One Reddit user asked:
What's the strangest conspiracy theory you heard that actually turned out to be true?
We're absolutely not encouraging, condoning or supporting any currently popular conspiracy theories, but we all need to be honest with ourselves. Current outlandish conspiracy theories seem plausible to some people because past outlandish conspiracy theories were factual:
Mind Control
Project Mk ULTRA, aka CIA mind control program.
That stuff is terrifying.
- [Reddit]
One of the people believed to be a researcher involved in MKUltra was Henry Murray, a famous psychologist and professor at Harvard. He was responsible for developing the field of Personology and developing some early profiling tests.
He's also partially responsible for driving the Unabomber off the deep end.
During the 50's and 60's, he was commissioned by the US government in order to condition pilots in case they get captured if their planes get shot down so they don't reveal secrets under torture. Unfortunately, he tested these theories to fine tune them on students which meant just screwing with them.
In a separate experiment, which the Unabomber was a victim of, worked like this - students were instructed to write an essay summarizing their personal philosophy on life and underlying principles, then went into a room expecting to debate philosophy with a fellow student. They instead faced an interrogation by a far more experienced opponent, whose sole purpose was to attack and ridicule their beliefs at length. Since one of the main goals of the experiment was to induce stress and upset the subject as much as possible, it's not surprising that many students came out feeling traumatized.
A Little LSD
lsd GIFGiphyOperation Midnight Climax
Us government hired sex workers to dose "johns" with LSD to test mind-control capabilities. Then, they expanded the program to dose citizens at restaurants and other public places.
Sex workers and LSD sounds like fun... Until you murder a 12-year-old girl and have no memory of it. Yes this actually happened to one of the victims.
If you're someone who's never done psychedelics and get dosed without you willing.. Man depending on the dosage I can only imagine what the toll on the psyche be...
It could cause a total breakdown if you thought it was just you going insane.
- whazzah
Leave Britney Alone
The #FreeBritney conspiracy.
I saw so many people on Instagram especially that were just convinced that all her weird Instagram videos were cries for help because she was being controlled by the scenes and thought it was kind of a ridiculous theory, but with everything that came out in her court cases in the later half of 2020, it seems like all of that was actually correct.
Britney Spears really was in an abusive overbearing conservatorship for over a decade.
I heard the court ruled in favour of the father because he has increased the value of her assets... So they couldn't say he was a bad at looking after her interests.
Basically, Britney Spears isn't a "legal adult" anymore. You know how kids can't take care of their own stuff and have to have their parents make decisions for them? That's basically what happened to her. Her father is her guardian (meaning he gets to control her money, legal stuff, everything about her life), and there's no real way for her to free herself because she doesn't have the legal options to do that, nor do they think she's supposed to be allowed to decide that ("She's mentally ill, what does she know?" type of reasoning).
She was put in that kind of situation in ~2007 when she had a severe mental health episode, since it was believed that she couldn't take care of herself due to her mental illness. Her family takes advantage of her vulnerable position and takes control over everything in her life, including locking her up, censoring her, pushing her to do stuff she doesn't want to, and making sure she can neither leave nor ask for help. The only reason we know about it is because her fanbase noticed subtle cries for help and other signs that something is wrong. It was a huge thing, and the story was more or less confirmed shortly after.
She's not even asking for freedom. She's just asking her father to be removed as conservator, not for the conservatorship to be ended entirely.
CIA vs JFK
The CIA proposed "Operation Northwoods" to JFK.
It was a literal false flag attack on American soil perpetrated by Americans but framed up to start a "popular" war with Cuba. The CIA wanted to kill Americans (shooting down passenger planes, gunning down people in the streets, etc.) and blame Cuba as an excuse to start a war.
It was around this time and Bay of Pigs that Kennedy supposedly said he would "smash them into pieces and scatter them to the wind." (Meaning the CIA)
That was a man with convictions... and giant brass balls, to be honest.
- sbbart62
The way I remember hearing it is someone came to him about Operation Northwoods as a way to instigate a war with Cuba or the Soviets or both. Kennedy was horrified and he kind of lost it and decided to try and take down the CIA.
