - and very often in The Guardian in the BBC - that are almost comical because they kick off with mash-up paragraphs about "vaccinations, chem-trails, autism, Osama Bin Laden, military releases its UFO files, moon landings, aliens, 911 and crop circles" ... and end with "many of us are poor deluded conspiracy nutters and we cling to these stories because we feel insecure and don't understand how the world works. What we should really do is stick to our trusted newspaper sources who will tell us what we should believe".
Never anything about the legal term "conspiracy to commit..." and real-world conspiracy/collusions like Libor, Enron, the banking crash of 2008, Jimmy Savile's paedophile ring, etc We can trust common sense. At the end of the day, there's sense ... and non-sense. We should always ask questions when media promotes particular kinds of non-sense. Proven physics have stood us in good stead in many fields - medical, construction, aviation, photography, computer. Each event needs to be analysed rationally - preferably using scientific methodology - according to its own merits.