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The Eye of Providence, or the all-seeing eye of God, seen here on the US$1 bill, has been taken by some to be evidence of a conspiracy involving the founders of the United States and the Illuminati.[1]: 58  [2]: 47-49

This is a list of conspiracy theories that are notable. Many conspiracy theories relate to supposed clandestine government plans and elaborate murder plots. Conspiracy theories usually deny consensus opinion and cannot be proven using historical or scientific methods, and are not to be confused with research concerning verified conspiracies such as Germany's pretense for invading Poland in World War II.

Psychologists sometimes attribute proclivities toward conspiracy theories to a number of psychopathological conditions such as paranoia, schizotypy, narcissism, and insecure attachment, or to a form of cognitive bias called " illusory pattern perception". However, the current scientific consensus holds that most conspiracy theorists are not pathological, but merely exaggerate certain cognitive tendencies that are universal in the human brain and probably have deep evolutionary origins, such as natural inclinations towards anxiety and agent detection.

Numerous conspiracy theories pertain to air travel and aircraft. Incidents such as the 1955 bombing of the Kashmir Princess, the 1985 Arrow Air Flight 1285 crash, the 1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash, the 1987 Helderberg Disaster, the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the 1994 Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash as well as various aircraft technologies and alleged sightings, have all spawned theories of foul play which deviate from official verdicts.

Black helicopters

This conspiracy theory emerged in the US in the 1960s. The John Birch Society originally promoted it, asserting that a United Nations force would soon arrive in black helicopters to bring the US under UN control. A similar theory concerning so-called "phantom helicopters" appeared in the UK in the 1970s.

The theory re-emerged in the 1990s during the presidency of Bill Clinton, and was "energetically" promoted by writer Jim Keith in his book Black Helicopters Over America. By the 2000s, the term "black helicopters" became a shorthand for antigovernment conspiracy theories that "stretch the bounds of credulity", such as those espoused by militia groups and a number of guests of talk show host Glenn Beck.

Chemtrails

Also known as SLAP (Secret Large-scale Atmospheric Program), this theory alleges that water condensation trails (" contrails") from aircraft consist of chemical or biological agents, or contain a supposedly toxic mix of aluminum, strontium and barium, under secret government policies. An estimated 17% of people globally believe the theory to be true or partly true. In 2016, the Carnegie Institution for Science published the first-ever peer-reviewed study of the chemtrail theory; 76 out of 77 participating atmospheric chemists and geochemists stated that they had seen no evidence to support the chemtrail theory, or stated that chemtrail theorists rely on poor sampling.

Korean Air Lines Flight 007

The destruction of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by Soviet jets in 1983 has long drawn the interest of conspiracy theorists. The theories range from allegations of a planned espionage mission, to a US government cover-up, to the consumption of the passengers' remains by giant crabs.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in southeast Asia in March 2014 has prompted many theories. One theory suggests that this plane was hidden away and reintroduced as Flight MH17 later the same year in order to be shot down over Ukraine for political purposes. American conspiracy theorist James H. Fetzer has placed responsibility for the disappearance with the then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Historian Norman Davies has promoted the conspiracy theory that hackers remotely took over a Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot, supposedly installed on board, remotely piloting the aircraft to Antarctica.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014. This event has spawned numerous alternative theories. These variously include allegations that it was secretly Flight MH370, that the plane was actually shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force to frame Russia, that it was part of a conspiracy to conceal the "truth" about HIV (seven disease specialists were on board), or that the Illuminati or Israel was responsible.

Business and industry

Multiple conspiracy theories pertain to a fatal oil-rig industrial accident in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, alleging sabotage by those seeking to promote environmentalism, or a strike by North Korean or Russian submarines. Elements of such theories had been suggested or promoted by US radio host Rush Limbaugh.

A theory claims that The Coca-Cola Company intentionally changed to an inferior formula with New Coke, with the intent either of driving up demand for the original product or permitting the reintroduction of the original with a new formula using cheaper ingredients. Coca-Cola president Donald Keough rebutted this charge: "The truth is, we're not that dumb, and we're not that smart."

Deaths and disappearances

Conspiracy theories frequently emerge following the deaths of prominent leaders and public figures.

Death of Nero

In ancient times, widespread conspiracy theories were circulated pertaining to the death of the Roman emperor Nero, who committed suicide in 68 AD. Some of these theories claimed that Nero had actually faked his death and was secretly still alive, but in hiding, plotting to reestablish his reign. In most of these stories, he was said to have fled to the East, where he was still influential. Other theories held that Nero would return from the dead to retake his throne. Many early Christians feared Nero's return to resume his vicious anti-Christian persecutions. The Book of Revelation alludes to these conspiracy theories in its description of the slaughtered head returned to life.

JFK assassination

John F. Kennedy in the presidential limousine shortly before his assassination

In modern times, multiple conspiracy theories concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 have emerged. Vincent Bugliosi estimated that over 1,000 books had been written about the Kennedy assassination, at least ninety percent of which are works supporting the view that there was a conspiracy. As a result of this, the Kennedy assassination has been described as "the mother of all conspiracies". The countless individuals and organizations that have been accused of involvement in the Kennedy assassination include the CIA, the Mafia, sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or even some combination thereof. It is also frequently asserted that the United States federal government intentionally covered up crucial information in the aftermath of the assassination to prevent the conspiracy from being discovered.

Disappearance of Harold Holt

At approximately 12:20pm on 17 December 1967, then- Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt, disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach, near the town of Portsea in Victoria. While it is presumed that Holt drowned, the topic is still described as one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in Australian history and has spawned many conspiracy theories. The conspiracy theories have been widely criticised by the public and by members of Holt's own family.

In 2007, television presenter Ray Martin hosted the television special Who Killed Harold Holt?, which first aired on the Nine Network on 20 November 2007. While the special explored numerous theories about Holt's disappearance, it gave particular credence to the theory that he committed suicide. In the lead-up to the airing of the program, Holt's biographer, Tom Frame, described the allegations made in the special as "unjustified and contrary to all the evidence" in an opinion piece published in The Australian newspaper, while Holt's son, Sam, said he was "amazed that people can still keep bringing up [these] fallacious theories".

Another conspiracy theory is that Holt was actually a spy for the Chinese government (under both the Nationalist and Communist governments) ever since he began studying at the University of Melbourne in 1929 and that he "pretended to drown", instead theorising that once below the surface two Chinese frogmen transported him to China in a submarine. This theory also claims that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) covered up any evidence. This theory was first promoted in British writer Anthony Grey's 1983 novel The Prime Minister Was a Spy, which attracted controversy in Australia.

Other conspiracy theories claim that Holt was assassinated. Targets of these claims include North Vietnam and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Death of other prominent figures

There are also claims that deaths were covered up. Such theories include the " Paul is dead" claim alleging that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike Scottish orphan named William Shears Cambell who also went by (Billy Shears), and that The Beatles hinted at this in their songs, most noticeably " Revolution 9", " Strawberry Fields Forever", " Glass Onion", and " I Am the Walrus", as well on the covers of , Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Magical Mystery Tour. Another is the conspiracy theory, widely circulated in Nigeria, which alleges that Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari died in 2017 and was replaced by a look-alike Sudanese impostor. Many fans of punk-pop star Avril Lavigne claim that she died at the height of her fame and was replaced by a look-alike named Melissa. The Melania Trump replacement theory proposes the same of the former US First Lady.

Inverted theories concerning deaths are also known, prominently claims that Elvis Presley's death was faked and that Adolf Hitler survived the Second World War and fled to the Americas, to Antarctica, or to the Moon. Theories that Hitler had survived are known to have been deliberately promoted by the government of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as part of a disinformation campaign.

The disappearance, and often presumed death, of an individual may also become a cause for conspiracy theorists. Theories of a cover-up surrounding the 1974 disappearance of Lord Lucan following the murder of his family's nanny include, for example, allegations of a suicide plot whereby his body was fed to tigers at Howletts Zoo. Numerous conspiracy theories have also attended the 2007 disappearance of English girl Madeleine McCann.

The murder of Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich spawned several right-wing conspiracy theories, including that Rich had been involved with the leaked DNC emails in 2016, which runs contrary to US intelligence's conclusion that the leaked DNC emails were part of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Law enforcement as well as fact-checking websites like PolitiFact.com, Snopes.com, and FactCheck.org stated that these theories were false and unfounded. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post called the fabrications fake news and falsehoods.

