# What's the maddest conspiracy theory you've heard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703 "2015-06-05T13:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/61 "2015-06-07T03:37:24Z")
> [@Oglomott](#): > > Former co-worker was into CT’s big time\*. He asserted, among other things, the government blew up the WTC during 9/11 using planted explosives, and that the jets seen flying into them were 3D Holograms. > > And his favorite: Anyone who tries to debunk a CT is in on the conspiracy. > > \*I don’t know about the lizard people one, but it tops anything I have ever heard. :eek: So, what happened to the people on all those planes? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/62 "2015-06-07T13:18:51Z")
Ha, these have been some very entertaining suggestions. I can’t believe I forgot David Icke and his shape-shifting repetillians controlling the world, I think that takes the prize for most lunacy. Although if it were true that’s just what they’d _want_ you to think… ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/63 "2015-06-07T14:11:32Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > The lovely Flat Earthers occupy a special place in my heart. They’re a little forum on the outskirts of the web that seem to honestly believe NASA is lying to us and the world is, well, flat. Their reasoning is . . . uh . . . despite spending way to much time browsing there, I’ve never actually wrapped my head around it. Something about bending lightwaves and fish-eye cameras. Now, I don’t doubt a significant percentage of them are just trolls, but there has to be a couple guys who buy into it. > > Also, members there call people who disagree with them “Roundearthers,” which sounds like they’re calling you fat. And then there was the [time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkrkaH_V7fE) when Sherri Shepherd said she was too busy feeding her child to know if the world is round. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/64 "2015-06-09T00:07:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The non-blacks who have gotten it over the years would probably have a few things to say about that. One of the American victims is of Asian descent, and a Cuban physician got it too. Both have recovered. > > There are also people who believe that Obama was responsible for the epidemic, although they’re never clear as to exactly how, and others who believe that the American patients were brought here to kick-start our own epidemic. :rolleyes: Somehow I feel like their responses would either be: a. sucks, but collateral damage happens all the time or b. well, _they_ didn’t die, did they? 100% survival amongst Asians and Cubans, 30% amongst black proves it was made specifically to kill black people. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/65 "2015-06-09T17:31:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > So, what happened to the people on all those planes? That’s actually an easy one. There weren’t any people. But, you say, what about all the crying relatives on TV? Actors. I mean, do you actually know anybody that died? Personally? I don’t. And I don’t know anybody that knew anyone that died, either. For all I know, they just made up names. And if you,\*\* nearwildheaven\*\*, tell me you did, how can I believe you? I don’t know you. You’re just words on a screen. Don’t let my user name fool you. I don’t believe that is true. But, I am trusting the media and the government that these people were real. I never went and actually checked. If you take it to the extreme, I never saw the WTC with my own eyes. Maybe it never existed. I have a friend that _says_ he went up in it, but can I really believe him?? ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/66 "2016-06-12T13:35:08Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Far and away, my favorite is [David Icke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke)’s theory that the world is run by a conspiracy of shape-shifting lizards, the membership of which includes Queen Elizabeth, George Bush, and Boxcar Willie (well, obviously). > > Regards, > Shodan Well I, for one, am tired of this prejudice against shape-shifting lizard people! Not all reptilians are bad! It’s just some of the more well-known ones that give us, I mean them, such a bad reputation. Mainly it’s the Iguana People who are the worst, which includes folks like Clinton, Trump and Obama. They are clearly evil and they use energetic-morpho-soundwave-enegy consciousness gold-particles to change their shape. If you are a non-reptilian, David Icke says ingesting psychedelics or mono-atomic gold particles can help you see them. A second way to recognize them is if you notice that the person gets real sluggish or even goes completely dormant in cold weather. (You can see that a lot with college students in the fall.) Another very easy way you could tell if someone you know is a reptilian is to watch to see if they occasionally lick their eyeballs. And of course, if they try to suck you blood. That’s a definite clue! Those ones are from the constellation of Draco (Count Dracula was one.). All the blood suckers are from an aristocratic class of human-reptile crossbreeds from the lower 4th dimension- the ghetto of all the dimensions- and are responsible for chupacabras, scientists and military leaders! Avoid them at all costs! ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/67 "2016-06-12T13:48:37Z")
This whole thread makes me miss Weekly World News so much! Batboy, lizard people, all politicians are aliens… some of the funniest things I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/68 "2016-06-12T17:50:46Z")
[Stephen King murdered John Lennon](http://www.lennonmurdertruth.com/) is a favorite of mine. In answer to any “government conspiracy” idea: I’ve worked with the government. They couldn’t organize a conspiracy to convince people that botulism will kill you. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/69 "2016-06-12T19:49:11Z")
I am recently bothered by conspiracists’ postings about the Mandela Effect. I can’t even tell what would matter if they _were_ right. So what if the “effect” _were_ happening. Whatever the effect really is. I’d supply a link but nothing is clear to me yet… It’s all over YouTube. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/70 "2016-06-12T21:04:55Z")
Another vote for the lizard people. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/71 "2016-06-12T21:28:43Z")
The Mandela Effect may be a maneuvering of the Lizard People. Or of the Illuminati, if separable in your Dimension. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/72 "2016-06-12T23:59:09Z")
