# Conspiracy Theories **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031 "2007-09-21T20:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gretchen\_Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/da6949/32.png) [@Gretchen\_Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchen_Ross)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/1 "2007-09-21T20:41:21Z")
I know it’s kind of a general question, but what are some of your I guess “favorite” or maybe I should say most interesting conspiracy theories? I just love reading about this sort of thing and wanted to see if there are any out there I’d never heard of and maybe want to research further. ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/2 "2007-09-21T21:48:48Z")
> **[List of conspiracy theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories)** > > This is a list of conspiracy theories that are notable. Many conspiracy theories relate to supposed clandestine government plans and elaborate murder plots. Conspiracy theories usually deny consensus opinion and cannot be proven using historical or scientific methods, and are not to be confused with research concerning verified conspiracies such as Germany's pretense for invading Poland in World War II. > In principle, conspiracy theories might not always be false, and their validity depends o... Chew on that. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/3 "2007-09-21T21:51:03Z")
Thanks, **Jayrot**! I’m gonna go home, fix myself a drink, and wallow in the insanity of other! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/4 "2007-09-21T21:54:09Z")
The most ‘interesting’ CT for me has always been the nutballs who think the moon landings were a hoax. I remember reading years ago in Skeptical Inquirer about some guy who was trying to ‘prove’ it was a hoax by diagrams and such regarding light sources and angles of reflection. It was hilarious. Recently I saw a show on Discovery or TLC about some of these old nuts who are STILL trying to show it was all a fake. Some of their explainations or demonstrations reminded me of the OJ murder trial when they were trying to get OJ to put on the black glove. The 9/11 CT’s are nearly as nutty and ‘interesting’. The other one would be the Kennedy assassination CT group. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/5 "2007-09-21T22:09:04Z")
Check out _Everything is Under Control_, by Robert Anton Wilson. It’s a compendium of conspiracies, from genuine, well-documented ones to wacky tinfoil hat territory. Fascinating reading, and a good deal more sober than I’d expected from the author of the _Illuminatus! Trilogy_. ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/6 "2007-09-21T23:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] Thanks, **Jayrot**! I’m gonna go home, fix myself a drink, and wallow in the insanity of other! [/QUOTE] Can’t go wrong with a nice cocktail, a roaring fire, and a couple Estonian conspiracy theories. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/7 "2007-09-21T23:24:09Z")
[QUOTE=Jayrot] Can’t go wrong with a nice cocktail, a roaring fire, and a couple Estonian conspiracy theories. [/QUOTE] That’s what they _want_ you to think! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/8 "2007-09-21T23:45:31Z")
I am about as anti-conspiracy as it gets but it is foolish to assume that all conspiracy theories are crackpot. The CIA really has been involved in some tin-foil hat type stuff in Latin America, the Middle East and most everywhere in between. A popular conspiracy theory once was that the CIA introduced Crack in black neighborhoods. That theory is remarkably difficult to disprove and may even have some substance. Co-mingling with the drug trade in Latin America never seemed to be an issue with the CIA. The most famous tin-foil hat type conspiracy that was proved to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt was the Iran-Contra affair. Most people’s eyes glazed over during the hearings with Colonel Oliver North but the actual story was much more interesting than that. Both the Middle East and Latin America were mired in conflict and international relations fiasco in the mid-1980’s. Someone high up (we may never find out how the closed door talk played out) came up with the brilliant plan to sell illegal arms to Iran and then use that money to fund an insurgency group to take over Nicaragua. The CIA and the military somehow jumped in on the plan with both feet. It was some type of success for a while until it was uncovered. No one high ended paying much price for many linked actions that were all highly illegal and contrary to things like international treaties. The Iran-Contra story sounds bizarre by itself but it was just one part of a CIA strategy in Latin America that had been going on since the 50’s funding one insurgency group after another. The other big player in all of this was the United Fruit Company now called Chiquita Banana who worked as a Latin American ally also during these decades laundering money and funding whatever military group or coup they thought were in their best interests. If all of this sounds like a nutty conspiracy, it is because it is nutty but also very real. A renowned Latin American studies scholar gave a guest speech on this topic when I was a Tulane except it goes much deeper than I have room for here. I like to research it myself from time to time to remind myself that very strange conspiracy theories don’t have to be false. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/9 "2007-09-21T23:46:02Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Check out _Everything is Under Control_, by Robert Anton Wilson. [/QUOTE] A friend of mine made a film a few years ago. Here’s his outline: > [@](#): > > There’s been an accident at Sanmento Genetics research lab. A large, genetically altered spider has escaped and has taken up residence in a sleepy seaside town. Soon after, a city bus is found abandoned and empty, it’s passengers mysteriously vanished including one politically dissident Professor, Emil Admoster. Second rate detective Lee Bowers is sent to the town to investigate Admoster’s dissappearance, but soon finds the scope of this case is far beyond his suspect abilities as well as his patience. As he is sucked deeper into the unfolding horror, Bowers finds himself surrounded by mutant terrorists who live only in fog, and strange android like beings with oversized yellow “happy heads” who seem to have a connection with the escaped spider. Bowers realizes he is being watched and manipulated by an emerging shadow government whose sinister intentions could bring about a world wide castastrophe. He gave me _Everything is Under Control_ before the film got under way, and I read it. Lots of references from Anton’s book made it into the film: The Bilderbergers (called ‘The Wizenheimers’ in the film), _Ewige Blumenkraft_, New World Order, and the detective’s name is the name of a witness to the Kennedy assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/10 "2007-09-21T23:51:05Z")