Economics and society

New World Order

The New World Order theory states that a group of international elites control governments, industry, and media organizations, with the goal of establishing global hegemony. They are alleged to be implicated in most of the major wars of the last two centuries, to carry out secretly staged events, and to deliberately manipulate economies.

The New World Order has been connected to a wide range of actors including the Illuminati (see § Illuminati), Jews ( § Antisemitism), colluding world governments or corporations, NGOs such as the World Economic Forum ( Great Reset § Conspiracy theories), and secretive organizations such as Bohemian Grove, Le Cercle, and Skull and Bones. Theorists believe that a wide range of musicians, including Beyoncé and Whitney Houston, have been associated with the "group." Prominent theorists include Mark Dice and David Icke.

Predictive programming

Many theorists allege that the contents of fictional media, in a process called "predictive programming," are manipulated to reference planned false flags, technological innovations, social changes, and other future events. These references are understood to be a conditioning and brainwashing tool, such that the public becomes more accepting of these events than they would be otherwise.

Predictive programming has been used to explain events such as the September 11 attacks and COVID-19 pandemic, and has been connected with media such as , The Simpsons, and .

George Soros

Hungarian-American investor George Soros has been the subject of conspiracy theories since the 1990s. Soros has used his wealth to promote many political, social, educational and scientific causes, disbursing grants totaling an estimated $11 billion up to 2016. However, theories tend to assert that Soros is in control of a large portion of the world's wealth and governments, and that he secretly funds a large range of persons and organizations for nefarious purposes, such as Antifa, which some conspiracy theorists claim is a single far-left militant group. Such ideas have been promoted by Viktor Orban, Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Bill O'Reilly, Roy Moore, Alex Jones, Paul Gosar, and Ben Garrison. Soros conspiracy theories are sometimes linked to antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Freemasonry

Conspiracy theories concerning the Freemasons have proliferated since the 18th century. Theorists have alleged that Freemasons control large parts of the economies or judiciaries of a number of countries, and have alleged Masonic involvement in the British enquiry regarding the sinking of the and in the crimes of Jack the Ripper. Notable among theorists has been American inventor Samuel Morse, who in 1835 published a book of his own conspiracy theories. Freemason conspiracy theories have also been linked to certain antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories in Turkey started to dominate public discourse during the late reign of the Justice and Development Party and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In 2014, Erdoğan coined the term üst akıl ("mastermind") to denote the alleged command and control institution, somewhat ambiguously placed with the government of the United States, in a comprehensive conspiracy to weaken or even dismember Turkey, by orchestrating every political actor and action perceived hostile by Turkey. Erdoğan as well as the Daily Sabah newspaper have on multiple occasions alleged that very different non-state actors-like the Salafi jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the libertarian socialist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and supporters of Fethullah Gülen -were attacking Turkey at the same time in a well-coordinated campaign.

One instance of promoting the "mastermind" conspiracy theory occurred in February 2017, when then- Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek claimed that earthquakes in the western province of Çanakkale could have been organized by dark external powers aiming to destroy Turkey's economy with an "artificial earthquake" near Istanbul. In another example, in November 2017, the Islamist newspaper claimed that the fashion trend of "ripped denim" jeans was in fact a means of communication, via specific forms of rips and holes, between agents of foreign states and their collaborators in Turkey.

Israel animal spying

There are conspiracy theories alleging that Israel uses animals to conduct espionage or to attack people. These are often associated with conspiracy theories about Zionism. Matters of interest to theorists include a series of shark attacks in Egypt in 2010, Hezbollah's accusations of the use of "spying" eagles, and the 2011 capture of a griffon vulture carrying an Israeli-labeled satellite tracking device.

Harold Wilson

Numerous persons, including former MI5 officer Peter Wright and Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, have alleged that former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was secretly a KGB spy. Historian Christopher Andrew has lamented that a number of people have been "seduced by Golitsyn's fantasies".

Malala Yousafzai

Conspiracy theories concerning Malala Yousafzai are widespread in Pakistan, elements of which originate from a 2013 satirical piece in . These theories variously allege that she is a Western spy, or that her attempted murder by the Taliban in 2012 was a secret operation to further discredit the Taliban, and was organized by her father and the CIA and carried out by actor Robert de Niro disguised as an Uzbek homeopath.

Ethnicity, race and religion

Antisemitism

First edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Since at least the Middle Ages, antisemitism has featured elements of conspiracy theory. In medieval Europe it was widely believed that Jews poisoned wells, had been responsible for the death of Jesus, and ritually consumed the blood of Christians. The second half of the 19th century saw the emergence of notions that Jews and/or Freemasons were plotting to establish control over the world. Forged evidence has been presented to spread the notion that Jews were responsible for the propagation of communism, or the hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903), which outlines a supposed high council of Jews planning to control the world. Such antisemitic conspiracy theories became central to the worldview of Adolf Hitler. Antisemitic theories persist today concerning banking, Hollywood, the news media and a purported Zionist Occupation Government of the United States. These theories all allege plots to establish a world tyranny.

Holocaust denial is also considered an antisemitic conspiracy theory, claiming that the Nazi extermination of European Jews is a hoax designed to win sympathy for Jews and justify the creation of the State of Israel. Holocaust deniers include former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the convicted chemist Germar Rudolf and the discredited author David Irving.

Reptilian conspiracies, prominent in ufology theories, have also been linked to anti-semitism, as "a very old trope with disturbing links to anti-immigrant and antisemitic hostilities dating to the 19th century." Conspiracy author David Icke suggests numerous Jewish political figures are reptilian shapeshifters and "the Jewish Rothschild family is part of a bloodline of reptilian humanoids that secretly control the world". Critics contend these theories to be antisemitic, although he denies animosity towards Jewish people. Other far-right ufologists speculate that the Jewish race originated from genetic engineering by malevolent extraterrestrials engaged in interstellar conflict with Anunnaki or Pleiadians.

Anti-Armenianism

Conspiracy theories that allege that the Armenians wield secret political power are prevalent in Azerbaijan and have been promoted by the government, including President Ilham Aliyev.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has claimed that the Russian media is run by Armenians. American writer and disbarred lawyer Samuel Weems has claimed that the Armenian genocide was a hoax designed to defraud Christian nations of billions of dollars, and that the Armenian Church instigates terrorist attacks. Filmmaker Davud Imanov has accused the Armenians of plotting against Azerbaijan and has claimed that the Karabakh movement was a plot by the CIA to destroy the Soviet Union.

Anti-Baháʼísm

Iran's Baháʼí Faith minority has been the target of conspiracy theories alleging involvement with hostile powers. Iranian government officials and others have claimed that Baháʼís have been variously agents of the Russian, British, American or Israeli governments. An apocryphal and historically inaccurate book published in Iran, entitled The Memoirs of Count Dolgoruki, details a theory that the Bahá'ís intend to destroy Islam. Such anti-Baháʼí accusations have been dismissed as having no factual foundation.

Anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholic cartoon depicting Catholicism as an octopus, from H. E. Fowler and Jeremiah J. Crowley's The Pope (1913)

Since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, theories about Catholic conspiracies have taken many forms, including the 17th-century Popish Plot allegations, claims by persons such as William Blackstone that Catholics posed a secret threat to Britain, and numerous writings by authors such as Samuel Morse, Rebecca Reed, Avro Manhattan, Jack Chick and Alberto Rivera. Theorists often claim that the Pope is the Antichrist, accuse Catholics of suppressing evidence incompatible with Church teachings, and describe Catholics as being involved with secret evil rituals, crimes, and other plots.

In 1853, the Scottish minister Alexander Hislop published his anti-Catholic pamphlet The Two Babylons, in which he claims that the Catholic Church is secretly a continuation of the pagan religion of ancient Babylon, the product of a millennia-old conspiracy founded by the Biblical king Nimrod and the Assyrian queen Semiramis. It also claims that modern Catholic holidays, including Christmas and Easter, are actually pagan festivals established by Semiramis and that the customs associated with them are pagan rituals. Modern scholars have unanimously rejected the book's arguments as erroneous and based on a flawed understanding of Babylonian religion, but variations of them are still accepted among some groups of evangelical Protestants. The Jehovah's Witnesses periodical The Watchtower frequently published excerpts from it until the 1980s. The book's thesis has also featured prominently in the conspiracy theories of racist groups, such as The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord.

