RedditorConsciousSloth wanted to know what major world news people actually think is a scam.
"What world event do you think was staged?"
Educate me. I'm probably just naive, I don't believe in a lot of these conspiracy ideas.
MLK
Will Smith Smh GIF by The Academy AwardsGiphy"The FBI killed Martin Luther King. I mean, his family recently won a court case that basically admitted that the police did a cover up. Also the Wendigoon Episode on it was amazing."
The_PracticalOne
The Verdict...
"In the UK a spy or someone who worked in intelligence was found dead in his apartment. He drowned in his bath, locked inside a North Face duffel bag. The lock was on the outside of the bag. Official verdict into his death... Suicide... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams"
zwifter11
"Sounds like what happened to Garry Webb. Exposed a bunch of shady crap the CIA was doing in Central and South America."
lazy_phoenix
false-flag
"In 1964 the USS Maddox was attacked in Vietnam in what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This act convinced Congress to let the president put boots on the ground in Vietnam and essentially started the war. However documents declassified in the early 2000s revealed this was actually a false-flag operation."
Looks_at_this_clown
Political Lies
"The War on Drugs. Once you read about how Harry J. Anslinger manufactured the marijuana scare just to keep his job, you’ll realize how crazy the entire situation is. Anslinger was the DEA version of J. Edgar Hoover, and before the DEA even existed."
ghostful86
"There’s a White House memo that talks about how they’re using weed to vilify hippies and heroin to disenfranchise the black population. It even says 'Did we know that we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.'”
SassySavcy
Power King
classic movies eating GIFGiphy"The Erfurt latrine disaster in 1184. I fully believe that Henry VI staged that to create a power vacuum his family was equipped to take advantage of."
Smrtihara
That Henry was a mess. How'd he get so many wives?
Vanishing
david copperfield magic GIFGiphy"That time David Copperfield made the statue of liberty disappear. Definitely something fishy about that."
Gekidami
Infiltrate
"The 2016 'coup' in Turkey was staged to solidify Erdogan's presidency."
leffe123
"100%. The planes that were suppose to shoot him down just escorted him to land safely etc. If there ever was a legit part of it, that was a coup, they had been SO infiltrated that it was over before it started."
Adler4290
"Holy crap glad to see this so high. I always felt that too. One of the few world events I've actually watched live too."
pig_smart
Moscow
"1999 Moscow apartment bombings."
Shawn_NYC
"Hadn't heard of this before, damn. 'Former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who defected and blamed the FSB for the bombings, was poisoned and killed in London in 2006.'"
Layer_3
"I’m surprised this isn’t more known about in the West. The FSB was literally caught red-handed planting explosives by local police."
bertiesghost
Speed
"Dale Jr. winning the July NASCAR race at Daytona after his father was killed in an accident there in February."
IdahoPatMan
"I 100% witnessed Nascar hand a win to Dale Jr at MIS in the mid-2000s. It went to a Green-White-Checker and as they were in the middle of turn 1 & 2, a car at the very back of the field ran out of gas and drove down into the in-field."
"At the exit of turn 2, Jr is running out of gas, but they throw the caution and he limps back to the garage, claiming the win under yellow. 2nd place was right behind if not alongside Jr when they threw the yellow, giving Jr the win."
MItrwaway
Don't Listen
sad vincent vega GIFGiphy“Internet Backlash. There are maybe a handful of real people and a million bots making all the news and all the decisions right now."
fishintheboat
a well oiled machine...
"Not an event per se but the fact everyone still thinks that Banksy is just one guy, trust me, it’s a well oiled machine that, even from the 99/2000 had a small team working on it all, it’s been one big money making exercise from the early days, the fact Robin and co are still getting away with it proves it works so good luck to them!"
Puzzleheaded_Song_70
Nero
"The Great Fire of Rome. But I’m not the only one that thinks this. People think Emperor Nero burned down swaths of the city just so he could buy up the land to make his mansion. The fact that that’s exactly what happened after the fire didn’t help his case. Dude was so evil people theorized he might’ve been the Anti-Christ."
BlackDwarfStar
Past and Modern
"At least some of the world’s conspiracy theories must be true but the thing that stops me believing most modern ones is that contemporary politics and business scandals have shown us that the human race is pretty much incapable of keeping secrets."
"Some of the conspiracy theories you hear would require so many different people and institutions, often with conflicting agendas, keeping secrets. That’s the bit that isn’t plausible. It was far more plausible in the time of JFK when info wasn’t as easily stored, recorded or shared."
