In an age of "fake news" and misinformation, how much an you really trust somebody's word?
Reddit user thelast_M wants to hear if the public thinks they're totally being duped:
What conspiracy theory actually makes a lot of sense?
Here's what the public came back with.
Trader Joe's Insecurity Complex
Trader Joe's parking lots are deliberately too small to make them seem more popular than they really are. [minitikigod]
Runaway Chapstick
That chapstick is made into cylindrical shapes so that if you drop it, it will roll away and lose it so then you have to buy a new one. [Aversatile]
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A Conspiracy Of Conspiracies
The meta-conspiracy. The very concept of a conspiracy theory as we know them was created by the government/Illuminati/aliens/whoever. The purpose for doing so? It ensures that if any of their secrets ever leak, the public at large will simply think of it as another conspiracy theory and dismiss the few people that know the truth as tinfoil hat nuts. [Eagle694]
#BigBrotherIsWatching
I remember reading in a conspiracy theory thread about how the government created #ThrowbackThursday so they could get all of our old pictures uploaded to their databases. [-eDgAR-]
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The Godfather Part IV
Hot dogs are sold in packs of twelve.
Hot dog buns are sold in packs of eight.
If you want enough hot dogs to go with buns and vice versa, you have to buy two packs of hot dogs and three packs of buns. Otherwise you're left with some useless leftovers.
I'm onto you, hot dog mafia. [Fruitwalker]
Foul Ball
MLB messed with the World Series balls this year, resulting in more home runs. More home runs led to more exciting games and more viewers. Players and coaches from both teams commented on how weird the balls felt, and there was a definite uptick in home runs this year. [alymac95]
Hopelessly Devoted To Glgughgguhgfjg
Sandy actually drowned at the beginning of Grease.
The theory is the whole movie is her dying dream or like a coma dream. My husband actually told me this and I didn't believe him but then I watched the movie again recently and it totally made sense. First there is the end scene of course with them flying away in the car. Also at the beginning of the movie when Sandy asks "Is this the end?" Then Sandy just doesn't go back to Australia and almost magically ends up attending his high school but doesn't even know he goes there, that makes no sense. [Doyouevenpedal]
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Mary-Kate Is Ashley
the olsen "twins" is really just one girl moving back and forth very fast to trick the human eye [lab_coat_goat]
Darth Jar-Jar
The Reddit theory that Jar Jar Binks was intended to be a villain, until huge fan backlash made Lucas just pass him off as a failed comedic character. Everything just fits together TOO WELL and it makes too much sense when looking at the evidence.
Lucas even said "Jar Jar is the key to all this" and the actor who played Jar Jar tweeted this when the theory broke out: "I will say this, it feels really good when the hidden meaning behind the work is seen. No matter how long it takes."
7 Tips On Avoiding Advice
Cosmo magazine intentionally gives s****y relationship advice to keep it's reader base lonely, single, and continuously buying more Cosmo. It's the only logical reasoning for some of the bizarre advice that is published there. Either that, or they intentionally try to corner the market of "ironic" readers. [ScLi432]
Futurama At Work In Real Life
Cats are aliens sent to enslave the human race. But its too much effort so they settle for whomevers house they live in [SirLenzalot]
Governmental Treason
I am not sure if I believe this but it makes a lot of sense. FDR or at least pro-war government officials were aware of the Pearl Harbor attacks beforehand and kind of let them happen to get a good excuse to get involved in WWII. It is not too far fetched since a similar event got us involved in the Spanish American war (the Maine) that was dubious. [8BitsIsEnoughForMe]
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Trump's Egomania Is Worse Than We Thought
Trump started as a Democrat plant to ruin the chances of the Republican Party. But when he started gaining traction, his ego led him to go all maverick on them and ended up winning.
He never wanted it, he still doesn't want it, he just grabbed a chance that someone else laid in front of him. [TheLateThagSimmons]
Planned Obsolescence
Phone companies constantly bloating their new updates to slow down phones so people will have to buy new ones every year or two.
Gone are the days where you can buy a piece of electronics that will last you more than 5 years. [AlchemicRez]
Mason Jar Revolution
Pinterest and Etsy are fronts by big mason jar to stimulate a stagnating demand for glass jars. [habbathejutt]
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The Wrong Kind Of Aliens
The near-endless "UFO sightings" in the US during the Cold War were actually Soviet aircraft that had incurred into North American airspace. They would be unidentified because few people knew what they looked like, as Russian military aircraft even now are totally different to that manufactured in the US.
