The only conspiracy part of that is thinking it's an organized thing. However, the actual substance of that tactic is a tried and true strategy that was developed by the Dutch, and later adopted by all the colonial Empires to rule over their imperial possessions, by dividing the people they were ruling over and causing them to fight themselves rather than the "true" people ruling them.
How they would do this is granting some of their slaves, or repressed peoples SLIGHTLY more in terms of entitlement, or freedom, than the rest of the population. They would grant these "privileges" (heh) based on some arbitrary characteristic. Maybe only people born in X village. Maybe people who had slightly lighter skin. Maybe people who only spoke without X or Y accent. These people would be given jobs with more money, freedom and authority--in some cases to literally watch over the rest of the population. This is where the whole concept of the "House Slave" came from. A type of "slave" or lower class that was given preferential treatment and made a pseudo part of the oppressive culture. (But still very much a slave).
Anyway, during times of strife, the oppressed people wouldn't target the actual oppressors--many of which they never saw on a daily basis, or even knew who they were. The actual "oppressive" people made sure they remained abstract concepts to those who were oppressed. However, the other poor/oppressed people who were given authority were constantly in the faces of the rest of the population, earning their ire every day, making them angry by very clearly showing off exactly why their lives were better.
For example, the actual colonial imperial might live in a huge mansion and eat Ham every night. But no one saw this in the town he was ruling over. Meanwhile, the "privileged" native/oppressed might have a very tiny slice of Ham once a month, and live in a house with three rooms instead of two like everyone else.....But because everyone saw this, every day, and they knew EXACTLY how much better this "privileged" person lived. So when it came time to rebel, they directed their anger at this guy, who wasn't much better off than them, instead of the people actually benefiting from their misery.
Now, I won't claim the OWS was a planned thing, or whatever. But whenever I see poor blacks fighting poor hispanics. Or when I see poor white women thinking all the poor white men live like kings, and not actually like a repressed drone that is just as exploited as them? I think of the above strategy. These idiot crusaders have focused so much on small, superficial privileges that they see every day, that they choose to whine about that than the massive, completely unfair privileges that have become systemically imprinted in society.
This is not to say that differences aren't there.....But if society only had to worry about those smaller differences? We'd already be well ahead of the game. The sad part is, many of us are so far behind in the race we actually think we're ahead, and are trying to keep "first place" by fighting the rest of the people who are being lapped around us.