The likely intended effect of "you are a conspiracy theorist" type of smearing is to clean the table of players who play for freedom, in the hope that the only players left at the table play each other for power. 

These players have Machiavelli's Il Principe and Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and lots of other books and articles in their curriculum. 

Those who would like to play for freedom have next to nothing to study.

Therefore, they even don't understand the rules of the game.