If you shoot them down, the cat is out of the bag and you get a proper war breaking out. If you ignore them and the general public find out, you get riots and awkward questions. Keep a lid on something simple by feeding the populace carefully stage-managed bunk.
Roswell was likely a crashed Soviet aircraft or an experimental flight that went wrong [Eddie_Hitler]
My Heart Will Go On
The Titanic was replaced with the Olympic in the days prior to Titanics launch so as to purposefully sink the Titanic (really the Olympic) to claim insurance money. The Olympic was involved in a major accident during its sea trials, and the British government found White Star Lines responsible which therefore voided the opportunity for the shipbuilder to collect its insurance money. With a now listing Olympic without the major capital to repair, the decision was made to swap ships in the final days before Titanics launch so as to sink the Olympic at sea. There was even a reported boat carrying thousands of lifejackets in the waters near Titanics eventual iceberg crash which has yet to be explained. [dontbethatguyever]
The Long Game
Hillary threw the election on purpose so that Trump would become president and discredit the entire Republican establishment. Short-term loss turns into long-term gain. [Hysterical_Realist]
Real Aliens This Time
The Great Pyramid of Giza was not created by humans. [twdesigns69]
Evil Epidemic
For me, I'd say its the ebola one. Apparently, pharmaceutical companies were using the ebola virus to deliver gene modifications and they stumbled upon a way to kill the virus in a host. Potential gold mine. But they needed an outbreak. So they purposefully created one in West Africa. Then, cure!! [AbbasKubaba]
The Richest Family In The World
The richest family are Rothschilds that owned 1/3 of the world's wealth in the past. Bill Gates is just the poster boy for the richest, but his wealth is tiny compared to Rothschilds. Rothschidls don't display their wealth and stay in the back scenes because being targeted as the richest means you are less secure, also means there's more observance on your taxes, and you are expected to donate a lot to humanitarian donations. [parkufarku]
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Fictional Philosophers
That Socrates wasn't real and Aristotle made him up so he could sell his books/writings.
Obviously a lot of disagreement on this one, but it's not that far fetched. Socrates never wrote anything, and it'd be more interesting and lucrative for Aristotle to have created this person as some kind of guru figure in order to make his philosophies seem more mystical and legitimate.
But the argument is that Aristotle already came from a rich family and there would be no reason for him to need to make someone up so he could sell more books.
Same with Jesus. There's no record of Jesus until after he died, so who knows? [joedirtydirt86]
That's No Moon...
There is a reason we haven't gone back to the moon in 40+ years. Think about it, we're currently planning for a self-sustaining colony on Mars in the next decade(s), but for some reason we haven't decided to use the moon for a trial run. Not using the moon as the test bed for a self-sustaining colony makes even less since if you consider the fact that emergency help could be dispatched to the moon in a reasonable amount of time compared to Mars. [GloriousLeaderChris]
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Reddit Studies Us
Reddit hosts 'fun experiments' on April fools. These experiments, while looking innocent and fun, have more ambitious goals. I can't speak for all of them, but to me, last year's experiment (r/place) was an experiment to determine how get and to determine the threshold of getting a critical mass of crowd to join in on a movement on the internet. They got to see, over the lapse of 24 hours, how regions of influence forms/disperses, how alliances form/brigades happen, etc. This would be something of great interest for any intelligence agencies, since Reddit's userbase is huge. [Iamallamala]
JFK's Accidental Death
JFK wasn't killed by Oswald, or at least the killing shot wasn't fired by him. It was a secret service agent who was caught of guard by the gunshot and the motorcade stopping, his finger slipped and he accidently let off a shot. The way the bullet hits Kennedy's head is inconsistent with the other shots and seems to almost explode, making it more likely to have been shot out of an automatic weapon rather than a rifle, which uses larger, more sturdy bullets. In pictures from the event you can see a Secret Service agent in the background of the photos with an AR-15 type gun, and people from the scene recall hearing agents straight up saying "there's been a terrible accident." Big cover up, and that dude had to live with that lie forever after. [MisterBaker55]