RefurbedRhino
Ms. Jackson
janet jackson GIFGiphy"Janet Jackson and 'Boobgate.'"
notthesedays
"Janet got cancelled even though JT was the one who ripped off her top."
limbtz
Landings
"I believe the moon landing was real, but they went out of their way to pack as many tv cameras on the mission as possible, so in the most literal sense it was staged as a media production almost more so than a scientific mission."
classyhwale
"Science was an afterthought. It was not a secret that the US was doing it to beat the Russians. It was a commercial for how bad a** America was. Later on NASA used science to keep their budget."
JohnnyBA167
Crisis
"The energy price crisis in the UK right now. I suspect that when Russia Invaded Ukraine the oil companies saw an opportunity to make an unthinkable amount of money and our government are corrupt enough to just let them get away with it. The fact Rishi and Liz seem unwilling to talk about it or sympathise with people is enough proof."
Jacorpes
rumors
"Lil’ol’ Finland attacking mighty bear of Russia back in ’39. I mean, Russian later said it was staged, but the current leader is again going ”what, who said is was stages, does not look staged to me, I haven't heard such rumors before and uh we beat the nazis so we are never wrong.'"
CheesecakeMMXX
"Nothing"
"Shakespeare's plays."
WillCharGames
"Fun fact, Shakespeare's work often played to the lowbrow audience with sleazy sexual jokes. The title 'Much Ado About Nothing' is actually a saucy pun. It's about trying to get a woman married/laid, and what's between a woman's legs? Well. 'Nothing.' So it's much ado about... women's privates."
"He used that joke a lot, actually. It gets used in Hamlet! Basically any time he throws 'nothing' into the script the audience was meant to titter a little."
Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
The BOT situation is out of control.
What would you add to this list. Let us know in the comments below.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Redditor KeyWar8755 wanted to compare notes on the words we can't shake.They asked:
"What’s a quote from history that gives you chills?"
I always listen to famous serial killers. So I've long been tainted.
To the Sea
Season 3 Nbc GIF by ManifestGiphy"'It is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated […] that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.'"
"General Sherman, from a letter sent in May of 1865 in the midst of his march to the sea."
TTTriplicate
Loss in Life
“'WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.'― Smedley Butler"
ayayaJAMMER
Shoot
"'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.' -- Dwight D. Eisenhower"
zyygh
Dirty
"'In Germany, the one who complains about the dirt is considered much more dangerous than the one making something dirty.' -Kurt Tucholsky"
"(Not an exact translation, the original quote is in German)"
EsszettOfficial
I'll Find You
looney tunes marco GIF by Looney Tunes World of MayhemGiphy"Nobody believed Marco Polo’s stories about travelling through Asia, and on his deathbed someone asked him to admit he had made it all up. His response was 'I have not told half of what I have seen.' That always got my imagination going. I would have liked to have heard his stories straight from him."
mariam67
I've always wondered about Marco Polo's origins.
Dreams
Hungry Hanna Barbera GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy“'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.' T. E. Lawrence"
Kravashera
Time to Die
"'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.' — Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner"
cisforcoffee
Send it All...
"'Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.' - Said by Josip Broz Tito to Joseph Stalin"
ChangKaiShek2
Death
“'I used to have five brothers, now I'm not even a brother' - Kevin Von Erich"
"His older brother died at the age of 6. His younger brother David died suddenly at 25. His three youngest brothers all killed themselves at 33, 23, and 21. Between 1984 and 1993 he went from having four younger brothers to not being a brother."
ToxicBanana69
Remember
Martin Luther King Jr Mlk GIF by IdentityGiphy"'We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' - Martin Luther King, Jr."
RecalledBurger
Power
"'We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.' - John F. Kennedy"
VerdHorizon
Hard Truth
"'There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.' --Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
thatsnotmyf**kinname
"Whew! The timing."
imheretoupvotes**t
"Seen too many once in a generation depressions and once in a hundred years extreme weather events."
Meritania
Pay Attention
"'A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.' Robert Heinlein"
underpressure65
"Here in Latin America we have a similar saying: 'Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro.' Which means 'A nation without memories is a nation without a future.'"
Guilhermedidi
NOW!
gordon ramsay fox GIF by MasterChef JuniorGiphy"'They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.' -Robert Heinlein"
Hob_O_Rarison
"Damn. I work in manufacturing and this hit me right in the paycheck."
XXPapaZombieXX
Take Notice
"'Why show anger to the world, as if the world would notice.'"
Wehfi
"I like this. Who said it?"
-Saltyz
"It's a double quotation. It's best known today as a quotation from the Meditations by Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but he was himself quoting from the Greek play Bellerophon by Euripedes."
contramundi
Bull Moose
"'Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.' -Teddy Roosevelt"
herculesmeowlligan
Pay Up
“'It will cost what it will.' - Albert von Bredow"
"After receiving orders to charge the French infantry. Would become one of the last successful cavalry charges used in battle. More than half of them died in the charge."