Fears of a Catholic takeover of the US have been especially persistent, prompted by large-scale Catholic immigration in the 19th century and Ku Klux Klan propaganda. Such fears have attached to Catholic political candidates such as Al Smith and John F. Kennedy.

Pope John Paul I died in September 1978, only a month after his election to the papacy. The timing of his death and the Vatican's alleged difficulties with ceremonial and legal death procedures has fostered several conspiracy theories.

The elderly Pope Benedict XVI's resignation in February 2013, officially due to "lack of strength of mind and body", prompted theories in Italian publications such as La Repubblica and Panorama that he resigned to avoid the exposure of an underground gay Catholic network.

Antichrist

Apocalyptic prophecies, particularly Christian claims about the End Times, have inspired a range of conspiracy theories. Many of these cite the Antichrist, a leader who will supposedly create an oppressive world empire. Countless figures have been called Antichrist, including Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Russian emperor Peter the Great, Saladin, Pope John XXII, Benito Mussolini, Barack Obama, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and German Führer Adolf Hitler.

Bible and Jesus

Bible conspiracy theories posit that significant parts of the New Testament are false, or have been omitted. Various groups both real (such as the Vatican) and fake (such as the Priory of Sion) are said to suppress relevant information concerning, for example, the dating of the Shroud of Turin.

Much of this line of conspiracy theory has been stimulated by a debunked book titled The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982), which claimed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers and that their offspring and descendants were secretly hidden in Europe following the death of Jesus, from whom the then-living French draughtsman Pierre Plantard claimed descent. Interest in this hoax saw a resurgence following the publication of Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.

The Gospel of Afranius, an atheistic Russian work published in 1995 with an English translation published in 2022, proposes politically motivated gaslighting as the origin of the foundational Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus.

" War against Islam" is a conspiracy theory in Islamist discourse which describes an alleged plot to destroy Islamic society. The perpetrators of this conspiracy are alleged to be non-Muslims and " false Muslims" in collusion with Western powers whose efforts are a continuation of the Medieval Crusades.

Anti-Islamic

Since the September 11 Attacks, many anti-Islamic conspiracy theories have emerged. Love Jihad, also called Romeo Jihad, refers to a conspiracy theory that Muslim men try to convert non-Muslim women to Islam by feigning love. The " Eurabia" theory alleges a Muslim plot to Islamize Europe and the West through mass immigration and high Moslem birth rates. U.S. President Barack Obama was accused of being a secret Muslim.

A theory holds that the witch trials of the Early Modern period were an effort to suppress pre-Christian, pagan religions which had endured the Christianization of Europe. A far-right pro-pagan conspiracy theory suggests that Christianity was created as a Jewish scheme to undermine the Aryan race.

Paul the Apostle

Paul the Apostle makes an appearance in some variants of the medieval Jewish anti-Christian polemic, Toledot Yeshu, as a spy for the rabbis.

Muslims have long believed that Paul purposefully corrupted the original revealed teachings of Jesus by introducing elements of paganism, the theology of the cross, and the idea of original sin producing the need for redemption.

The Baháʼí Faith also regards Paul as a false or misguided preacher who corrupted Jesus's original message. In this sense, he is seen as the real "Judas" who betrayed Jesus.

Pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand

White genocide conspiracy theory is a white nationalist notion that immigration, integration, low fertility rates and abortion are being promoted in predominantly white countries to dispossess or eliminate white people. A 2017 study in France by IFOP, for example, found that 48% of participants believed that political and media elites are conspiring to replace white people with immigrants.

In the United States, black genocide conspiracy theory holds that African Americans are the victims of genocide by white Americans. Lynchings and racial discrimination were formally described as genocide by the Civil Rights Congress in 1951. Malcolm X also talked about "black genocide" in the early 1960s. Public funding of the Pill was also described as "black genocide" at the first Black Power Conference in 1967. In 1970, after abortion was more widely legalized, some black militants depicted it as part of the conspiracy.

Some Rastafari maintain that a white racist patriarchy ("Babylon") controls the world to oppress black people. They believe Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia did not die in 1975, but that racist media faked his death to quash the Rastafari movement.

" The Plan" is an alleged plot by white power brokers in Washington, D.C., to take control of the city's local government from African Americans, who were a majority of the city's population from the late 1950s to the early 2010s and remain its largest ethnic group. The theory asserts that gentrification and urban renewal are orchestrated to drive out low-income black residents in favor of wealthier whites from outside the city. Most city residents, regardless of race, do not believe in The Plan, but it may have widespread quiet credence among black residents and influence on local elections.

Fandom, celebrity relationships, and shipping

Numerous conspiracy theories surround the desire by followers of a fandom for two celebrities to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship, known as shipping. Many real-person shipping conspiracy theories involve claims that the pregnancies and children of partnered or married celebrity couples are fake. Proponents of celebrity shipping conspiracies that ship two celebrities of the same gender typically argue that they are being pro-LGBT by supporting two people who are forcibly closeted by a homophobic industry. Conspiracy communities about celebrity relationships tend to be created and dominated by women.

Larries are a group of shipping conspiracy theorist fans, centered around the idea that two members of the boy band One Direction, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, are secretly a couple. These conspiracy theorists falsely claim that Styles and Tomlinson have been closeted by their management since the inception of the band, despite multiple claims otherwise by Styles, Tomlinson, their friends, and their family.

Government, politics, and conflict

Political conspiracy theories may take generalized and wide-ranging forms concerning wars and international bodies, but may also be seen at a localized level, such as the conspiracy theory pertaining to the 118th Battalion, a British regiment stationed in Kitchener, Ontario, during World War I, which was believed by some in Kitchener to still be present years after the war ended and to be controlling local politics.

Crisis actors

Crisis actors are individuals who portray disaster victims in first responder training exercises. Conspiracy theories allege that mass shooting and similar traumatic events are actually staged, with victims and their families being portrayed by covert crisis actors.

Illuminati in Europe

Conspiracy theories concerning the Illuminati, a short-lived 18th-century Enlightenment-era secret society, appear to have originated in the late 19th century, when some Catholic conservatives in Europe came to believe that the group had been responsible for the French Revolution of 1789-1799. Hoaxes about the Illuminati were later spread in the 1960s by a group of American practical jokers known as the Discordians who wrote a series of fake letters about the Illuminati to .

False flag operations

False flag operations are covert operations designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. Some allegations of false flag operations have been verified or are subjects of legitimate historical dispute (such as the 1933 Reichstag arson attack). Unsubstantiated allegations of such operations feature strongly in conspiracy theories.

Such allegations have attached to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

The rise of ISIS gave rise to conspiracy theories that it had been created by the US, CIA, Mossad, or Hillary Clinton. The same happened after the rise of Boko Haram.

9/11 2001 attack on United States

The attacks on the US by terrorists using hijacked aircraft on 11 September 2001 have proved attractive to conspiracy theorists. Theories may include reference to missile or hologram technology. The most common theory is that the Twin Towers collapsed in controlled demolitions, a theory rejected by the engineering profession and the 9/11 Commission.

Sandy Hook school shooting in U.S. 2012

A 2012 fatal mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, prompted numerous conspiracy theories, among them the claim that it was a staged to promote gun control. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke blamed Zionist deception. Theorists such as Alex Jones have suggested that the event was staged with actors. Harassment of the bereaved families by conspiracy theorists has resulted in actions for defamation. Rush Limbaugh stated that the Mayan Calendar phenomenon drove the shooter Adam Lanza.

The Clinton body count conspiracy theory, notably advanced by Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy, asserts that former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton have assassinated fifty or more of their associates and enemies. Such accusations have been around at least since the 1990s, when a pseudo-documentary film called The Clinton Chronicles, produced by Larry Nichols and promoted by Rev. Jerry Falwell, accused Bill Clinton of multiple crimes including murder.

Jeffrey Epstein death conspiracy theories

The 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier billionaire and convicted sex offender with ties to Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and other members of the elite, has become the subject of conspiracy theories.

The United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency is the subject of many theories, including that the organization has been building concentration camps in the US to prepare for imposing martial law and genocide.

African National Congress

Members of South Africa's African National Congress party have long propagated conspiracy theories, frequently concerning the CIA and alleged white supremacists. In 2014, Deputy Minister of Defence Kebby Maphatsoe joined others in accusing without evidence Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of being a US agent working to create a puppet government in South Africa.

