In my subjective field of view, I saw conspiracies working independently of each other. There were the UFO-nuts, Illuminati-theorist, 911 etc. These theories might have had some common ground in the crowd they attracted, but mostly they were separate "entities" and sometimes they were working against each other, i.e. crystals-hippies would never mingle with "Christian scientists". These would operate as an autonomous cult of sorts, with different beliefs, terminology and rites. Central authority was weak and anyone could, with a right effort, change these up as they felt tough. The only thing that tied them together was a lack of faith in the established authorities and a sense of having found out "the truth".
This semi-autonomous nature of conspiracy-cults has helped them to morph into something we might describe as a post-modern cult in the making. First, they started off as different branches with only a couple cosmetic points we can hold onto. Now they are becoming syncretic;, loaning and integrating pieces of each other as if they are going through an evolutionary process of finding out the best snares and traps to get more people in these cults.
This makes it easy for this cult to become even more muddled and recognizable. No one true "truth" can be found in it, so attacking it is almost impossible. Every member has their own version and parts of teachings can changed so fast that we can never keep up with it, so a huge amount of "debunking" and "fact checking" has had to be set up against it. We can't even pinpoint what does this new "conspiracy-cult" wants as they have no clear "head" we can establish even semi-diplomatic relationships. They can break up or pull together as they see fit. This whole vaccine debate is a perfect example of it.
Over the couple of years the narrative has changed so many times over how, and why the vaccine is bad for us. First things I ever heard were, microchips, 5G and mark of the beast. These changed almost after a couple of months to prions, genetic engineering etc. and the process of change keep happening to this day. Qanon-narratives have the same thing. Even if the "leader" Qanon lifted the veil on 2018 and told people on /pol/ it was just a ruse and gave out his tripcode the narrative still keeps itself alive by morphing what is Qanon, what do the elites do and what is their motivation.
The other thing is that these new self-altering conspiracies seem to have become syncretic in a way not seen before. Now crystal-hippies, 911-crowd, neo-nazis and charismatic christianity can all jump on the bandwagon and rally behind the theory. Because of this process of change there are multiple narratives working independently behind one theory, so the sworn enemies of yesterday can now team up even if there is nothing else these groups can ever share.
My own hypothesis on why this is happening is that we lost the decentralized internet to centralized giants like Facebook and Twitter which algorithmically help these narratives to form. It's central for these giants to form narratives that hijack your brain, steal your time and create even more addictive stories on their websites. They have seen the inherent need for spirituality (i.e having THE TRUTH) and community, I believe these are the things most conspiracy-nuts really crave for. These platforms work as a conduit for these theories, and a testing ground on what sticks. On tailored feeds, every person can get an ideology for their specific niché.
I don't really want to blame the conspiracy-nuts. I think they have been hijacked by these eldritch creations we have created to help us find information on the internet. They pick and choose targets that are vulnerable for this sort of thing and amp it up to 9000. They are ever-changing creations that can change up the narrative even illogically as they are not feeling, nor really thinking creatures.
