People Share The Wildest Conspiracy Theories They Actually Believe

People Share The Wildest Conspiracy Theories They Actually Believe
Clint Patterson/Unsplash

Conspiracy theories are beliefs that there are covert powers that be changing the course of history for their own benefits. It's how we see the rise of QAnon conspiracies and people storming the capital.

Why do people fall for them? Well some research has looked into the reasons for that.

The Association for Psychological Science published a paper that reviewed some of the research:

"This research suggests that people may be drawn to conspiracy theories when—compared with nonconspiracy explanations—they promise to satisfy important social psychological motives that can be characterized as epistemic (e.g., the desire for understanding, accuracy, and subjective certainty), existential (e.g., the desire for control and security), and social (e.g., the desire to maintain a positive image of the self or group)."

Whatever the motivations may be, we wanted to know which convoluted stories became apart of peoples consciousness enough for them to believe it.


Redditor Lopsided_Confusion57 asked:

"What's the wildest conspiracy theory you fully believe?"

We can't say any of these are true but sometimes it's fun to speculate.

The time traveling cyclist.

"The Australian cyclist Mick Rogers is a time traveler."

"In the 2002 Tour Down Under, Rogers was in a great position in the breakaway and looking to move into the overall race lead but a collision with a motorcycle left his bike out of commission. With the team service car and mechanics way down the road, it looked like Rogers' chances were gone. Then a cycling fan, who just happened to be at that precise point in the road, offered Rogers his bicycle to continue on. The bike also just happened to be the *exact* model of Colnago that Rogers had been riding. It was the correct size, right down to things like the stem and crank lengths. It even had the same pedal system that Rogers was already using, so he could just clip in and be away. He finished that stage and took the race lead, which he held on to all the way to the end for his only career win in his 'home' tour."

"My theory is that in the original timeline, Rogers didn't win the 2002 Tour Down Under. He quit cycling in anger and devoted his life to theoretical physics and solving the problem of time travel just so he could arrange it to leave himself a spare bike where and when he needed it."

- jnhummel

"I'm on board for whatever book or screenplay you write."

- bulletoothjohnny

"Wait, so if Rogers motivation to find ways for time travelling was losing 2002 race, and if he won, then Rogers never found time travelling and our time line is forever devoid of genius like Rogers who would have found time travelling and attended Hawkins party."

- Skulldab

"Yep, exactly. Our timeline is stuck with boring old Mick Rogers, 2002 TDU winner and 3x World Time Trial Champion while some other, much cooler, party timeline gets Mick Rogers, the second coming of Einstein. He probably even cures Covid for them."

- jnhummel

The best money making stunt.

"Information is leaked from a studio about an upcoming project that p*sses off the fan base. The studio will then change things to keep the fans happy. The conspiracy is the original leak was just a lie to drum up free publicity for the project."

- krndog6471

"This made me think of the Sonic movie. No way in hell were they going to make Sonic look that bad. Put out a fake trailer with him lookin all scary, everyone is talking about it. Wala. Take a bit to say you're fixing his look, put out a new trailer. You just drummed up tons of publicity since people are now following the story."

- rhineisland

"I have mixed thoughts to that one."

"I mean 'No way in hell were they going to make him look like that.' Buddy have you seen the cash-grab BS that Hollywood has pulled off before? Hell, when was there a movie based off a game that wasn't exactly as bad as that Sonic looked?"

"I will admit that they may have done that as a publicity stunt, but I also admit that they could have thought it looked fine."

- Marscaleb

"Have you seen … CATS?"

- off-chka

Governmental assassinations.

"100% of the population believes that Putin has had people killed for political reasons but only a very small percentage of Americans believe that American politicians would ever do so."

- A7omicDog

"I mean, there's a reason the joke/saying is, 'The highest award a journalist can receive is being assassinated by the CIA.' There's probably been a handful who may've found out one too many things on the elites, and then had an accident before they could publish their findings."

- Vlad-V2-Vladimir

"Ohhhh boy then south american journalists in the 60s-80s have been awarded way too much."

- Much_Committee_9355

"MLK was literally murdered by the government."

- coconutjuices

"Lots of Black Panthers were too."

'"As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment.'"

"Quote from the Wikipedia article on Fred Hampton."

- SexDrugsNskittles

Conspiracies for the conspiracies to cover up the conspiracies.

"The CIA creates conspiracy theories to provide cover for the real conspiracies."

- Argle

"It's actually kind of scary how smug anti-conspiracy discourse is used to derail actual conversations. A moment that chipped my faith in humanity just a little was when I was arguing with some people about Guatemala in 1954 and people denied my version of events happened 'because it's a conspiracy.'"

"Like no the parties involved admitted to it."

"If you don't know what I'm talking about and are from the USA you should have a google. But, basically the USA destroyed a democracy because it made a corporation sad."