Barack Obama

Former US President Barack Obama has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. His presidency was the subject of a 2009 film, The Obama Deception, by Alex Jones, which alleged that Obama's administration was a puppet government for a wealthy elite. The "birther" theory, which came to prominence in 2009, denies the legitimacy of Obama's presidency by claiming that he was not born in the US. This theory has persisted despite his Hawaiian birth certificate and birth announcements in two Hawaiian newspapers in 1961. Notable promoters of the theory are dentist-lawyer Orly Taitz and former President Donald Trump, who has since publicly acknowledged its falsity but is said to continue to advocate for it privately. Other theories claim that Obama, a Protestant Christian, is secretly a Muslim.

A pair of fatal attacks on US government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, by Islamist terrorists in 2012 has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, including allegations that Obama's administration arranged the attack for political reasons, and Senator Rand Paul's claimed that the government's response to the incident was designed to distract from a secret CIA operation.

Cultural Marxism

The intellectual group known as the Frankfurt School which emerged in the 1930s has increasingly been the accused of promoting communism in capitalist societies. The term "Cultural Marxism" has been notably employed by conservative American movements such as the Tea Party, and by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

While the term is occasionally used as a neutral term to denote a nation's bureaucracy, the conspiratorial notion of a " deep state" originated principally in Middle Eastern and North African politics with some basis in truth, and has been known in the US since the 1960s. It was revived under the Trump presidency. "Deep state" in the latter sense refers to an unidentified insider "power elite" who manipulate a nation's politics and government. Proponents have included Canadian author Peter Dale Scott, who has promoted the idea in the US since the 1990s, as well as Breitbart News, and Donald Trump. A 2017 poll by ABC News and The Washington Post indicated that 48% of Americans believe in the existence of a conspiratorial "deep state" in the US.

Sutherland Springs

The 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting has also been the subject of multiple conspiracy theories. The shooter has been linked to multiple conspiracies, such as identifying him as a Democrat, Hillary Clinton supporter, Bernie Sanders supporter, " alt-left" supporter, Antifa member, or radical Muslim; or claiming that he carried an Antifa flag and told churchgoers: "This is a communist revolution". Some reports also falsely claimed that he targeted the church because they were white conservatives.

Trump, Biden, and Ukraine

Beginning in 2017, a sprawling conspiracy theory emerged from 4chan and was spread via right-wing message boards and websites, then via Breitbart and Fox News to then-President Donald Trump and his allies. The conspiracy theory holds both that Ukraine (rather than Russia) had interfered in the 2016 United States elections, and that then-Vice President Joe Biden had intervened to protect a company in which his son Hunter was involved. The New Yorker found that reporting of the conspiracy in the right wing media was initiated by Peter Schweizer, a former Breitbart News contributor and president of The Government Accountability Institute, "a self-styled corruption watchdog group chaired and funded by conservative mega-donor Rebekah Mercer" and founded by Steve Bannon.

Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory

Golden billion threatens Russia

The golden billion is an idea there is an anti-Russian Western population of approximately one billion seeking to appropriate Russia's natural resources. It is a justification for Russian leader Vladimir Putin's imperial aggression, claiming to be a defense against a far-reaching covert attack. The theory was first advanced under the name A. Kuzmich.

Voting pencils

The voting pencil conspiracy theory concerns pencils at polling places enabling electoral fraud through erasing legitimate votes. It has been nicknamed "Pencilgate" and promoted on Twitter as "#Pencilgate" and "#UsePens".

The conspiracy theory originated in the United Kingdom and was originally promoted by "Yes" voters in the unsuccessful 2014 Scottish independence referendum, with supports of Scottish independence (who usually lean to the left of the political spectrum) claiming that electoral fraud was the reason the referendum failed. However, the theory was later adopted by supporters of the "Leave" vote in the successful 2016 Brexit referendum (who usually lean to the right of the political spectrum). The conspiracy theory has since spread to Australia, with right-wing politician Pauline Hanson, a Queensland Senator who is the founder and leader of the One Nation party, promoted the conspiracy theory in the lead-up to the 2022 Australian federal election.

While pencils are provided at polling places in the United Kingdom and Australia, in neither country is it required that they be used. On their website, the Australian Electoral Commission states:

"While the provision of pencils used to be a legal requirement, since 2020 under Section 206 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the AEC is required to provide an "implement or method for voters to mark their ballot papers".

The AEC has found from experience that pencils are the most reliable implements for marking ballot papers. Pencils are practical because they don't run out and the polling staff check and sharpen pencils as necessary throughout election day. Pencils can be stored between elections and they work better in tropical areas.

There is, however, nothing to prevent an elector from marking their ballot paper with a pen if they so wish."

While the AEC only conducts federal elections, voters can use either pencil or pen in state, territory and local elections. Pencils are supplied at polling places for federal elections and for state elections in Tasmania and Victoria, while pens are supplied at polling places for state elections in New South Wales and Western Australia. In 2015, the New South Wales Electoral Commission made the decision to replace pens with pencils at polling places due to controversies regarding their usage and at the 2015 state election, pens began being supplied at polling places across the state. Similarly, the Western Australian Electoral Commission has provided pens instead of pencils at polling places since the 2017.

Australian Indigenous Voice to Parliament

Alternative therapy suppression

A 2013 study approved by the University of Chicago suggested that almost half of Americans believe at least one medical conspiracy theory, with 37% believing that the Food and Drug Administration deliberately suppresses 'natural' cures due to influence from the pharmaceutical industry. A prominent proponent of comparable conspiracy theories has been convicted fraudster Kevin Trudeau.

Artificial diseases

Scientists have found evidence that HIV was transferred from monkeys to humans in the 1930s. Evidence exists, however, that the KGB deliberately disseminated a notion in the 1980s that it was invented by the CIA. This idea, and similar ideas concerning Ebola, have since been promoted by persons such as actor Steven Seagal, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki.

Similar conspiracy theories allege that pharmaceutical companies assist in the creation of conditions and diseases including ADHD, HSV and HPV.

COVID-19 pandemic

A number of conspiracy theories have been promoted about the origin and purported motive behind the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its spread. Some claimed that the virus was engineered, that it may have been a Chinese or United States bioweapon, a Jewish plot, part of which is to force mass vaccinations or sterilizations, spread as part of a Muslim conspiracy, a population control scheme, or related to 5G mobile phone networks.

In January 2020, BBC News published an article about SARS-CoV-2 misinformation, citing two 24 January articles in The Washington Times that said the virus was part of a Chinese biological weapons program, based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

The origins of SARS-CoV-2 are still uncertain. In 2020, there was widespread consensus that it reached humans through zoonotic transmission from bats. However, in 2021, the possibility that the virus spread to humans via a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology began to be seriously investigated, though most experts agreed that it is unlikely the virus was altered in a lab. In February 2023, a study from the US Energy Department was updated, and concluded that the virus likely originated from a lab.

Fluoridation

Ripper explains to Mandrake that he discovered the Communist plot to pollute Americans' "precious bodily fluids", a reference to the John Birch Society's anti-fluoridation conspiracy theories (Dr. Strangelove, 1964).

Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply to reduce tooth decay. Although many dental-health organizations support such fluoridation, the practice is opposed by conspiracy theorists. Allegations may include claims that it has been a way to dispose of industrial waste, or that it exists to obscure a failure to provide dental care to the poor. A further theory promoted by the John Birch Society in the 1960s described fluoridation as a communist plot to weaken the American population.

Vaccination

It is claimed that the pharmaceutical industry has mounted a cover-up of a causal link between vaccines and autism. The conspiracy theory developed after the publication in Britain in 1998 of a fraudulent paper by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield. The resulting anti-vaccine movement has been promoted by a number of prominent persons including Rob Schneider, Jim Carrey and former US President Donald Trump, and has led to increased rates of infection and death from diseases such as measles and COVID-19 in many countries, including the US, Italy, Germany, Romania and the UK.

Vaccine conspiracy theories have been widespread in Nigeria since at least 2003, as well as in Pakistan. Such theories may feature claims that vaccines are part of a secret anti-Islam plot, and have been linked to fatal mass shootings and bombings at vaccine clinics in both countries.

Outer space

Scientific space programs are of particular interest to conspiracy theorists. The most prolific theories allege that the US Moon landings were staged by NASA in a film studio, with some alleging the involvement of director Stanley Kubrick. The Soviet space program has also attracted theories that the government concealed evidence of failed flights. A more recent theory, emergent following the activities of hacker Gary McKinnon, suggests that a secret program of crewed space fleets exists, supposedly acting under the United Nations.

