I grew up in a very conservative Pentecostal Evangelical Christian home / church. There was a lot of crazy shit. Have you ever seen The Waterboy? Bobbie Bouchane's mom is mild compared to the real thing. Playing cards were evil because you could use them for Tarot. Only Christian TV was OK (but not the Catholic stuff, that was bad) because there's subliminal messaging in everything and everything is immoral even if it doesn't seem like it (for example, I remember a sermon from when I was young where the pastor went on about the smurfs being "blue demons" for about 20 minutes).
Much of what I see around /r/conspiracy reminds me of that culture in many ways - believing in stuff on faith rather than scrutinizing things objectively, the government is evil, television is mind control, forces of darkness, etc. Now, don't get me wrong. Faith in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I'm sure there are evil elements to our government, etc. But one of the biggest parallels I see is this:
In the church (at least, how I was raised), if you disagree with the overall body, you're an agent of the devil / demon possessed.
In these sorts of forums, if you disagree with the overall body, you're an agent of propaganda / a shill.
Do demons exist? I wouldn't be so brash to say they they definitely don't. Same goes for shills - there's certainly evidence that there are people who are paid to say certain things on the internet.
Here's the problem though. Not everyone who disagrees with the church has demon issues. There is a lot of irrational stuff, even irrational by the Bible itself, that goes on in the church. And even if you can point to the chapter and verse in the Bible that shows why something is wrong, you're met with something like "the Devil knows the Bible too and will twist it to suit his own purposes." Even though the church, in this instance is technically the one doing the twisting, and the dissenter is the one doing the untwisting.
Read the above paragraph and apply it as a metaphor for this sort of forum. It's not perfect, but I think that, if you look at it objectively, it rings fairly true.
Regarding my own experience being called a shill, I generally think it's ridiculous. As I've mentioned numerous times, my name is literally A. Shill. When I found the conspiracy sub (at the prompting of a friend, after finding out what my username was) I thought it'd be taken as a joke. My first couple posts here went OK in this regard. When I found I had something to say at some point, I think the name was my undoing. I am a dissenter, therefore, I'm a demon. Obviously.
...
There are times I've said things that are ignored or misconstrued because of what people think I am. I can point out that someone is lying, using their own words, and I'm downvoted to the point where my post isn't visible. I can point out that the mass downvote brigading people claim goes on in the new queue doesn't exist (edit - when it's being claimed, and when I'm online to observe... not to say it's never ever happened just because I haven't seen it) because I've watched it for a few days, and I'm told I'm the one doing it. I can call out another user for using questionable vote manipulation tactics, and it's completely ignored. I could point out what groups I'm reasonably sure are actually brigading the conspiracy sub (and I believe there are some) but I'm pretty sure nobody would listen or care because they're on "their team."
Why do I continue posting? You guys are interesting. I agree with you on some stuff, though I disagree on a lot. I think conversation and debate are good things, but should be done rationally. I'm not afraid to look at my own views objectively and consider that they might be wrong (otherwise, I'd still be in the uberchurch), and I like to hope that others would be honest enough with themselves to do the same. And I see it happen once in a while, and it's great.
(originally posted elsewhere by another user, seems relevant here)