Top 20 Biggest Conspiracy Theories of All Time
#20: National Hidden Treasure
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It’s a very poorly-kept secret that there’s a hidden room behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. It’s actually true! This has led some to theorize that it houses proof of alien life or treasure! The intent behind the area is anything but sinister, though. The original sculptor for the Monument, Gutzon Borglum, wanted to create something he called the “Hall of Records” to house the recorded history of the United States for generations to come. Although Borglum only finished a tunnel during his lifetime, his daughter collaborated with the Mount Rushmore Society to build a vault with a visual history of the U.S., told through 16 porcelain enamel panels. It’s sealed off and not open to the public.
#19: Illuminati at the Denver Airport
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The design of the Denver International Airport is certainly unique and a bit…well, strange. We’re talking about a blue horse with glowing red eyes, intense murals and a gargoyle that greets guests Oh, and did we mention a time capsule with a Freemasons symbol on the granite seal? Conspiracy theorists argue that the Freemasons have ties to the Illuminati and a New World Order. The new airport was dedicated in 1994, and rumors persist to this day about how the area isn’t only a hub for passengers and travel, but for the Illuminati and other secret organizations.
#18: Shakespeare Didn’t Write All His Plays
Did the most famous playwright of all time even exist? Well, yes, he did. But according to this theory, he didn’t write his plays, at least not all of them. Some people claim that William Shakespeare was just a pen name used by various different writers. Then there are others who hold to the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, which claims that the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, actually wrote the Bard’s work. These alternative authorship theories have gained some traction due to the lack of biographical information about Shakespeare’s life, but are generally disregarded by English historians.
#17; Lost Cosmonauts
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Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey to outer space…or was he? According to the Lost or Phantom Cosmonauts conspiracy theory, Gargarin was the first human to survive the journey, but he was not the first sent to space. Allegedly, the Soviet Union launched at least two unsuccessful manned space flights before Gargarin’s. However, any information about these flights was concealed from the public because of the ongoing Cold War. Although most of the state’s formerly restricted information has become available since the collapse of the USSR, there has been little uncovered to support this particular theory.
#16: Paul Is Dead
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If you’re a diehard fan of the Beatles, then you’re probably quite familiar with this conspiracy theory: that Beatles bassist Paul McCartney is actually dead, and was replaced in the band with a double. Those who believe this theory often claim that the Beatles hid subliminal and backmasked messages in their songs as proof (more on those later). In songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever," there’s a line where John Lennon supposedly says, "I buried Paul." Then there’s "Revolution 9," a song from the band’s “White Album” that, when played backwards, is supposed to say, "turn me on, dead man." Is it there? Maybe, but spoiler alert, Paul McCartney is very much alive.
#15: HIV/AIDS Created by the C.I.A.
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It’s human nature to look for someone to blame in horrible situations. The HIV/AIDS crisis was just one of those moments in American history. Conspiracy theories persisted that the CIA invented the virus intentionally, to attack homosexual and African-American communities. Although this wasn’t true, it does possess links to a real disinformation campaign propagated by the Soviet Union in the 1980s known as Operation INFEKTION. The intention was to implicate the United States as purveyors of biowarfare, by claiming they’d developed HIV/AIDS in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Today, Operation INFEKTION is seen largely as a way to deflect similar accusations against the U.S.S.R. over their own biowarfare operations.
#14: Satanic Panic
In the 1980s, a moral panic swept through the US, spread by now discredited psychological practices and false accusations. Many people became convinced that Satan worshippers were all around them, practicing ritual abuse on hapless victims. A lot of the hysteria came from conservatice religious reactions to the popularity of heavy metal music and role-playing games like “Dungeons & Dragons''. The panic led to numerous accusations of ritual abuse in daycare centres, culminating in the infamous McMartin Preschool Trial. Today, it lives on in new forms, such as the far-right QAnon movement, which targets celebrities and Democrats instead.
#13: James Earl Ray Was Framed
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The death of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was a devastating loss that left many questions unanswered. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in a Memphis motel, purportedly by James Earl Ray. However, Ray’s motivations have always remained hazy. This has led to theories that someone else was involved - for example, the FBI, who were running a smear campaign against King. Ray later recanted his confession, leading some to question whether he was even the shooter at all - including King’s family. Given the number of enemies King had, we may never know the truth for sure.
#12: Water Fluoridation for Mind Control
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Fluoride helps make human teeth stronger, but some people believe that the government is putting fluoride in drinking water for another reason – to sap away our mental strength and control the population. In the 1940s, many conspiracy theorists became convinced that fluoride was part of a communist plot to take over America! Proponents have since claimed that the Nazis used fluoride to pacify people in concentration camps during World War II. While a minority of scientists do oppose water fluoridation, it isn’t based on any of these wild claims, which lack any evidence.
#11: Zionist Occupation Government Conspiracy Theory
The idea that a Jewish cabal runs the world goes all the way back to a fabricated document, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which outlined a fake plan for global domination. It was a hoax, but antisemitism has kept the idea alive. The theory achieved new popularity in the mid 90s, in part thanks to the efforts of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group from Idaho. These days, it comes in many forms, from claiming that Jewish people run the entertainment industry, to denying the horrors of World War II. It’s a strange, but tragically true glimpse into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
#10: Advance Warning of Pearl Harbor
The U.S. government has been the target of several conspiracy theories throughout its history, with one of the biggest revolving around Pearl Harbor. This theory suggests that President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew about the planned Japanese attack in December 1941, but decided not to act, because he needed an excuse to get the Americans into the Second World War. The theory gained some traction because the American public and Congress were overwhelmingly against joining the conflict at the time, but it has largely been dismissed by historians.