Conspiracy theorists have long posited a plot by organizations such as NASA to conceal the existence of a large planet in the Solar System known as Nibiru or Planet X which is alleged to pass close enough to the Earth to destroy it. Predictions for the date of destruction have included 2003, 2012 and 2017. The theory began to develop following the publication of The 12th Planet (1976), by Russian-American author Zecharia Sitchin, was given its full form by Nancy Lieder, and has since been promoted by American conspiracy theorist and End Times theorist David Meade. The notion received renewed attention during the period prior to the solar eclipse of 21 August 2017. Other conspiracy theorists in 2017 also predicted Nibiru would appear, including Terral Croft and YouTube pastor Paul Begley.

Extraterrestrials and UFOs

Among the foremost concerns of conspiracy theorists are questions of alien life; for example, allegations of government cover-ups of the supposed Roswell UFO incident or activity at Area 51. Also disseminated are theories concerning so-called ' men in black', who allegedly silence witnesses.[citation needed ]

Multiple reports of dead cattle found with absent body parts and seemingly drained of blood have emerged worldwide since at least the 1960s. This phenomenon has spawned theories variously concerning aliens and secret government or military experiments. Prominent among such theorists is Linda Moulton Howe, author of Alien Harvest (1989).

Many conspiracy theories have drawn inspiration from the writings of ancient astronaut proponent Zecharia Sitchin, who declared that the Anunnaki from Sumerian mythology were actually a race of extraterrestrial beings who came to Earth around 500,000 years ago in order to mine gold. In his 1994 book Humanity's Extraterrestrial Origins: ET Influences on Humankind's Biological and Cultural Evolution, Arthur Horn proposed that the Anunnaki were a race of blood-drinking, shape-shifting alien reptiles. This theory was adapted and elaborated on by British conspiracy theorist David Icke, who maintains that the Bush family, Margaret Thatcher, Bob Hope, and the British Royal Family, among others, are or were such creatures, or have been under their control. Icke's critics have suggested that 'reptilians' may be seen as an antisemitic code word, a charge he has denied.

Science and technology

Climate change

A climate change conspiracy theory typically alleges that the science behind climate change has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons-higher taxation, controls on lifestyle, and more authoritarian government. Former US President Donald Trump, US Senator James Inhofe, British journalist Christopher Booker, and Viscount Christopher Monckton have promoted such theories. Popular author Michael Crichton wrote a novel based on this premise.

Weather and earthquake control projects

Numerous theories pertain to real or alleged weather-controlling projects. Theories include the debunked assertion that HAARP, a radio-technology research program funded by the US government, is a secret weather-controlling system. Some theorists have blamed 2005's Hurricane Katrina on HAARP. HAARP has also been suggested to have somehow caused earthquakes, such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or the 2013 Saravan earthquake. Some HAARP-related claims refer to mind-control technology.

Also of interest to conspiracy theorists are cloud-seeding technologies. These include a debunked allegation that the British military's Project Cumulus caused the fatal 1952 Lynmouth Flood in Devon, England, and claims concerning a secret project said to have caused the 2010 Pakistan floods.

Logo of the Flat Earth Society, 2013

Flat Earth theory first emerged in 19th-century England, despite the Earth's spherical nature having been known since at least the time of Pythagoras. It has in recent years been promoted by American software consultant Mark Sargent through the use of YouTube videos. Flat-earther conspiracy theorists hold that planet Earth is not a sphere, and that evidence has been faked or suppressed to hide the fact that it is instead a disc, or a single infinite plane. The conspiracy often implicates NASA. Other claims include that GPS devices are rigged to make aircraft pilots wrongly believe they are flying around a globe.

Radio frequency identification chips (RFID), such as those implanted into pets as a means of tracking, have drawn the interest of conspiracy theorists who posit that this technology is secretly widely implanted in humans. Former Whitby, England town councilor Simon Parkes has promoted this theory, which may be related to conspiracy theories concerning vaccination, electronic banking and the Antichrist.

Technology suppression

Numerous theories pertain to the alleged suppression of certain technologies and energies. Such theories may focus on the Vril Society Conspiracy, allegations of the suppression of the electric car by fossil-fuel companies (as detailed in the 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?), and the Phoebus cartel, set up in 1924, which has been accused of suppressing longer-lasting light bulbs. Other long-standing allegations include the suppression of perpetual motion and cold fusion technology by government agencies, special interest groups, or fraudulent inventors.

Promoters of alternative energy theories have included Thomas Henry Moray, Eugene Mallove, and convicted American fraudster Stanley Meyer.

Conspiracy theorists often attend to new military technologies, both real and imagined. Subjects of theories include: the alleged Philadelphia Experiment, a supposed attempt to turn a US Navy warship invisible;[unreliable source? ] the alleged Montauk Project, a supposed government program to learn about mind control and time travel; and the so-called " tsunami bomb", which is alleged to have caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Other theories include Peter Vogel's debunked claim that an accidental explosion of conventional munitions at Port Chicago was in fact a nuclear detonation, and a theory promoted by the Venezuelan state-run TV station ViVe that the 2010 Haiti earthquake was caused by a secret US "earthquake weapon".

Targeted Individuals

The "Targeted Individual" phenomenon has been featured on episodes of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura and History Channel's In Search Of....

False history

Some theories claim that the dates of historical events have been deliberately distorted. These include the phantom time hypothesis of German conspiracy theorist[citation needed ][original research? ] Heribert Illig, who in 1991 published an allegation that 297 years had been added to the calendar by establishment figures such as Pope Sylvester II in order to position themselves at the millennium.

Dead Internet theory

Boxing has featured in conspiracy theories, such as the claims that the second Ali-Liston fight and the first Bradley- Pacquiao fight were fixed.

Rigged selection processes

The "frozen envelope theory" suggests that the National Basketball Association rigged its 1985 draft lottery so that Patrick Ewing would join the New York Knicks. Theorists claim that a lottery envelope was chilled so that it could be identified by touch. A similar "hot balls theory", promoted by Scottish football manager David Moyes, suggests that certain balls used in draws for UEFA competitions have been warmed to achieve specific outcomes.

1984 Firecracker 400

The 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida, was the first NASCAR race to be attended by a sitting US president, Ronald Reagan, and was driver Richard Petty's 200th and final career victory. Rival driver Cale Yarborough's premature retirement to the pit road has prompted conspiracy theorists to allege that organizers fixed the race in order to receive good publicity for the event.

Ronaldo and the 1998 World Cup Final

On the day of the 1998 World Cup Final, Brazilian striker Ronaldo suffered a convulsive fit. Ronaldo was initially removed from the starting lineup 72 minutes before the match, with the teamsheet released to a stunned world media, before he was reinstated by the Brazil coach shortly before kick off. Ronaldo "sleepwalked" through the final, with France winning the game. The nature of the incident set off a trail of questions and allegations which persisted for years, with Alex Bellos writing in The Guardian, "When Ronaldo's health scare was revealed after the match, the situation's unique circumstances lent itself to fabulous conspiracy theories. Here was the world's most famous sportsman, about to take part in the most important match of his career, when he suddenly, inexplicably, fell ill. Was it stress, epilepsy, or had he been drugged?" Questions also circulated into who made Ronaldo play the game. The Brazil coach insisted he had the final say, but much speculation focused on sportswear company Nike, Brazil's multimillion-dollar sponsor-whom many Brazilians thought had too much control-putting pressure on the striker to play against medical advice.

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots have also been involved in numerous conspiracy theories. During their AFC Championship 24-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, several conspiracy theories spread stating that the referees helped the Patriots advance to Super Bowl LII. However, sports analyst Stephen A. Smith stated the Jaguars were not robbed, but that they had no one to blame but themselves for the loss. There were also conspiracy theories regarding the Super Bowl LI matchup between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons stating that the game was rigged while others said the Falcons made questionable play-calls at the end of the game that resulted in them blowing a 28-3 lead.

References

Bibliography

Further reading

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This is a list of conspiracy theories that are notable. Many conspiracy theories relate to supposed clandestine government plans and elaborate murder plots. Conspiracy theories usually deny consensus opinion and cannot be proven using historical or scientific methods, and are not to be confused with research concerning verified conspiracies such as Germany's pretense for invading Poland in World War II.

