To refine my statement of things are as they seem, conspiracy theories almost always fail Occam's Razor.

People feel the need for big events to have equally big explanations. People have a hard time coping with how the security of their lives could instantly be unraveled by something so small and simple as, for instance, a lone gunman nobody or foreign terrorists armed with only box knives; they think, oh yes, there was some underlying system, some conspiracy, which guided the process along. There is in fact a good body of evidence which suggests people who tend to believe in conspiracy theories tend to have what psychologists call an external locus of control; they feel life happens to them rather than by their proactively leading their lives where they want, which would explain why conspiracy theories tend to run rampant amongst the economically disadvantaged, ethnic minorities, teenagers, and criminals. Whereas skeptics of conspiracies tend to have an internal locus of control.

Best regards.