KingOfWinteryIce
DONE
Proud Ides Of March GIF by Checkatrade.comGiphy"'The die is cast - Ceasar'"
"He said that after sending Roman troops to the border of Italy and Callia which marked the beginning of a Civil War."
Lanxol
Franz
“'One day the Great European War will come out of some damn foolish thing in the Balkans.' - Otto Von Bismarck"
"Said in 1888, 26 years before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo triggering World War One."
Superb-Possibility-9
These are some powerful words that have stood the test of time.
Redditor CallMeBicBoiwanted to know who would be willing to go to war.
They asked:
"As a civilian, would you be willing to take up arms and potentially die to protect your country? Why or why not?"
I would not head to war. Mostly because I'd be useless. I faint at a pinprick of blood. So...
Coming for us all...
Greeting Us Army GIF by GoArmyGiphy"Once the invading army starts killing civilians, I'll feel like I have no choice. They're coming after me and my family."
carsoncanArtsome
A Direct Hit
"If my country/state was under direct occupation, yes. I am willing to protect my community, family and country. If there was a draft for a war we have no business being in, no. I don't consider protecting America's capitalist interests on foreign soil important."
FR_0S_TY
Without Hesitation!
"I live in Canada. My country hasn't been invaded since we had a little scuffle with our downstairs neighbours in 1812. The idea of going to war to protect my country is an abstract, something that could theoretically happen but isn't an imminent threat. Compare that to Ukraine. It isn't an abstract concept to them."
"I'm sure many are fighting for a sense of nationalism and a desire to protect their country, but how many more are fighting because their families are being threatened? Would I go to war out of a sense of patriotic duty? No, I lack the sort of nationalistic pride that that requires. Would I go to war if that's what I had to do to keep my children safe? Without hesitation."
ThievingRock
The Helpers
"I’d probably just care for the wounded. Equally as important but I don’t want to kill anyone."
CaptainPugwash75
"This should be the top comment. Help is most frequently found through a warm hand and heart. Medical expertise is a huge bonus lol. I don't give a f**k about someone shooting at me, but the person who helps to calm a mind during a traumatic event... they have a special place."
well_rounded_mango
Things to do...
"No. I’m a coward. I’ll do anything needed here at home to help but I’d be a gibbering mess and would likely mishandle my weapon. No branch of the military wants a person who is just as likely to shoot their comrades versus the enemy."
Rachel1578
"Dig trenches, fill sandbags, and triage wounded. Hack computers, conduct targeted misinformation... there's plenty you could do to contribute."
WildBilll33t
Nobody wants to be in a war, clearly.
It's good to know there are options besides the battlefield though.
Burn it Up!
burn it season 4 GIF by PowerGiphy"If my friends were directly at risk and we were being invaded, yes. Otherwise if it was just a draft to go overseas and kill poor people? Hell no I'd burn the draft notice."
Dire-Dog
Joe can do...
"Yes. My nation may not be perfect by a long shot, I’ll be one of the first to tell you that; but it is my home, it is where the ones I love call home as well. I’d rather die than have that be taken away. Well it’s not financially possible for some to leave and/or they already have a life that’s been built/established here. Those reasons would make it difficult to leave. Also there’s not much an average Joe can do. We can try to vote the people in that we think could change our country for the better but..."
f**kpepsi2
For Country!
"If it was to 'protect the country.' Not for some CIA game of risk or so giant multinationals make mega profits while the standard of living goes down for the average person. Certainly not so certain commodities can be secured when history has proven it isn't remotely worth it. Warmongers will figure out a narrative to make killing for greed patriotic."
HeyHihoho
Not traveling...
Cbs No GIF by HULUGiphy"I would be willing to protect against an invasion on the continental US, but I won't be sent overseas to play world police."
superchilldad
Pray for Peace
"My country? See this is what I find strange. I find the concept of pride in something I had nothing to do with odd. I was born in Canada, I am Canadian. I'm proud of what Canada represents and the ideals we uphold, but to die for for my 'country' is something I wouldn't subscribe to."
"I'd protect my family, friends, neighbours and anyone else from a threat to their lives or way of life from a threat, internal or external. But what flag flies or where the lines are drawn on the map really mean nothing to me. Let me live my life in peace. Honestly, I think we will never see true peace until we forfeit the idea of countries and governments. Which, unfortunately, I don't think will ever happen."
Silver-Dragonfly3462
War is ugly. And there seems to be no way to fix it. So for now all we do is pray.
And to all soldiers... Thank you for your service.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.