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Remember, we're looking for school-appropriate theories, and any project proposal must be approved by your teacher.

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Defending Trump, Ramaswamy Rattles Off Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories

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Vivek Ramaswamy called the Jan. 6 attack an “inside job,” claimed that the 2020 election was stolen by “big tech” and suggested that the “great replacement theory” was Democratic policy.

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These are the resources we've used so far in class. They might be helpful resources for identifying background or identifying theories you are interested in.

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Why So Many People Believe Taylor Swift Is An Op

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Why So Many People Believe Taylor Swift Is An Op

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As weird as the conspiracy theory may sound, it's just a few short hops away from a rather popular way of thinking about culture.

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You'd have to go back to the peak years of Bob Dylan's cultural relevance, when one critic cum stalker started searching the songwriter's garbage for clues about his lyrics, to find a musician who attracts as many amateur code breakers as Taylor Swift does. Swift has fed the frenzy by declaring that her songs, her liner notes, her social-media posts-basically everything around her-might have hidden meanings embedded in them. As she told The Washington Post in 2022, she and her fans have "descended into color coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and Easter eggs."

That scavenger-hunt mentality can lead would-be decoders in directions the singer might not prefer, as with the "Gaylors" who search for signals that Swift is secretly queer. Now a different subculture is getting in on the act: A chunk of the GOP has been conjuring alleged evidence that Swift is a deep-state psy-op, and that maybe-we're just asking questions here-the NFL is in on it.

This theory got its first burst of mainstream attention last month, when Fox's Jesse Watters aired a video that, he claimed, shows that "the Pentagon psychological-operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset." The person speaking in the video was not in fact from the Pentagon, she was citing Swift as a generic example of celebrity influence, and this all happened years after Swift became super popular anyway, but Watters still seemed to think it might explain "why or how she blew up like this." He then interviewed a former FBI agent, who said that Joe Biden's presidential campaign would like Swift's support ( which is true) and that she could move substantial numbers of votes into Biden's column (which is not the track record that pop-music endorsements have historically had in American politics).

The psy-op rumor mutated into its most infamous form a few weeks later. Vivek Ramaswamy, until recently a presidential candidate himself, posted on X, "I wonder who's going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there's a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let's see how it ages over the next 8 months."

Yes, that was a reference to Swift and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. I've heard many ruminations over the years about both rigged elections and rigged Super Bowls, but this might be the first time I've seen someone imply that plotters might rig an election by rigging the Super Bowl.
Helen Lewis: Travis Kelce is another puzzle for Taylor Swift fans to crack
Other than that new wrinkle, though, none of this is unprecedented. In fact, as weird as the psy-op story may sound, it's just a few short hops away from a rather popular way of thinking about culture. To hear some people tell it, pretty much all pop is an op.

Conspiracy theories about the music industry come in many flavors. A century ago, to give one of the uglier examples, Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent claimed that a "Jewish combine" was suppressing gentile music and promoting jazz. " Popular music is a Jewish monopoly," the paper declared in 1921. "Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, the slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin."

You didn't have to be a Ford-style bigot to suspect that a cabal was behind the music you disliked. In 1958, Vance Packard-the author of The Hidden Persuaders, a best-selling attack on the advertising industry- testified to the U.S. Senate that "the public was manipulated into liking rock and roll" and that "the rock and roll, hillbilly, and Latin American movements were largely engineered, manipulated for the interests of the [music-licensing group] BMI." When a Michigan senator objected that many of his constituents genuinely like hillbilly music, Packard agreeably replied, "I like some of it too, but I think the quality of it lately has been degenerating."

The psychedelic '60s gave us such pamphlets as David A. Noebel's Communism, Hypnotism, and the Beatles (which claimed that the Kremlin was using the Fab Four to induce "artificial neurosis" in the American child) and Gary Allen's That Music: There's More to It Than Meets the Ear (which speculated that the Beatles' music was "put together by behavioral scientists in some 'think tank'"). Then came the backmasking panic that peaked in the '80s, when a horde of ministers, teachers, broadcasters, and legislators became convinced that conspirators were inserting backwards satanic messages into rock records, where they would subliminally lead young listeners to Lucifer.

But the most popular devil theory of music might be the suspicion that the industry itself is one big, sprawling maze of conspiracy, a suspicion that owes much of its popularity to the fact that there is a lot of truth to it. The music world is indeed filled with secret plots, though they tend to be more petty than grand: People have conspired over the years to bribe DJs, rip off artists' royalties, juke the stats at streaming services, and otherwise engage in the sometimes-sordid business of manufacturing hits and scooping up all they can of the profits. And God knows the industry's PR machines can be fountains of lies. So, yes: Music marketers operate behind the scenes to create an image and sell it, and sometimes they cut some ethical corners in the process.

Those facts have fed a more dubious intuition, one that imagines the public as a passive receptacle for the culture industry's output, robotically consuming whatever products are pressed onto us. When Packard spoke with those senators, much of his testimony involved plausible claims about backroom business practices. But he also declared that the industry could, if it wanted, "make us all start humming chants of zinc miners or marching tunes from the War of 1812." In this vision, the marketers are not simply slippery but all-powerful. It's ops all the way down.

If you believe that marketers have unlocked the secret to inducing demand for unwanted goods, it's not difficult to extend the story's cast of characters to include the national-security state, the White House, or any other villain you please. Indeed, covert forces sometimes do try to insert themselves into popular culture, as when the Pentagon offers moviemakers access to its personnel and materiel in exchange for script approval. When people learn about those real propaganda pushes, it expands the range of hidden operations they're willing to imagine.
Stephanie Burt: Taylor Swift at Harvard
But those puppet-master storylines greatly overstate the audience's malleability. Viva Brother, the Cats movie-there are countless examples of relentlessly hyped musical products that failed to sell, the New Cokes of the sonic world. And it's not plausible that the industry would be any better at selling nonmusical products, such as presidential candidates.

Not even the most advanced Pentagon program can reliably guide what cultural products we'll buy or what messages we'll take away from them. If Taylor Swift really were an op, I doubt she'd be a terribly effective one. It's true that when she shared a link to Vote.org on National Voter Registration Day last year, the website saw a spike in registrations, though the size of that spike is often exaggerated. (No, she did not single-handedly cause more than 35,000 people to register.) But there is a difference between getting people to fill out a short form online and getting them to the polls, let alone getting them to vote your way.

A more realistic look at Swift's likely impact came late last month, when a Newsweek survey found that 18 percent of voters say they're more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift-and 17 percent are less likely to vote for someone she endorses. That one-point gap was well within the margin of error, so you shouldn't count on it to tip Georgia into Biden's hands. I don't want to tell the Illuminati how to do their job, but surely there are better reasons to rig the Super Bowl than that.

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Taylor Swift Is Just the Latest Subject in a Long History of Pop Conspiracy Theories

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As weird as the conspiracy theory may sound, it's just a few short hops away from a rather popular way of thinking about culture.

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NPR Politics Podcast About Conspiracy Theories

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NPR Politics Podcast About Conspiracy Theories

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Taylor Swift & overview of Conspiracy Theories begins at minute 10:30

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Every weekday, NPR’s best political reporters are there to explain the big news coming out of Washington and the campaign trail. They don’t just tell you what happened. They tell you why it matters. Every afternoon.Political wonks - get wonkier with The NPR Politics Podcast+. Your subscription suppo…

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On the morning of December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a warehouse worker and a father of two from Salisbury, North Carolina, told his family that he had a few things to do; loaded an AR-15, a .38-calibre revolver, and a folding knife into his car; and headed for Washington, D.C. Welch's intention, he later told police, was to "self-investigate" a plot featuring-in no particular order-Hillary Clinton, sex trafficking, satanic rituals, and pizza.

At around 3 P.M., Welch arrived at Comet Ping Pong, a restaurant in Chevy Chase, where, he believed, children were being held in a network of tunnels. He made his way to the kitchen, shot open a locked door, and discovered cooking utensils. In an interview from jail, a few days later, he acknowledged to the Times, "The intel on this wasn't a hundred percent." He'd found no captive children in the restaurant's basement; in fact, as many accounts of the incident noted, Comet Ping Pong doesn't even have a basement.

Far from being dissuaded by the new "intel," believers in what had become known as Pizzagate dug in. Welch had dabbled in acting-he'd appeared as a victim in a low-budget slasher movie-thus, it followed, his raid on the restaurant had been staged. That the plotters had gone to such lengths to cover their tracks showed just how much evil there was to hide. "This shit runs very deep," a contributor to the subreddit thread r/Conspiracy wrote. All the while, the restaurant's owner was receiving death threats.

