For me I think it has to be Russiagate. It’s just become a catch all for centrist libs to refuse to believe anything bad about their team, make up crazy conspiracies about anyone to their left or right, dismiss every contradiction of capitalism as “Russian interference”. It’s maddening. At least the RWNJ conspiracies like Q and the Alex Jones shit are usually pretty funny because of how ridiculous they are, russiagate doesn’t even have that going for it.
What are some other contenders?
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They go back even further (Birchers, Anti-Masonic League, etc.), but right now they're becoming a part of the mainstream, which is the scary part.
The 90s were when I first started following conspiracy theories, as the black helicopter/X-files/NWO types began to get some notice. And while I never listened to Bill Cooper when he was alive, I've been listening to his archived shows online.
They're honestly incredibly soothing. He was good at radio (so much better than Alex Jones), and his topics are almost nostalgic and quaint now.
I do agree that there is definitely an element of allowing Americans to square the circle - "we are told from birth that we are the greatest, but we are doing badly now. Whose fault could it be? Let's find the sinners whose evil has caused the Divine Mandate to be withdrawn!"
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Cooper's early politics (I'm about 30 episodes in) are all over the place. He was very heterodox, especially compared to today. He loved militias, but also didn't hate black people, especially for the time and milieu. He gave critical support to the LA riots, etc. I've got "Behold a Pale Horse" on my to read pile right now, in fact.
Early Alex Jones was more of a charming crank compared to the screaming booze demon he's become. He took the anti-government ferment that had been bubbling up in the 90s, but driven underground a bit by OKC, and combined that with Coast to Coast AM. And yeah, I remember him updating the "Social Security Numbers are the Mark of the Beast" conspiracy to include any sort of RFID. Interestingly, I never watched Endgame. Don't recall why, now, but I know I intentionally avoided it for some reason. Maybe a bit of burnout by then, honestly.
Watching conspiracies brought into service of the actual people in charge is weird, and I don't like it one bit. For starters, they're obviously headed straight towards anti-Semitism, complete with pogroms, except this time the pogroms will include people with weird hair colors, "leftists", etc., as well as Jews. Now, the Patriot Act is necessary to spy on the left, and was never bad. Alex doesn't even really acknowledge his past as an anti government guy before Trump, in fact.