That goes in to the conspiracy that the CIA was involved with his assassination shortly after
Vietnam
The rumor that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (which is what got the US involved in the Vietnam Was) was fake turned out to be true.
It wasn't "fake" so much as a big embellishment. It was obviously still cynical and dishonest, but it wasn't an entirely fabricated incident, which I think it is often taken to be.
There were two incidents, the first on was nv troops firing upon us ships and the second was just a storm, So they are partially correct.
The official line from those in command during the incident was "playing with ourselves in the dark".
OK Buddy Sure
Seth Meyers Ok GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphySome customer I talked to somehow ended up on a rambling tangent about how he was part of a mission in the Vietnam War, where they were controlling the weather on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.. Yeah, okay buddy, sure.
I looked it up later and it turns out Operation Popeye actually happened.
Martha
I didn't hear about this because I wasn't born at the time, but Martha Mitchell whose husband was involved in the Watergate Scandal.
She tried to tell people but was called crazy and mentally ill and her husband and others eventually had her drugged and held hostage in a hotel for months. Later almost all the things she claimed were confirmed to be true.
Mental health professionals have to be aware of the Martha Mitchell Effect.
- slychd
Unarmed and Unprovoked
Not the strangest but the British army murdered 14 unarmed civilians during a peaceful civil rights march in my city, Derry, northern Ireland in 1972. The official line for years was that the victims were armed and had attacked the soldiers first.
The Sun "newspaper" in the UK printed a story the next day portraying the soldiers as heroes and the victims as terrorists. The government eventually admitted about 10 years ago that none of the victims were armed and the killings were not provoked.
Makes it hard to believe anything the government or media say.
- Mouts93
Black Farmers
The Pigford case where the USDA systemically eliminated Black farmers because of racism in the 80s and 90s.
None of the people involved were punished. The agency targeted and eliminated Black farms, paid the highest civil rights lawsuit in history out of taxpayer money, and those responsible are still employed or collecting a government pension.
It's disgusting.
I've never heard of this lawsuit wtf?
This is mind bogglingly recent.
Medical Experiments
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male was ethically horrendous.
When the study began (1932), there was no established treatment since the relevant antibiotics did not exist, so the idea of following a cohort of untreated subjects to see what happens to them was a reasonable idea.
However, the subjects were misled about their diagnosis, what the study was doing for them, and how long the study would last.
And then later, when antibiotics became available that could treat syphilis effectively, the study continued without providing that treatment and just let the disease "run its course."
- ToxDocMD
There's also a lingering fear of vaccination in African immigrant populations due to forced sterilization and other medical experiments that happened historically.
Gay Frogs
"Chemicals are turning frogs gay!"
Not quite true, but close.
It turns out if you dump a bunch of (now banned) chemicals into the habitats of amphibians, which determine sex through hormones rather than chromosomes, then they can spontaneously change gender or be hermaphroditic.
Alex jones "they are turning the frogs gay". While his assertion that the goverment is trying to turn frogs gay an purpose is probably not true. The commonly used herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into females and render them infertile
Civil Rights Leaders
COINTELPRO.
Basically, the FBI was conducting surveillance and running disinformation campaigns against civil rights leaders in the 50/60s, and were at least in part responsible for the assassination of Fred Hampton and possibly MLK.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
One Reddit user asked:
What conspiracy theory do you actually believe is true?
... and honestly, a lot of this makes sense. Hmmm.
Manufactured Conspiracies
Always Sunny Fx GIFGiphyConspiracies are being actively manufactured and promoted as a way to hide actual bad stuff.
These days it is hard to actually hide something - a single leak and everything is all over the internet next day. However, if you make sure that internet is full of conspiracy theories, it is easy to dismiss any leak as 'more nutjob stuff'.
If MK-Ultra leaked today, would anybody except for most hardcore conspiracy theorists believe it?
- ping500
An English King In Italy
I believe Edward II escaped and went to Italy. He was not laid to rest at his very public funeral.
His son, Edward III, had reason to believe his father was alive and there is some truth to the Fieschi letter. Mostly, I think Edward III's relations with the Pope convinced me.