Some ten months after the incident at Comet Ping Pong, a prediction surfaced on the Web that Clinton would soon be arrested. "Expect massive riots organized in defiance," an anonymous poster, Q, warned on the message board 4chan. Other prophecies followed: Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, would also be arrested; members of the media would be "jailed as deep cover agents"; there would be a Twitter blackout heralding a government purge.

As Q's prophecies failed, more converts were won over. QAnon, as Q's world view came to be known, subsumed-or, if you prefer, consumed-Pizzagate, and then it, too, slunk off the Web and into the world. Last June, an unemployed former marine named Matthew Wright parked a home-built armored truck on the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which spans the Colorado River on the border of Arizona and Nevada. Wright, who, like Welch, was armed with an AR-15 and a handgun, blocked traffic for almost ninety minutes before surrendering to police. At one point, he held up a sign that said "Release the OIG report," a reference to another QAnon prediction, involving the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General. Following his arrest, Wright wrote a letter to the White House saying that he "simply wanted the truth on behalf of all Americans, all of humanity for that matter."

America has always had a weakness for paranoid fantasies. According to some historians, the Founding Fathers were moved to write the Declaration of Independence by groundless fears of a British plot. " Conspiracy Theories in American History," a two-volume encyclopedia, runs from "Abolitionism" to " ZOG." ( ZOG, an acronym used by survivalists, is shorthand for the "Zionist Occupied Government," which, the encyclopedia explains, refers to an "international Jewish conspiracy to undermine U.S. sovereignty and true Christianity.") In between are some three hundred entries, including "Black Helicopters," "Contrails," "Illuminati," "Moon Landings," "Pan Am 103," and "Roswell."

In this context, Pizzagate and QAnon could be considered madness as usual-just two late-alphabet entries in the annals of national crankdom. But is that all there is to it? Or are deeper, darker forces at work? A confirmed conspiracist now occupies the White House and, "no collusion" notwithstanding, there's evidence that an international conspiracy put him there. Coincidence? To paraphrase Q, perhaps it's time to "expand our thinking."

Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum are professors of government at, respectively, Dartmouth and Harvard. A few years ago, they found themselves, in their words, "startled into thought." Yes, they knew, crazy ideas were a fixture of American life. But not this crazy. "The subject required more detailed and thoughtful interpretation," the two write at the beginning of " A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy."

"Classic" conspiracy theories, according to Muirhead and Rosenblum, arise in response to real events-the assassination of John F. Kennedy, say, or the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Such theories, they argue, constitute a form of explanation, however inaccurate they may be. What sets theories like QAnon apart is a lack of interest in explanation. Indeed, as with the nonexistent child-trafficking ring being run out of the nonexistent basement, "there is often nothing to explain." The professors observe, "The new conspiracism sometimes seems to arise out of thin air."

The constituency, too, has shifted. Historically, Muirhead and Rosenblum maintain, it's been out-of-power groups that have been drawn to tales of secret plots. Today, it's those in power who insist the game is rigged, and no one more insistently than the so-called leader of the free world.

Donald Trump got his start in national politics as a "birther," promoting the idea that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. Several news organizations have tried to keep track of the conspiracy theories Trump has floated since then. One list, posted by the Web site Business Insider, has nineteen entries. These include the claims that vaccines can cause autism and that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may have been murdered.

"They're saying they found the pillow on his face," Trump said of Scalia, during the 2016 campaign, "which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow." (The Business Insider list is limited to full-blown conspiracy theories, and excludes the President's more casual lies and fabrications.) "No president-indeed, no national official-has resorted to accusations of conspiracy so instinctively, so frequently, and with such brio as Donald Trump," Muirhead and Rosenblum write.

With Trump in power, they worry, there's a danger that his dark fantasies may be realized. Democracies depend on buy-in; citizens need to believe in certain basics, starting with the legitimacy of elections. Trump both runs the government and runs it down. The electoral system, he asserts, can't be trusted. Voter fraud is rampant. His contempt for institutions ranging from the courts ("slow and political") to the Federal Communications Commission ("so sad and unfair") to the F.B.I. ("What are they hiding?") weakens those institutions, thereby justifying his contempt. As government agencies "lose competence and capacity, they will come to look more and more illegitimate to more and more people," Muirhead and Rosenblum observe.

Trump is so closely tied to the "new conspiracism" that it can be hard to tell the ranter from the rant. Then again, it's hard to imagine his ascent without other key developments: the polarization of the electorate, a generation of attacks (mostly from the right) on the news media and government, and, of course, the rise of the Web. Spreading conspiracy theories once had a price-printing or even mimeographing a tract costs money-but now, as Muirhead and Rosenblum point out, anyone can post a madcap theory or a doctored photograph virtually for free.

The Internet revolution "has displaced the gatekeepers, the producers, editors, and scholars who decided what was worthy of dissemination," they write. This has opened the way for "conspiracy entrepreneurs" who proffer "a seemingly infinite array of wild accusations."

Is it possible to make a rigorous study of conspiracy theories? The task seems self-punishing, like trying to housebreak a chicken. Nevertheless, this is the mission that Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent have chosen to take on. Research into conspiracy theories "has been hampered by a lack of long-term systematic data," Uscinski and Parent, political scientists at the University of Miami and the University of Notre Dame, respectively, write in " American Conspiracy Theories." Fortunately, "methods are now available to better scrutinize what we think we know."

One of these methods is polling. Uscinski and Parent commissioned a survey of more than twelve hundred Americans, which asked them to react to statements like "Much of our lives are being controlled by plots hatched in secret places." On the basis of their answers, respondents were sorted into three groups: "high" (those predisposed to conspiratorial thinking), "low" (those opposed to it), and "medium" (those in the middle). Then the researchers looked at the cross-tabulations. The less educated the respondent, the more likely he or she was to be a "high." The poor tended to be more conspiratorially inclined than the rich. Roughly equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans were given to conspiracizing, but among respondents who identified with neither party the proportion jumped.

The conspiracy-minded, Uscinski and Parent conclude, "deserve their reputation as outsiders." They are less likely to vote and more apt to view bloodshed as a form of political protest. While eighty per cent of the "lows" rejected the idea that "violence is sometimes an acceptable way to express disagreement with the government," among the "highs" that figure dropped to fifty-nine per cent. "It is disconcerting that, when asked about gun control, around half of those with higher conspiratorial predispositions wanted less strict gun laws," Uscinski and Parent observe.

For more long-term data, they turned to newspapers. A battery of assistants sifted through more than a hundred years' worth of letters to the editor published in the Times and in the Chicago Tribune. Letters that referred to any sort of group acting in secret "at the expense of the common good" were coded as "conspiracy talk." (No effort was made to distinguish between "talk" about actual conspiracies, e.g., Watergate, and baseless speculation.) The groups denounced in such missives included the usual suspects-Catholics, Communists, Jews, the United Nations-as well as more surprising targets: ice companies, Lutheran newspapers, the Senate printing office, and the Prime Minister of Malta. The schemes, too, ranged all over the diabolical map, from Herbert Hoover's secret business deals to bankrupt the U.S. to a C.I.A. plot to spread lesbianism.

When Uscinski and Parent tallied the number of conspiracy-coded letters published each year, they found no twenty-first-century surge in paranoid thinking. On the contrary, averaging out the short-term ups and downs, they conclude that the amount of "conspiracy talk" has remained constant since the nineteen-sixties and has actually declined since the eighteen-nineties: "We do not live in an age of conspiracy theories and have not for some time." That we believe we do makes sense, since that sentiment, too, is a constant.

"It's official: America is becoming a conspiratocracy," the Daily News announced in 2011. "Are we living in a golden age of conspiracy theory?" the Boston Globe wondered in 2004. It's the "dawn of a new age of conspiracy theory," the Washington Post declared in 1994.

"Presumably we could multiply examples back to Salem in 1692, but you understand the point," Uscinski and Parent write. "Conspiracy scares are ubiquitous." According to their analysis, short-term variations in the rate of conspiracy theorizing do not coincide with changing economic conditions or advances in technology, like the Web.

