The only reason to have representative democracy type organization including republicanism is to prevent those in power from conspiring. When that same organization makes it a social crime to do what is the only reason to have people rule, that will prevent people from doing what they were supposed to do, prevent corruption and that those in power conspire against the will of the people. The meme "conspiracy theorist" is just a way to scape goat people for doing the only thing majority consensus has been good for, prevent those in power from conspiring against the people.
The meme "conspiracy theorist" is, since it started being used, just Machiavellian intelligence, authoritarianism. There are genuine political conspiracies, like the coup d'état in the USA in 1963, the regime coup in Iran in 1953 that was orchestrated by the USA and Britain, and the assassination of James Forrestal in 1949, to name a few. To prevent people from a public discourse about what is the very reason people rule is used, to normalize that is is "wrong" and abnormal behavior to participate in people rule, to respond to genuine concern with non-recognition, reducing socially important topics to non-issues, is a good recipe for social collapse.