Regarding the Flat Earth (which seems to have had a bit of a run in The Meedja recently - apparently a Rapper said it’s true, so I’m now convinced). What is the point of the Flat Earth conspiracy? Why is the Government deperately trying to convince us the Earth is round instead of flat? Is it so when they send someone ‘Around the World’ they really Drop Off The Other Side And Never Come Back? Bwaahaa!!! I get the tortured justifications behind most CTs (paranoid, sure). But the Flat Earth? Why? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/73 "2016-06-13T02:58:41Z")
It is on the drawing board right now. The Orlando shooting never took place. The injured are all giving false names, to avoid being revealed as gay. So there will always be plenty of doubts about victims. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/74 "2016-06-13T03:03:37Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It is on the drawing board right now. The Orlando shooting never took place. The injured are all giving false names, to avoid being revealed as gay. So there will always be plenty of doubts about victims. Click [here](http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=40106) for the fun… > [@](#): > > There should be no doubt that the alleged mass shooting in the Orlando gay night club is a classic false flag operation and government-coordinated psyop. Here’s the punchline: The Gay Mafia are behind it ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/75 "2016-06-13T04:11:16Z")
One I saw that was ‘heavily researched’ (i.e. lots of pics with anomaly hunting) was on one of the crazier boards (GLP I think) where they posited that the Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were faked, and that the damage done by a huge fuel-air bomb laced with heavy toxins that caused the alleged ‘radiation damage’. Anti-semitism was at the theorists’ core as they thought the A-bombs were developed by jews who actually funneled the money into the future Israel. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/76 "2016-06-13T06:00:47Z")
Donald Trump engineered the Orlando shooting! Of course he did! It is vital to show how evil these Mohammedans are! The shooter was killed? Of course he was; the Orlando police are all NRA members, and dead men tell no tales! Obama won’t do anything, and neither will Hilary,who has been wanting to buy that Pulse property for some time to build her boy-harem after she gets elected! ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/77 "2016-06-13T06:03:01Z")
Howard Hughes and the Ayatollah Khomeini were one and the same person. Proof? Has anyone ever seen them at the same time in the same room? Seriously, look at photos of the two. Spooky. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/78 "2016-06-13T06:42:49Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The maddest conspiracy theories I have heard, were right here at the SDMB. > > **Seethruart** ’s variant on the moon landing conspiracy - where (not really sure I got this right) the moon landing was faked, but the lunar surface in the fake photos was composited from real photos of the lunar surface, which contained tiny (or maybe giant) alien spaceships. Beat me to it, so many memories of how I used my then current training in computer graphics and photography to debunk many of his sorry ideas. Good times, good times. More recently there is the one about the climate scientists faking their data that shows a warming earth. Climate change deniers are resorting now to that desperate distortion because in the past 2 years the records were broken and down the toilet it went their “there has been no warming in x years” talking point, but never mind that, I was going to mention this more recent candidate: **Clad King** ’s conspiracy about Egyptologists changing the ancient Egyptian history and time lines, and also them hiding the “fact” that soda water geysers were used to build the pyramids and not ramps. The SDMB almost could not handle ignorance of that magnitude. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/79 "2016-06-13T10:35:34Z")
I feel that a strong contender for “maddest”, has to be one which I’ve read of IIRC on the Dope (forget quite where). The poster who told of it, had in fact encountered only one person who believed in it, or claimed to: a schoolmaster who had once taught him – but it is, for sure, highly conspiracy-ish. In the early 20th century, Tsar Nicholas II and his advisers had foreseeing-the-future powers: which caused them to decide that Russia would have to fail, and get towards losing, in the approaching World War I; so that the Tsarist monarchy would fall, and Russia be taken over by a stronger, more ruthless Communist regime – which was the only kind of such which would be able to withstand and repel, a future furious German onslaught on Russia in World-War-II-to-come. Nick and those under him, accordingly deliberately and subtly screwed up their role in WWI. In the light of what subsequently happened to the Tsar and his family – would have been up there among the biggest acts of self-sacrifice, ever? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703/80 "2016-06-13T11:15:32Z")
It’s so hard to pick a “craziest”. Some ones not mentioned yet: - **The WTC buildings were destroyed by missiles projecting the images of airplanes.** Positively tame compared to… - **The WTC buildings were destroyed by pyroclastic flows**. One would think that the fact that the entirety of Manhattan didn’t burn down as a result might have been a clue, but no. - **The Expanding Earth Theory**. There are some fun YouTube videos about this, all based on the idea that all the continents can be fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle on a smaller sphere. I asked one of these guys whether the expansion was due to mass added from above, mass added underneath or decreasing density. When he said it was from “mass added underneath” I asked him (politely) how the mass was getting inside the Earth…and he blocked me and deleted all my posts. Some people are so sensitive. - **The Heliosphere / Digestive Tract correlation.** This one arrived on my desk in scrawled manuscript form (half English, half Arabic) complete with some very entertaining diagrams, back when I used to work for a university. Please don’t ask me to describe it - apart from noting some vague similarities of shape it made about as much sense as you’d expect. ETA: I almost forgot (speaking of the Heliosphere) that [The Solar System Is a Vortex](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHsq36_NTU). Um…no. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maddest-conspiracy-theory-youve-heard/721703.md?page=5)