Hey everyone! We're talking about conspiracy theories in class now, and I personally find a lot of these theories super entertaining. So here's a list of some of the more popular conspiracy theories that have come up over the years.
Princess Diana
There's a lot of theories about Princess Diana's death not being an accident, and this mainly stems from the public's shock after her death happened, since many didn't believe that such a well-known and well-loved public figure could die so suddenly. A lot of people seem to think that the British royal family was involved with the death, while some others claim that she actually faked her death and is still alive today.
Elvis
Quite a lot of people believe that Elvis is still alive, and that his death was all a stunt. The key piece of evidence that many point to is his gravestone - on his birth certificate it says his middle name was "Aron", but it's spelled "Aaron" on his gravestone. Theories about the motivation behind this faked death range widely, from him wanting to escape the public eye to him being put under a FBI witness protection program.
Moon Landing
This is perhaps one of the most famous conspiracy theories, although it's basically been completely debunked by now. There's a lot of talk about missing blueprints and altered photographs and videos, but by now most Americans believe that the moon landing actually did happen.
UFO in New Mexico
In 1947 in a city called Roswell, a man found crash debris on his property and told authorities. The Roswell Army Air Field originally issued a statement saying a "flying disc" had been found, but then a little bit later the US Military said it was actually just a fallen weather balloon. This has led many to believe that the government was actually just trying to cover up an actual UFO or extraterrestrial activity.
Global Warming
This seems to be most popular among certain politicians - the idea that global warming is just a huge lie. Although it's fairly evident that the world's temperatures are rising, some explain this by saying the rising temperatures are controlled by technology or other man-made sources used to keep the public in a state of panic. Some others just believe that if it's snowing or super cold in a certain place of the world, it means the rest of the world is fine and temperatures aren't rising, dismissing global warming as a myth.
Feel free to elaborate on a conspiracy theory or add some more if you want to!
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Kristen, thanks for making a blog post on these conspiracy theories. It's always really fascinating to read them, whether or not they are, in fact, true. I hadn't heard the Princess Diana conspiracy theory before, but I have definitely heard the other ones. The 9/11 conspiracy theories are also interesting to read and think about.
ReplyDeleteOne of the more popular theories is about the collapse of the World Trade Center. Supporters of this theory claim that it fell because of a controlled demolition, rather than because of the impact of the planes and fire. Theorists say that the impact and fire was not strong enough to damage the building enough for it to collapse so quickly and completely. Instead, they believe explosives installed in the buildings were the cause of the collapse.
Thank you for the post, Kristen! I'm also really interested in conspiracy theories and I did some research on a group known as the Freemasons (yes, the ones that according to Nicholas Cage in National Treasure hid a bunch of Templar treasure and then left historical clues for treasure hunters to decipher.)
ReplyDeleteThe Freemasons have sparked numerous conspiracy theories, as societies with exclusive meetings tend to do because nonmembers don't know what they actually do. Described by CBS news as the world's most "well-known secret society," the Masons are in fact not that secret of a society. In fact, they're more of a fraternity that happens to have really famous members--George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, Mozart--and a lot of rituals. For many members, the organization is more about forming friendships with fellow members than anything else. CBS provides a fascinating insight into the organization's history and inner workings in this article and video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons/
Thanks for posting! Today, there are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding vaccines. I found an interesting article about several anti-vaccine conspiracy theories floating around today: http://pediatrics.about.com/od/immunizations/tp/Anti-Vaccination-Conspiracy-Theories.htm
ReplyDeleteOne of the wackier theories on the list is the idea that the government is pushing vaccines in order to control the population. Believers of this theory often cite a Bill Gates quote: "if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent." Gates was referring to predicted population growth, but many people interpreted this as proof that vaccines are all just a conspiracy to reduce the human population.
Thanks Kristen for such a great post. One conspiracy that I have become very interested over the last few years is 9/11.
ReplyDelete9/11 is accepted as a terrorist attack on the in Twin Towers in New York and killed over 3,000 people. It left America stunned and led to our intervention against terrorists in the Middle East.
Conspiracies about this attack contain Wall Street knowing that it would happen but not telling authorities because of the possible financial benefits. Bombs were placed that exploded in the building thus making the attack much worse than it was. Pentagon's attack never occurred but rather was set up by the CIA. And many more.
The most interesting to me is the attack on the CIA. There is no footage showing the attack, the explosion radius is not as a large as one created by a commercial jet. This leads people to believe that it was either set up or it was a missile that hit the Pentagon. Why would they hide it? Like all conspiracies there are different theories but no clear evidence.