I also think the circumstances of the funeral arrangements were pretty suspicious. The variety of deaths Edward II was rumored to die don't exactly convince me he died at Berkeley Castle.
Oh and there's a part of Italy with an oral tradition that they once had an English king for some years.
Nutritional Nonsense
People are taught wrong information about nutrition on purpose.
Definitely true. I read a rage inducing book (Unsavory Truth by Marion Nestle) that talked about this. There are companies in the food industry that basically go out and shop around for "scientists" to link their product to good health, and one of the examples was how the strawberry industry was shopping around for studies linking strawberries to positive health effects. A few days after reading that, I saw an article linking strawberries to good digestive health.
Also, I once saw an article about how ER doctors who snacked on nuts were healthier than those who didn't. At the very bottom of the article, buried in a wall of text was "this study was funded by the nut growers of America"
Ugh.
The Coup And The Crackdown
The 2016 Turkish coup d'etat attempt to overthrow Erdogan was planned by ... Erdogan.
It was such a badly organized coup that failed so easily while Erdogan's support was on peak. No way someone else planned this coup with the goal to succeed. The coup made it possible for Erdogan to crack down on any opposition as well as unpleasant journalists or just anyone who was in his way.
Three Times Is Enemy Action
I could believe that Epstein would kill himself. I could believe that the guards had been online not doing their job of checking on him. I could believe that the cameras in a very important prisoners cell went out of service.
There is no possible way all these things happened on their own at the exact same time.
M16 had a saying Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.
Your Lawn
I believe that the societal norm of the "American lawn" was propagated to keep us from growing food on our property and keep us consuming.
This is kinda true. The idea of a lawn filled with grass and other non-edible plants was perpetuated by social elites (in the United States and elsewhere) to show others that they were so rich they didn't need to grow their own food. Essentially, they could afford to waste space.
Leave Britney Alone
sad britney spears GIFGiphyBritney Spears is being controlled by the people around her... I don't usually believe in such crazy theories, but there's just something about this one that makes me believe it. She looks and acts like a prisoner, and she's said and done a lot of questionable things. I know it's a crazy one, and I really hope it's not true, but that woman looks so broken...
- Lissmeis
I'm pretty sure it is. I follow some at least somewhat credible "free Britney" Instagram pages, and they post a lot of news articles, history of the conservatorship, and even the court transcripts. The transcripts I've seen, state that Britney wants to stay in the conservatorship but she wants out of her dad's control and possibly that other chick (Lou I think?), too.
It's even been insinuated in court documents that she doesn't control her social media, either. It would definitely explain all the BIZARRE posts she makes.
I truly can't understand it. As of late, her conservatorship has received media attention, and her fans and even some celebrities have proclaimed "Free Britney".
While I know a judge has to remain as unbiased as possible when making these ruling, the "court of public opinion" will still have an effect. Yet it hasn't on the judge(s) she's gotten.
Now, I don't know all the cold hard facts like the courts do. But on a high level - why does a 37 year old woman need to be controlled at every aspect of her life? It makes zero sense to me.
To me the conspiracy was always that she was actually mentally fine and capable (and always was - where the very public breakdowns prior were bad but not based in mental issues beyond remedy) and didn't need a conservator but was basically being held in one against her will for the money.
It makes no sense to me that the girl is apparently too f*cked up to make even the most minor life choices, but somehow well enough to perform in a successful Vegas show.
Like, if she's mentally incapable, how is she mentally fit to have a high profile career in such a high pressure environment? And how is her Father, who is collecting all the money, not being scrutinized for it?
A Never-Ending Cycle Of Hotdog Eating
Hotdog companies and hotdog bun companies agreed to sell non matching amounts of their products. When you finish all of your hotdogs you will still have buns left over so you will go buy hotdogs for those buns. Thus perpetuating a never-ending cycle of hotdog eating.
Who says they aren't both owned by the same mega corporation?
- rhoov
I won't fall to capitalism! I eat my hotdogs cut up with a fork, like a true adult-baby
The Same Forces
I read a lot of comments months back written by people wondering when Ghislaine was going to "get Epstein'd". Given the nature of her involvement with Epstein and mutual acquaintances and the nature of her actions and decisions, certainly she's as despicable a criminal as Epstein: why is Ghislaine Maxwell still alive?
