When does one become a conspiracy theorist?

When you begin to think for yourself.
When you use FACT instead of fairy tales.
When YOU are odd man out in the conversation.
When you research simple news stories looking for
the truth and not an opinion.
When the lies become apparent.
When it hurts to watch TV.
When you can see the strings.
When you think of the news paper in the same category
as The National Enquirer.
When you know what money is and where it comes from.
When you know history not in books(i.e. Smedley Butler,
Battle of Blair Mountain,etc).
When you realize nothing is "as it seems".
When you understand your rights are inherent from birth
and not "given" to you by government.
When you come to terms with yourself after realizing
YOUR world does not exist and begin to face yourself
down in the mirror and realize that YOU are the key.

Fact is always Fact, If a theory is indeed a fact it can not be a theory. However, you could choose to believe in the "theory" to hide the "fact", but alas, you'd be in NeverNever Land again..... with the rest of the dreamers.

I like to call myself a "policy analyst"

I will take a shot
A conspiracy theory is unofficial explanation of causation, that runs against or violates known and widely norms. (my definition before finishing my 1st cup of coffee)
A conspiracy theorist is some one who holds to several of these explanations.
Which I do not think 9/11 truthers are all conspiracy theorists. I think they, in general, have a valid theory of conspiracy even if I disagree.
The necessary and sufficient condition to be conspiracy theorist, I think, must include some attention paid to time. For example after Foot Hood shooting while information is streaming and conditions are chaotic, if they exist any information remotely contradictory the theories come streaming in.
Instead accepting of the simple answer of on the ground chaas they want to believe an elaborate deep dark hidden truth

Have been up to. Things such as the NAFTA super highway which the media laughed and scoffed at, in 2004 if you spoke of this you were a conspiracy theorist, today you know it is a campaign issue talked about in the open in Texas. If you ever mentioned the CFR prior to 2003, then Rush would label his callers conspiracy theorists, then Hillary in 2009 stated to a group of CFR members that she was glad that they moved a facility to Washington where it was easier for her to attend and see what they wanted government to do (on video). Bohemian grove was a biggie, until AJ filmed the ceremonies and activities there. So most anything that you find out about that the media has been put under strict orders not to cover, you are instantly labeled a conspiracy theorist.

Conspiracies no more, 33 conspiracies that came to pass. In each instance the people that thought they were true were labled conspiracy theorists, until they came true. Although vindicated, the public never seems to question when the media labels someone with this.
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/archive/index.php/t-263013...

A friend of mine lives a few blocks from "Joe Stack". He also happens to be a private pilot who's flown many times from Georgetown.

According to the "official timeline"- "Joe" finished his manifesto, set his house ablaze and then crashed his plane into the building fifteen minutes later.

According to my buddy-

It's a 25 minute drive to the airport
It takes 20 minutes to warm-up and taxi (minimum)
It's a 12 minute flight from Georgetown back to the crash-site in Austin

Unbelievable level of damage for a 2300 lb. plane with 48 gallons of fuel (max)

Amazing coincidence that both the Fire Department and a HazMat team just happened to be parked across the street, right before the incident.

Amazing how the media knew the guy's name and had his "manifesto" online and on the air within minutes of the crash

Amazing that they had such a seemingly-calm and well-spoken eyewitness (the young lady who described the plane as "coming in from the East".

Amazing (when one looks at the level of damage) that no-one was in a position to be killed at mid-morning on a workday.

This whole thing stinks- how could one NOT suspect foul-play?

the words they use to solve there emotional discrepancy with the issues we bring forward, than maybe they will consider those words and re-evaluate their reason.

are other than the governments story or PSM (propaganda streaming media) theory