We wish to extend our warmest welcome to all our readers! We are very pleased to show you our newest joint venture – a blog exploring the world’s most fascinating conspiracy theories. Anyone has heard at least a dozen of theories, and if you’re into that stuff, we have a lot to deliver.
We hope to become your go-to place for the most popular, as well as the most obscure conspiracy theories online. We would also be happy to hear your output and any ideas you might have about future articles.
With that being said, we thought it would be interesting to explore the history of conspiracy theories and why some of them are so effective. This is why we decided to dedicate our welcome message to that. Enjoy reading!
Definition
It’s hard to give a concise definition of a conspiracy theory, but what they all have in common is that the actions described in the theory are always done in secret and they intend to remain that way. Usually, the plots portrayed in the theory are executed by a powerful group of people that seeks to hide something.
History
Conspiracy theories have existed for perhaps as long as humanity has. People have always been suspicious of events happening around them. While some conspiracy theories can have devastating consequences (think the Salem Witch Trials), being suspicious is in fact an evolutionary trait that has helped mankind develop critical skills.
Think of the Agricultural Revolution that occurred more than 12,000 years ago. What do you think that the simple farm folk thought when their crop suddenly died? They most likely attributed their loss to divine punishment or maybe witchcraft, and this conclusion can be considered a kind of early conspiracy theory, one that has persisted until at least the Enlightenment.
You can look at various historical periods and find a bunch of conspiracy theories hiding in plain sight. For example, when Rome was burning in 64 AD, both the masses and the elite suspected their Emperor, Nero, of burning the city himself to pin the blame on the Christians and begin the first persecution against them.
For better or worse, conspiracy theories would exist for as long as mankind does.
Why Are Conspiracy Theories Effective
There are many ways in which one can answer that question. To begin with, conspiracy theories offer a sense of pride to those who believe them as they were the ones able to discover the supposed truth behind an event.
Conspiracy theories also offer a feeling of certainty, especially if the event described was so disastrous and horrid that one had to find a secret meaning behind it to make sense of it. In addition, nobody wants to feel powerless when such a thing happens, so finding this secret knowledge can make one feel safe again.
Most Popular Conspiracy Theories
In this section, we will briefly describe the most enduring conspiracy theories that many of us still believe. The events described come with a plethora of theories about them, but we’ll include the most prominent belief:
- The Moon Landing – more and more Americans now question whether that technological feat was faked.
- JFK’s Assassination – there are even more Americans who suspect a deeper conspiracy behind the murder of the President.
- Princess Diana’s Death – many speculate that the People’s Princess was killed.
- 9/11 – around 50% of New Yorkers believe that details about the terrorist attacks have been purposefully hidden from the public; a lower number blames the US government for the attacks.
- Roswell, 1947 – did a UFO crash in Roswell, NM? A lot of people say yes.
- Flat Earth – this one is self-explanatory.
- The Illuminati – a secret ring of powerful elites run the whole world.
- Jeffrey Epstein – the disgraced mogul didn’t kill himself.
- Hitler is alive – well, not anymore, but that he didn’t kill himself in 1945.
- Holocaust – denying the Holocaust happened or claiming that the number of Jews that died is overblown.
- Vaccines and Autism – allegations that mandatory vaccines can give kids autism.
Conspiracy Theories Proven Right
While many of the conspiracy theories you can find online are completely bogus, there have actually been instances where some theories were proven to be right. We’ll give you the most popular ones:
- The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment – a theory that a test group of black men were given placebo treatment for syphilis, while doctors were in fact using them to see the onset of the disease turned out to be true.
- MKUltra – the CIA unknowingly administered potent drugs to test subjects to find new techniques to manipulate suspects. Victims were in some cases also tortured.
- Poisoning Alcohol – the US government made the manufacturers of industrial alcohol use stronger poisons in their products to avoid bootleggers using it for beverage. This apparently led to the death of at least 10,000 Americans.