Ghislaine Maxwell's father, Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch, otherwise known as Robert Maxwell, was a Czech-borne Jewish freedom fighter - he was a Jewish man who fought Nazis and in all likelihood helped secure the existence of the Israeli state early on. That's a pretty big part of understanding his later political, commercial, and (alleged) intelligence connections.
He later turned into a publishing magnate and paper media/publishing powerhouse who was a possible triple-turnaround Mossad-MI6-KGB faux-spy stooge. He defrauded his own corporate empire (resulting in its collapse after his death), and was possibly assassinated before his body was dumped over the side of his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, while it was berthed in the Canary Islands.
I bet that the same forces that got to Ghislaine's dad are the ones either protecting her, or who have lost interest in her.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
But the wild, outlier, believe-every-conspiracy types are not the focus here. There are plenty of people that, for some reason they can't quite put their finger on, believe one very specific conspiracy theory.
And it's often the bizarre, almost trivial ones that take hold in these cases. A Reddit thread dedicated to plumbing the depths of those flashes of paranoia did not disappoint.
u/ComprehensiveMenu1 asked, "What conspiracy theory do you believe is true?"
The Long Con
Every so often, big sock companies make subtle changes to their design, so that when you buy new socks, they'll never match your old ones.
GiphyExplaining Crazy Away
The majority of celebrity Scientologist joined for networking purposes but then found themselves in over their head.
No More Vacations For Me. Ever.
Crime in big tourist cities like Las Vegas is systematically underreported in order not to hurt business
GiphyAbsolutely Genius
Toothpaste advertisements show way too much toothpaste on the toothbrush so that you'll use more toothpaste than you need therefore causing you to buy toothpaste more often.
GiphyAnd Here I Thought It Was Just To Make Us All Look Dumb in Airpods
That the phasing out of the audio jack on mobile phones is to force customers to keep Bluetooth enabled as often as possible to enhance Bluetooth tracking in stores/malls so they can sell that data on to advertisers
Source, Please
Michael Jordan's first "retirement" was an unofficial suspension for betting on basketball.
GiphyThe Ol' False Throwback
New Coke was purposely shi**y in order to drive up demand for classic Coke.
Otherwise It's Just Straight Sexist
Women clothes don't have pockets so that they'll buy a purse.
On Shore Tax Havens
High art galleries are just a way for organized crime to launder money through high priced art pieces and "charitable donations." That's the reason you see pieces like 2 solid colored canvases side-by-side make $43 million.
GiphyZero Chill On This One
FRUIT OF THE LOOM HAD A CORNUCOPIA ON THEIR LOGO. THEY NO LONGER HAVE A CORNUCOPIA ON THEIR LOGO. BIG UNDERWEAR WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE IT WAS NEVER THERE.
Mission Accomplished
Flat earth websites were started as a practice arena for online manipulation. If they were able to convince people of such an absurdity, then people could be convinced of anything.
A One-Man Conspiracy
I believe that my husband only drinks Diet Dr Pepper bc he knows I don't like it, therefore won't take a sip of his when he gets one at the gas station.
GiphyThe Propaganda Machine
The US army have a bigger influence on Hollywood action movies than you think in order for people to be influenced at a younger age to join the army.
GiphyWhy Elders Are Important
FDR killed himself, and this was initially reported by media (including to soldiers abroad via radio). Hours later, story changes to brain hemorrhage and is continued to this day.
Grandmother and other relatives remember going through department stores and hearing first announcement about suicide
Leave it to Conspiracy Theorists to Get Extremely Meta About Everything
Conspiracy theories are actually deliberately diffused to keep the people busy thinking about stupid conspiracy theories rather than thinking about what is actually going on.
GiphyBiggest Bust in Sci Fi History
Jar Jar Binks was intended to be a Sith lord. However he was so hated from episode 1, George Lucas scrapped the idea.
Sounds Toxic
Britney Spears is bring held captive by her dad's legal hold on her mental stability.