I always wondered about the helicopter crash on a remote Scottish island that killed so many of Britains Intelligence establishment in one hit a few years ago . I always thought that the I.R.A might have been behind it but the u.k. Intelligence services had infiltrated the Irish Republican covert movement so deeply it seemed unlikely and there was no bragging about it on their part which would have been unique for them. So if it wasn’t a very unlikely accident then who if anyone was responsible ? As to all the other conspiracy theories I think that they are all bollicks. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/11 "2007-09-22T00:17:33Z")
What’s the name of that film, **Johnny**? It sounds cool. Is it commercially available? ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/12 "2007-09-22T00:23:01Z")
Former CIA Director decides to go canoeing at night He never did that, he did not mention that to his wife like he always did, he decided to leave his house unlocked with the radio and computer on and left his meal on the table, the life jacket his friends said he usually wore was missing, and his body was found approximately 20 yards from the canoe (itself found 100 yards from the house) after the area had been thoroughly searched multiple times over 9 days. Cause of death? Coroners inquest says drowning and hypothermia after “a heart attack or stroke and falling out of his canoe”, and there was no further investigation. _“John le Carre has lost it”_ you would think reading that. “_Tom Clancy is OK but this is just silly_”, say you. Perhaps _“Ian Flemming was sure a man of his time, boy this is corny”._ But it [all](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colby#Theories_about_death) happened. In real life. I am not one for conspiracy theories – but I would not automatically give the horselaugh at the local yokel who brought this up in a bar. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/13 "2007-09-22T00:28:35Z")
I’m sending this poll of conspiracy theories off to **IMHO**. (Make of that what you will.) [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/14 "2007-09-22T00:38:07Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] What’s the name of that film, **Johnny**? It sounds cool. Is it commercially available? [/QUOTE] Just to warn you: [_Film Threat_ didn’t like it](http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=6132). I looked on the director’s [site](http://www.reelprogress.com/mike-lyddon.html) and it’s not listed as being in distribution. It does appear for sale [here](http://www.createspace.com/Store/ShowEStore.jsp?id=204836), but it’s an ‘on demand’ site so I don’t know how that works. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/15 "2007-09-22T01:50:45Z")
(Starts reading the Wikipedia list) :eek: Wait a minute! Wait a minute! How the Hell can anyone with a working brain think that the death of JFK Jr. was the action of a conspiracy? This makes 9/11 and moon landing hoaxes look smart! ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/16 "2007-09-22T01:56:46Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] I’m sending this poll of conspiracy theories off to **IMHO**. (Make of that what you will.) [/Moderating] [/QUOTE] :eek: They’re _everywhere_. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/17 "2007-09-22T02:17:32Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] The most ‘interesting’ CT for me has always been the nutballs who think the moon landings were a hoax. I remember reading years ago in Skeptical Inquirer about some guy who was trying to ‘prove’ it was a hoax by diagrams and such regarding light sources and angles of reflection. It was hilarious. Recently I saw a show on Discovery or TLC about some of these old nuts who are STILL trying to show it was all a fake. Some of their explainations or demonstrations reminded me of the OJ murder trial when they were trying to get OJ to put on the black glove. The 9/11 CT’s are nearly as nutty and ‘interesting’. The other one would be the Kennedy assassination CT group. -XT [/QUOTE] The moon thing and the 9/11 theories lie just within the upper boundaries of the “possible”. _Just_. My favorite has to do with the Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale - in 2004, since both John Kerry and W had been members, some people were actually claiming that the election was a put-up job organized by _a college fraternity_. Now _that’s_ some whacky shit! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/18 "2007-09-22T02:31:53Z")
I always loved Ed Subitzky’s “Worlds in Collusion” in an old **National Lampoon** (August 1973). It was a grand mishmash of nonsense – the oceans were only 20 miles wide and only about 20 feet deep. Ships (which were made of steel, so obviously they couldn’t float) crossed them on giant tracks. And there was the “P & S” problem. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/19 "2007-09-22T03:09:40Z")
> [@](#): > > I am about as anti-conspiracy as it gets but it is foolish to assume that all conspiracy theories are crackpot. Former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal started telling people that he was being followed around in public by peple he claimed were Jewish spies. He was eventually diagnosed with paranoia and confined in a mental hospital. Years later, after his death, it was found that there had in fact been Israeli agents spying on him. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031/20 "2007-09-22T03:12:54Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] The Bilderbergers (called ‘The Wizenheimers’ in the film) [/QUOTE] Why? Was he afraid of them? I know I am! :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theories/420031.md?page=2)