Such is their take on "scares" that it's hard to imagine them finding anything new in the "new conspiracism." Still, when it comes to paranoia in high places, they share some of Muirhead and Rosenblum's concerns. When there's an uptick in conspiracy theorizing by members of the "élite"-defined as government officials, entertainers, and journalists-they observe a corresponding uptick in paranoid theorizing more generally. "This means you, Donald Trump," they write.

In 2015, a young journalist named Anna Merlan took a cruise to Mexico. Most of the passengers on board the ship, the Ruby Princess, were ordinary vacationers, but a significant minority had signed on for a cruise-within-a-cruise, dubbed by its organizers Conspira-Sea. The Conspira-Sea crowd was treated to lectures from various "experts," including Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose bogus studies launched the anti-vaxx movement. When Merlan returned to shore, she wrote a lighthearted feature about the experience, for the Web site Jezebel, in which she poked fun at the Conspira-Sea-ers for having lost touch with reality. Then Trump was elected and Edgar Welch showed up with his guns at Comet Ping Pong. Merlan decided that perhaps she was the one who was out of touch.

In " Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power," Merlan immerses herself in various subcultures of suspicion. She visits a gathering of white nationalists in eastern Kentucky; attends the annual meeting of the Mutual U.F.O. Network, known as MUFON; and hangs out with proponents of "redemption theory," a strain of nuttiness based on the idea that every American is owed a cache of cash held secretly by the government. One of her first stops is a rally of Pizzagate diehards in Lafayette Park, not far from the White House. This takes place in March, 2017, three months after Welch's arrest. Merlan finds the crowd split into factions, each convinced that the other is made up of plants. She's interviewing a woman who wants to be known as LaLa when she notices a man filming them with his phone. The man accuses LaLa of belonging to the "controlled opposition." He, in turn, is approached by other phone-wielding demonstrators and charged with working to undermine the cause.

"You're protecting child molesters, bro," someone yells at him. But who's supposed to be doing the controlling or why is never quite clear. "It seems that the core element from everyone inside this 'movement' is distrust for everyone around them," LaLa relates to Merlan. "Nobody knows who's on whose side, or what the truth is."

Merlan encounters this dynamic frequently. People who believe conspiracy theories, it turns out, often suspect others who believe such theories of being crazy, or worse. At the MUFON conference, just outside Las Vegas, a speaker named Corey Goode, an eminent figure in the world of ufology, describes how, as a kid, he was taken to an underground facility at Carswell Air Force Base, in Texas, and trained to fight aliens. Later, Goode maintains, he roamed around the solar system doing "surveillance and recon," until, finally, his government handlers performed "age regression" and sent him back home, once again as a child. Another U.F.O. researcher at the convention, Richard Dolan, tells Merlan he's worried about claims like Goode's, which "aren't particularly credible." Like the crowd in Lafayette Park, Dolan is concerned about plants, who he fears are out to undermine the whole ufology enterprise. History, he observes, is "replete with provocateurs and disinformation coming from U.S. government channels."

Americans, as Merlan notes, have long suspected the government of suppressing the truth about extraterrestrials-such suspicions probably predate the term "extraterrestrial." Other conspiracy theories, she observes, have even deeper roots. The charge of ritual child abuse, key to Pizzagate, was levelled against the Jews back in the Middle Ages. It has surfaced many times since, including during what's become known as the Satanic Panic-a rash of allegations that sent more than twenty Californians to prison in the nineteen-eighties. (Virtually all the convictions have since been overturned.) Conspiracism, Merlan concludes, has "more or less always been with us": pizza-parlor workers have simply replaced day-care workers, who replaced Jews.

But she also makes the opposite point. Like Muirhead and Rosenblum, Merlan believes that something novel and dangerous is going on right now. In her account, Trump gets a lot of the credit (or, if you prefer, the blame) and so, too, does the Internet. Merlan cites the Columbine shooting, which took place in 1999, "before the age of YouTube, easily buildable blogs, and widely used social media platforms."After the shooting, no one came forward to propose that Columbine had been staged. Today, it is pretty much guaranteed that a mass shooting will give rise to a community on the Web that insists the victims are "crisis actors." Merlan interviews Lenny Pozner, a former I.T. consultant whose six-year-old son, Noah, died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in 2012. Pozner has spent most of the past six years battling conspiracists who insist that the shooting never happened and that Noah never even existed. (In February, a Connecticut judge ordered Alex Jones, the owner of the Web site Infowars and a leading purveyor of the Sandy Hook-as-hoax theory, to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit brought by the parents of slain children. In the deposition, in March, Jones claimed that a "form of psychosis" had made him believe the massacre was staged.)

"This category of recent conspiracy theorists is really a global network of village idiots," Pozner tells Merlan. "They would have never been able to find each other before, but now it's this synergistic effect of the combination of all of them from all over the world. There are haters from Australia and Europe and they can all make a YouTube video in fifteen seconds."

During the 2016 Presidential election, Zeynep Tufekci was watching tapes of Trump rallies when she noticed something odd. Tufekci, an associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a self-described techno-sociologist, found that YouTube began cuing up for her videos filled with racist diatribes and Holocaust denials. She wondered what was going on, so she created another account and began watching clips of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This time, she found herself directed to what she later described in the Times as "videos of a leftish conspiratorial cast," including some that argued that the U.S. government was responsible for the attacks of September 11th.

Tufekci concluded that YouTube had decided that the best way to hold viewers' attention was to push them toward more and more sensational material. The motive wasn't political; it was commercial. And probably the scheme wasn't the work of a cabal, or even a person, but of an algorithm. "What we are witnessing is the computational exploitation of a natural human desire: to look 'behind the curtain,' " Tufekci wrote.

At a minimum, what's new about the "new conspiracism" is the number of people exposed to it. If there's a "natural human desire" to get at some hidden truth, it's never been easier to indulge that desire-or to imagine doing so-via YouTube or Infowars or Twitter. It's unclear how many of those who are led to posts on the "truth" about 9/11 or listen to Alex Jones or follow Trump's tweets actually believe what they encounter, but only a tiny fraction can create a very big problem; after all, almost two billion people click on YouTube videos every month. In a tacit acknowledgment of responsibility, Pinterest blocked vaccine-related searches on its sites after measles outbreaks in several states this winter. Facebook, too, recently said that it would "reduce the ranking of groups or Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations." In January, without ever explaining how its "up next" algorithm works, YouTube announced that it would "begin reducing recommendations of borderline content," including videos "making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11."

Meanwhile, Pizzagate stumbles on. A couple of months ago, another man was arrested in connection with Comet Ping Pong-this one for setting fire to the place. ♦

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On the morning of December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a warehouse worker and a father of two from Salisbury, North Carolina, told his family that he had a few things to do; loaded an AR-15, a .38-calibre revolver, and a folding knife into his car; and headed for Washington, D.C.

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These resources about skepticism may be very helpful for you in your work today.

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How Skepticism Can Help Fight Radicalism

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How Skepticism Can Help Fight Radicalism

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How skepticism can fight radicalism, conspiracy theorists, and Holocaust deniers | Michael Shermer

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This is a really helpful archive of a podcast that digs into conspiracy theories among other things. It's a great resource.

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2022 Year in Review
with Guest Rogue: Ian Callanan
Best Science of the YearBest SGU Segments of the YearSkeptical Hero of the YearSkeptical Jackass of the YearIn MemoriumScience or Fiction

What's the Word: GeophonyNews Items: Artemis I Launch, Skin-Like Electronics, Homoploid Sympatric Speciation, Lab Grown Blood, Water Meteorite
Who's That NoisyScience or Fiction

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Podcasts | The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

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2022 Year in Review with Guest Rogue: Ian Callanan Best Science of the YearBest SGU Segments of the YearSkeptical Hero of the YearSkeptical Jackass of the YearIn MemoriumScience or Fiction What's the Word: GeophonyNews Items: Artemis I Launch, Skin-Like Electronics, Homoploid Sympatric Speciation, Lab Grown Blood, Water Meteorite Who's That NoisyScience or Fiction

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Fetters will introduce the resources for the day

Discuss & Questions

Students will spend 30 minutes reading/watching/listening to the various resources on the padlet.

By our next meeting, all students will have a conspiracy theory identified which will be their research topic!

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The NESS - New England Skeptical Society

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The New England Skeptical Society is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1996 to promote science and reason. Blogs NeuroLogicaBlog is a daily blog authored by NESS president, Steven Novella, covering science, skepticism, neuroscience, and critical thinking. Science-Based M