- Anarcho_Humanist

"What's worse is when people will talk about how corrupt insert what politicians they don't like are, but then when you mention something that is actually confirmed to have happened, they pull the conspiracy theory card and act as if the idea people in power don't want to secure further power for themselves."

"We have been conditioned to think like that from since we started school though (I guess that's my submission for this ask post)."

- SigmaEpstien

"I think I remember reading about some CIA agents AMA. Someone asked him the question, 'What's the point of area 51?' The answer was, 'To keep your attention away from area 50 and 52.'"

"Obviously not an exact quote, but the idea of it has always stuck with me."

- ARavenousChimp

​Extinct animals not actually being extinct for preservation.

"I think it is entirely plausible that the Thylacine still exists in the depths of the Australian mainland and the government knows it."

"It wouldn't be that crazy for misguided scientists to have moved or released a few in the late 1800s. Once the animal went extinct, they certainly couldn't reveal the existence of the mainland population lest poachers and local farmers destroy it. They also may have realized how significant the liability was for releasing large predators into farmland."

"Folks have found hair and scat samples that may be from the animal, but the university lab results always come back and say they are nonsense. That's probably the truth, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the government was strong-arming them into reporting BS results. TBH if I was a conservation scientist it wouldn't take much convincing for me to fake a negative test."

Ut_Prosim

Robert 'Curt' Borton Jr.

"I believe in a LOT of really boring conspiracies. Stuff like. 'This person was about to expose corporate/government corruption, and then died suspiciously.'"

"But if you want to go for a more intense one, Robert Borton, who I just learnt about, takes the cake. tl;dr guy disappears in Vietnam and really strange sh*T happens to his family."

"This guy, Robert 'Curt' Borton Jr. turns 19 in 1965, he goes to fight in Vietnam. He lands in 1966 and vanishes 19 days into his deployment alongside 3 other soldiers."

"In 1976, two guys approach his dad and claimed to work for the Department of Defense. They asked him to sign a letter that would change his sons status from 'Missing in action' to 'Killed in action' and he refused. Arguing the military would not confront people in public to sign documents. However, in the following weeks he was approached again by these two guys in public places and eventually signed it out of fear. He later received money for doing so."

"His sister then claims that every time they've seen Curt's official files, the entries keep changing, and his sister claims her phone was being wiretapped. A cousin believes that everyone was being watched, claiming that he was followed to work several times and that two men would follow him from his home to his company and then back. After this went on for a month, he decided to confront them, but they denied following him. After that, for about a month, he was not followed."

"The family is convinced Curt was part of a secret government operation that brought him from Vietnam into the United States. Diane believes that he has tried to contact her and other family members on multiple occasions. She claims that she has talked to a man who is a "secret returnee" and that they are allowed to come back to the United States, as long as they do not contact their families. She believes that this was done because the U.S. government had already claimed that all of the living POWs had been brought home; since they were still left behind, they could not become known to the public."

- Anarcho_Humanist

We may never fully know if any of these are true. Given the track record and history of most governments in the world, maybe some of these aren't so far fetched.

Only you can decide what you believe or not.

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Adults Who Still Need A Stuffed Animal To Go To Sleep Share Their Experiences

Reddit user Old-Horse1185 asked: '34 percent of adults sleep with a stuffed animal or other sentimental object. Are you one of these people? What do you sleep with?'

Old, pink stuffed animal bunny sitting on bed
Photo by Paulo Almeida on Unsplash

Stuffies, plushies, stuffed animals, or plush toys; whatever you might call them, we likely all can remember a fluffy friend we had in our childhood.

But some adults might have carried their childhood friend into adulthood, or even made others along the way, and they might even still go to sleep with them at night, too.

Keep reading...Show less
Waiter
Kate Townsend/Unsplash

Working remotely from home certainly has its advantages, including not having to endure traffic and deal with coworker drama.

But many people found that during the pandemic, the isolation of working from home left little to be desired.

People who have jobs requiring them to commute every day and arrive at the workplace are given the opportunity to be social and feel like they're a part of society.

But being a part of a work environment can come with its own unique occupational hazards.

Keep reading...Show less

Be it desperation, self-indulgence, or simply optimism, many people never leave home without a condom.

If the chances of "getting lucky" are much more likely at some places than others, one never knows where or when they might hit it off with someone.

Including a funeral.

Bizarre and tasteless as that sounds, a recent study reportedly showed that 1 in 8 men under the age of 35 do, in fact, bring condoms with them when attending a funeral, "just in case".

Whether or not these condoms were used, however, is another story entirely.

Keep reading...Show less

People will trip themselves up eventually.

Because liars and lunatics always make mistakes.

They may be small mistakes, but they leave just enough room to expose their wicked ways.

Sure we all want to fight off an enemy and be the victor.

But sometimes the victor's greatest weapon is nothing but a little patience.

Then, we celebrate with a smile as we watch the crumble.

And maybe we have a little victory dance.

Keep reading...Show less