What to believe? Life is so much like a cartoon or an Onion article these days, who knows where the truth lies? As long as I can remember I've read about conspiracy theories and dark underground tales. Area 51, the Illuminati, a second government pulling the strings, two Melania's... the list is endless. We basically live in an "X-Files" episode.
But if we're honest, there are a few of these "ideas" that even the sanest of us will follow.
Redditoru/illuminatedbabewanted to compare notes on what truths we're all certain of, by asking:
What's a 'conspiracy' you truly believe?
I'm not sure about aliens, but I do believe in ghosts, I think. Does that count? Is there such a thing a paranormal conspiracy? Hmmm...
Little Piggy
homer simpson wow GIFGiphy"The bacon hype that came about around the time Epic Meal Time started on YouTube was a marketing campaign by the pork industry."
- lorn23
Disposables...
"Big oil and plastics created the recycling campaign so people could still feel good about buying disposable plastic products. In reality, the majority of plastic cannot be recycled. Further, recycling isn't cost effective in the slightest. China was burying our recycling for years."
"This is sorta true if you look at the entire funding for the personal responsibility campaign it was by BP oil to shift blame into the consumer."
wasting ink...
"That the "printer alignment" page your printer makes you print when you install a new ink cartridge or plug in your printer or any other basic printer action is complete made up nonsense that makes you think your printer is doing important printer maintenance while needlessly wasting ink."
- wxmanify
A.I. Issues
"I think the trend where you show a picture of yourself now versus 10 years ago was promoted if not invented by Facebook owned social media companies in order to train artificial intelligence to be able to recognize and analyze how faces age."
"This is true for pretty much anything on social media. All those quizzes, post if you believe, whatever random meme just lets them collect data for A.I. modeling or more nefarious purposes. Never do the "your pornstar name is your mother's maiden name plus the last six of your social security number" posts. I seriously underestimated the number of penises and 69s my inbox was gonna receive."
"commoners"
Burning Tom Hanks GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"That most conspiracy theories are allowed to circulate by the powers that be and they let certain false info "leak" to add fuel to the fire so they can use these conspiracy theories as a distraction from their real agenda, part of keeping the "commoners" in a naive bubble. Conspiracy theories are the cover for the actual conspiracies."
Anytime I hear big oil, I know it's true. Cheery I know. But they know how to manipulate the world. It's all about the money...
Out There
Jurnee Smollett Hbo GIFGiphy"Aliens are among us just not how we think they're supposed to look like. I mean we have an immortal jellyfish in our ocean that looks right out of a HP Lovecraft book."
- k-rdy
The Strangest Superstitions People Actually Observe | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
The world can be a superstitious place. If you've ever knocked on wood or thrown salt over your shoulder then you've run into one or two throughout your life...Paths
"That my navigation cares more about traffic flow than the best route for me personally."
- mrausgor
"I mean, to be fair, this can very often be "same picture" territory. If everyone's navigation tried to optimize for what's best for the driver, you'd easily get a situation that's worse for everyone... including you."
- xternal7
On the Floor
"Truly incompetent workers who get hired claiming 15+ years of experience but know nothing about their field are actually just people poorly placed by eyewitness protection. My nemesis who was our new industrial engineer who zip tied all the computer speakers to the floor made me think of this one XD Makes you wonder."
"Edit: lots of people concerned about the floor. Yes the floor had holes, it was a clean room. Iirc it was actually the cords truly zip toed to the floor, the speakers were zip tied to the tables' kick plates like 3 in above the floor."
Molten Salt Reactors...
"That nuclear technology and power was choked out by big oil and gas, and that fear of radiation was intentionally trumped up to incite public opposition to anything nuclear. A lot of folks seemed not to know that used nuclear fuel, often called waste, is recyclable"
"It can also be used directly as fuel for certain types of reactors that haven't seen a lot of research for political reasons, but for which several mature designs and several proofs of concept have been built (Molten Salt Reactors, if you want to research it)."
Big Brother
Explosion Reaction GIFGiphy"The government puts out really crazy conspiracies so the people that post about legitimate conspiracies come across as crazy and unbelievable."
Against the poor...
"The odds are very strategically stacked against poor people and even the middle class (America) so that we can never get ahead. We are kept in our place to do bullcrap jobs and buy bullcrap products to keep the ultra wealthy chugging along. Education is expensive so we don't think too hard, and the food is cheap and crappy to keep us fat, tired, and low ambition."
"Propaganda and identity politics keeps us in our own little stupid camps so we never come together to realize this. Our purpose is to purchase. And it will never change because for every 1 person who tries to buy local, learn, and take care of themselves, there are 100 morons who want everything fast and cheap." ~ Good_Piccolo4046
Dr. King
"That the government, more specifically FBI, was involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King." ~ Feisty-Inspection286
"I think it's assumed because we have the FBI letter to King that told him to commit suicide. We also have his file and how paranoid Hoover was about any of the black activists at the time. Sadly we don't have any links to the assassination but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck." ~ UCMCoyote
I Hate Ads...
"That YouTube gets mad at me for skipping all their quick survey questions for ads, and punishes me by giving me ads for feminine products." ~ Fancyliving228
"My YouTube ads are weird. Enough to make me think I'm part of some undisclosed, unethical social experiment, because google definitely knows enough about my internet habits to target their ads better. This last week they started advertising monster porn to me, which I didn't even realise was a thing."
"Before that I was getting ads for super woke online courses such as "pay $500 for this six week course that will explain why you're a racist cultural appropriater for doing yoga!" I mean, who the hell actually would sign up for something like that? YouTube ads are whack." ~ Reetniap
The Epidemic
"That the CIA/ Reagan Administration helped sell crack cocaine to African American communities in the 1980's and the reporter who broke the story, Gary Webb, was killed by the government and didn't commit suicide by shooting himself in the head twice." ~ unculturedswine420
Give me a Bud
"Not a very big conspiracy but someone told me they heard Corona (beer company) started paying off news companies to stop calling it corona and call it covid instead and I fully believe it. Everyone started calling it covid right after it came out that Corona lost a lot in stocks because of it." ~ Tyriad_
Sleep Lies
mess reverse GIF by Jordan FisherGiphy"Mattress firm is affiliated with money laundering. They have so many stores very close to each other in Chicago (miles apart)." ~ Nightcrawler999-
Damn Covid
"That if we were actually contacted by aliens our governments would 100% lie to us. Look at how people act toward COVID, if they thought aliens might invade we'd have idiots shooting at the sky and stabbing people to see if they're shape shifters while other idiots make up random crap like taking horse de-wormer and fishtank cleaner protects you from their mind control." ~ Im_No_Robutt
I'm not sure how much of this is actual information, but none is out of the realm of possibility. I don't know if that is an intriguing thought or terrifying. We'll find out.
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