I think we had a thread like this before, but I can’t find it tinfoil hat.
What’s your personal crazy conspiracy theory? Like, I’m not saying you’re a true believer in it, just that there’s that tiny sliver of irrationality in your head that goes “… but MAYBE!”
Mine is that Donald Trump is supporting Hillary Clinton. At some point, the Clintons and Donald Trump were on very good terms, and under a decade ago Trump was praising Clinton’s skills as Secretary of State, and just generally seemed favorable to the Democratic establishment.
So, some time after her surprising loss of the 2008 primary, they made a secret plan. Donald would slowly align himself with the more insane parts of the Republican party (e.g. when he started spouting birther nonsense just a few years ago on Twitter), and in 2016, would infiltrate the party from the inside and wreak havoc to make Hillary the most palatable candidate. She would appear to be the most “pragmatic” and the safest bet to defeat the “crazy Donald Trump” if it came to that, assuming she was even contested.
When it comes to the general, if he loses the primary and doesn’t feel enough damage was done, he can run independently and spoiler effect them; if he wins, he just subtly throws the election by being even louder, dumber, and more disagreeable. Whatever he does, nobody is surprised because he’s an “insane egotistical blowhard with no filter”.
Mine is that the government is shaping personal political beliefs by direct but subtle manipulation of the media. Specifically, television shows.
Before 9/11, television and movie heroes were (mostly) righteous good guys. They may bend the rules, but they followed the law. Even that right wing wet dream Harry Callahan refused to join the magnum force and execute criminals who escaped prosecution. He believed in the system.
Then, after 9/11, what do we get? Jack Bauer. For him there was no question that the ends justify the means. Use any tools available to get the job done. The only “system” is what Bauer thinks it is. Don’t get in his way.
These days the whole of television is crowded with ostensible “heroes” who do what it takes to get the job done, the Constitution be dammed. We’re in a war, people! You’re either with us or against us, and with us is the smart move. Even stalwarts like the Law and Order franchise supported FISA warrants and other questionable anti-terrorist methods.
My semi-nutty conspiracy is not that TV reflects the public opinion in a post-9/11 world, but rather that is is shaping public opinion. The tail is wagging the dog. The government wants us all worked up so we’ll support whatever Big Brother spying they want, whatever war they want, all in the name of “security”. When our tv cops use warrentless searches and illegal wiretaps to catch obvious bad guys, maybe they aren’t such a bad idea, hm?
Our daily dose if FUD doesn’t just some from the news - we’re getting it in our TV shows.
And the first person that makes a crack about our “precious bodily fluids” gets smacked.
The Affordable Care Act was deliberately designed to fail, and to fail in a manner that would generate animosity against the insurance industry, so that the left could come back in a few years and push for single-payer.
David Cicilline, congressman from Rhode Island, former Mayor of Providence, is not actually gay. He just pretends to be to get the gay vote. I gotta say he’s pretty committed to the part since he’s maintained a long time relationship with well known gay local television personality Mario Hilario. But the guy acts too gay to actually be gay, so I’m not buying it. I think this applies to a lot of politicians with dubious gay affectations like Lindsay Graham.
You know those metallic stickers they put in DVD movie cases to set off the shoplifting alarm in the store? Those are really government tracking devices for some nefarious purpose. So therefore I must find them and peel them off, even if it means disassembling the case to find it.
In the 2010 Pro Bowl, when Tony Romo (Cowboys came into the game as quarterback for the NFC, suddenly the Eagles and Giants offensive linemen for the NFC seemed to not really put effort into blocking, thus allowing Romo to get sacked. I thought that was extremely suspicious.
Allergies (in the “my throat feels sore and my nose is stuffy” sense, not the “a peanut will kill me” sense) don’t exist. Pollution is making us sick but by blaming allergies, you take the heat off polluters and get to sell billions of dollars of drugs. Everyone wins.
The circumstances of Brandon Lee’s death seem like a plan hatched by a comic book villain caricature, so I can agree with you there. But the problem comes when trying to decide who would have done it, and why.
I think Kenneth Lay (convicted CEO of Enron) faked his death. And he timed it in such a way – post-conviction but pre-sentencing – to guarantee that his conviction would be vacated in order to protect his estate.
Every so often, the heads of American Industry get together in someone’s backyard for a cookout and to agree amongst themselves what they’re going to make us consumers buy next:
“I know, let’s go back to selling incandescent bulbs–FOR 9 BUCKS EACH!”
“To hell with ‘digital TV,’ they’ll have to buy the tube-type ones again. And a digital-to-analog adapter module.”
“Remember when Tommy Lee Jones (in Men in Black) said he’d have to buy the White Album again? How do we make that happen?”
“Has anyone figured out, yet, how to get people to live in their cars but not drive them anywhere (except to the gas station)?”
Then they all fall back onto the grass, laughing hysterically, throwing wads of 50 dollar bills into the air, or into the BBQ grill.
The Patriots beat my Rams in 2002 because “Patriots” sounded better after 9/11. That’s why they let the clock run down after the winning field goal.
Then Spygate happened and the NFL suddenly destroyed all the tapes. Those would’ve shown the Patriots used their Spygate techniques to beat the Rams, and ruined their 9/11 narrative.
Hey, the Pats always seemed to be in the right place at the right time on defense, including getting 3 turnovers. “Just asking questions”
Imagine you want to invest in a small company that – well, could use your money, sure; but could also use a lot of publicity.
Imagine saying, sure, I’ll give you this money for that cut of the profits; but first, go on my show and we’ll pretend to negotiate a deal in prime time! Let’s rehearse the part where I ask an easy question, and your answer hits it out of the park! You’ll pitch us on the product – and we’ll all rave about it – as per THIS SCRIPT!
An hour of that would be a dull and obvious infomercial – but audiences would tune in to watch you insult folks pitching bad ideas: making it even more impressive when they see you “get won over” by a pitch for a product that must be tremendous, right? After all, you’re usually so critical and dismissive!
Would Shark Tank look any different if each investor took turns so showcasing their preexisting pet projects – in between all mocking every other applicant?
I consider the 2002 NBA Western Conference playoff series between the Lakers and Kings to be extremely suspiciously officiated, as well as the inexplicably large number of suspicious calls that always “just so happen” to favor the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Elon Musk is a visitor from a more advanced civilization. Either an alien civilization or a future human civilization and he is here to help advance our civilization’s technology to a higher level.
I believe this one too. I think the knowledge that our health care system is on the brink of collapse was well known, and the ACA created an environment where the federal government was responsible for the system.
I think within the next decade, we will have a system where people have to spend 10-20k a year on insurance premiums for narrow network junk insurance with 10k deductibles (some people already do pay that much for crap insurance). That’ll cause a public uproar and people will demand reforms. I think the first reform will be allowing people to buy into an updated version of medicare (which will provide higher quality care for less money), which will then pave the way for a single payer system based on a reformed version of medicare (the ACA also had a good deal of medicare reforms in it too).
I believe the side effects of prescription medications are caused by other drugs put into the medication so the prescription drug companies can sell more medications to counteract the side effects. And those medications cause more side effects, etc. etc. etc.
i too wonder if Trump’s candidacy is some kind of conspiracy. I’m not sure if he’s paving the way for Cruz, who is a very scary religious zealot, much scarier than Trump because he doesn’t go around acting like an idiot most of the time, or if Trump is working for the democrats.