#9: The Earth Is Flat
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The world is of course round, something that even the ancient Greeks figured out. There’s plenty of proof: commercial airline flights; time zones; images from space; and so many more. However, a small but vocal minority of people still believe the Earth is flat, spreading their ideas on social media platforms. While the Flat Earth Society has flourished online, its first iteration was founded back in 1956 by Samuel Shenton, a sign writer who created his own cosmology, partly based on the Bible. Today, some proponents even argue that Australia doesn’t exist. We guess Hugh Jackman really is a hell of an actor.
#8: The “Stolen” Election
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After Joe Biden won the 2020 US election, Donald Trump and allies campaigned to overturn the results. Alleging widespread fraud, Trump claimed that Biden was staging a “coup”. His legal team filed dozens of lawsuits, which were dismissed, and claimed that voting machines had been rigged - an accusation contradicted by hand recounts. Some of Trump’s allies even recommended that he suspend the Constitution and declare martial law. QAnon fuelled the fires, arguing that the “Deep State” was backing Biden, but that Trump would be re-inaugurated in March 2021. The campaign culminated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, when rioters stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead. It was a dark lesson in how deadly disinformation can be.
#7: Adolf Hitler Escaped to Argentina
A number of conspiracy theories are attached to famous figures in history, and Adolf Hitler is no different. With the Allies closing in and the war all but over, Hitler took his own life in his bunker with his wife, Eva Braun. British authors Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams have a different theory about Hitler’s end, however – they believe that the Fuhrer didn’t actually kill himself, but rather escaped to Argentina with Eva, and body doubles were shot instead. According to their book, “Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler,” the married couple settled down and had two daughters in South America before dying in 1962. This idea has been widely dismissed by historians, who claim that the theory has no substance.
#6: Roswell & Area 51
Many of us are anxious for more information about life beyond the stars. And some conspiracy theories think we can find answers in the Roswell incident and US Air Force base Area 51. They believe that an actual flying saucer crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico back in 1947, and not a surveillance balloon as the US army claims. There’s also a widespread belief that Area 51 holds the remains of the crashed aliens, as well as alien tech. The theories have gotten traction in part thanks to the fact that Area 51 is a highly classified Air Force facility, with the testing, training, and development that occurs inside kept secret from the public.
#5: World Leaders Are Lizard People [aka Reptilians]
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Who runs the world? Lizards! At least, according to English former footballer and sports broadcaster David Icke! After he visited a psychic, he decided that he was “the son of the Godhead”, predicted natural disasters that never happened, dove head-first into antisemitic conspiracies, and most famously, proclaimed that the world was being run by shapeshifting lizards! Many of these reptiles are supposedly people in positions of power - including the entire Royal Family! They are 7 to 12 feet tall and come from a different planet.
#4: Global Warming Is a Hoax
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A scientific consensus around climate change began to form back in the 1980s, in part thanks to discoveries by researchers working for fossil fuel companies! Since then, fossil fuel companies have spent billions of dollars on climate-related lobbying, and have been accused by activists of manufacturing doubt about scientific research. Today, the scientific consensus that human activities are warming the climate is greater than 99%. But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from arguing that it’s all a trick - one that involves basically all the world’s climate scientists playing along. The theory takes various forms, with some arguing that it’s a liberal plot to introduce socialism, others that it’s linked to a bid for global governance, and others that China is behind it all!
#3: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
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The murder of the 35th US President by former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 shocked the nation and left imaginations running wild. Even today, questions continue to linger. Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone, or was there another shooter? Did someone put him up to it? Why did nightclub owner Jack Ruby kill Oswald while he was in police custody? What were Ruby’s connections to organized crime? These questions and more have obsessed historians, true crime buffs, and ordinary citizens alike, and if there was a conspiracy involved, we may never know.
#2: The Moon Landing Was Faked
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It seems too strange for words, but the theories are there: did the United States fake its famed moon landing back in 1969? Some people think so, to the point where such ideas were dramatized in the 1978 thriller “Capricorn One,” as well as the 2015 comedy “Moonwalkers.” The latter expands upon a unique theory that famed director Stanley Kubrick was hired to film the footage that would eventually be part of the Apollo. This idea is thought to have been tied to Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and its groundbreaking special effects. Of course, this is all despite rock-solid evidence to the contrary, including astronaut tracks and American flags still planted on the moon’s surface.
#1: The New World Order
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In a sense, it’s a soothing thought, because it makes everything so simple: a complicated world full of rival factions with different interests is really run by just one cabal who’s behind them all. The New World Order idea works like a Theory of Everything, stitching together various other theories into one all-encompassing framework. But at its heart is the idea that a small circle of powerful elites are pulling all the strings, aiming to establish a totalitarian world government. It’s a neat way to explain real trends today, such as mass surveillance, income inequality, and a global shift away from democracy. Naturally, the Illuminati and/or the Freemasons are involved. Probably flying back and forth out of Denver Airport.
