For what it's worth, the term "conspiracy theory" in academia is more neutral than you'd think. Conspiracy theories are fine. They are simply theories that conspiracies have occurred.

It was a conspiracy theory that Nixon was personally involved in the Watergate break-in. People who believed it were conspiracy theorists. When the tapes were exposed, those people weren't any less conspiracy theorists. It's just that the theory they had was proven correct. There was an actual conspiracy.