• redballooon@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Just because conspiracies likely do happen on a regular basis doesn’t mean that any popular conspiracy theory has found one.

    Remember, the big conspiracies like Watergate or the NSA leaks where not uncovered by conspiracy theorists. They where not uncovered by cherry-picking factoids from public government statements and “doing ones own research” aka using Google. They were uncovered by whistleblowers speaking out and journalists double-checking and following up on information they were given.

    As a side note — the poor boy with this scumbag father who constantly lies to him.

  • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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    10 months ago

    The 9/11 was an inside job stuff, but only the part where part of the US government knew that something was going to happen and let it happen. That gave them the opportunity to set up stuff like the Patriot Act and gave them a (wonky) reason to invade the middle east.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Yeah this is as far as I’ll take that one as well, except I’ll do one further. All that “controlled demolition” stuff is to distract rubes and make them sound like crackpots so no one takes the “hey we knew and did nothing” take seriously from anyone.

    • mayonaise_met@feddit.nl
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, what was it? By the end of the day Rumpsfeld and Cheney had convinced Bush to go after Sadam Hussein and people who knew the ME were confused about that.

      I don’t buy for a second that “they let it happen” though. The conspiracy is that they didn’t waste a good crisis.

      • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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        10 months ago

        Yeah maybe it’s some sort of confirmation bias from me, it’s my take on the conspiracy. But given all the shady shit the US government has done, I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew and let it happen. As you said they absolutely took advantage of the crisis.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    My own personal conspiracy theory is that Flat Earthers, Anti-vaxxers and all the other “Facebook boomer” conspiracies are just a strategy to discredit other “more real” conspiracies: if you believe that 9/11 was an inside job you’re bundled with people that believe that Earth is a frisbee and smart people don’t want that so they keep themselves from exploring anything else.
    Also aliens fucked apes and that’s how we got here.

    • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, It’s like the theory that Gates put microchips in the vaccines. First, your phone already does the job. And second, the actual conspiracy going on is that billionaires funnel their money through charities they own, and then make donations to influence the media and scientific research in their favour.

      • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Donations don’t get taxed. So if you own the charity you’re donating you get your own tax-free income

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          10 months ago

          I mean, the caveat is that you can’t legally pull money back out of that charity. It’s got to be used for the stated charitable purposes.

    • Mojo@ttrpg.network
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      10 months ago

      I just cannot fathom how flat earthers can believe what they believe.

      I like the theory that we were “planted” on Earth very long time ago by advanced beings.

      • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        I like the theory that we were “planted” on Earth very long time ago by advanced beings.

        If you want to know more, meet me tomorrow at the docks

    • homoludens@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Conspiracy theories are pushed by the state because it makes them seem powerful, when in reality they’re often fucking morons. /s?

    • mayonaise_met@feddit.nl
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      10 months ago

      So if I believe the earth is flat I’ll be bundled with people who believe 911 was an inside job is what you’re saying?

  • drlecompte@discuss.tchncs.de
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    10 months ago

    Mark Felton did a 6 episode series on YT on how the alleged burnt bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun found by the soviets, are actually plants.

    Not that Hitler survived the war or anything, they were just buried elsewhere nearby, probably in a civilian mass grave, to prevent the soviets from parading the real bodies around.

  • radostin04@pawb.social
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    10 months ago

    I’m not sure if this counts as a conspiracy, but I wholeheartedly believe that aliens are real, but that we have no way of ever contacting them or confirming their existence because they’re so damn far away

      • li10@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, surely it’s only a conspiracy if there’s proof of aliens that’s being hidden from people.

    • lily33@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Indeed not a conspiracy. A conspiracy involves a crew of conspirators conspiring to do something illegal or unethical.

      If it’s just the laws of physics conspiring, it doesn’t count.

    • wantd2B1ofthestrokes@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      The key metric is always: how many people would have to be in on it and never say anything. The ones that are hundreds or thousands of people are obvious nonsense. If it’s just a handful of people, it’s perfectly plausible.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    10 months ago

    That majority of the opinions online are created and manipulated by special interest groups. All mainstream sites are astroturfed to steer discussion.

  • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Maybe not the best news source but I don’t have all day: https://theintercept.com/2015/08/03/17-years-reporter-exposed-echelon-finds-vindication-snowden-archive/

    When I was a budding IT guy, the conspiracy theory that the five eyes nations were spying on each other and giving the intelligence to each other to get around rules prohibiting domestic spying was largely regarded as a paranoid conspiracy theory.

    Network engineers that worked in internet backbone connectivity said there was no other really viable explanation for some of the patterns that were seeing and I believed these people after looking over some things they posted.

    Well, eventually they were vindicted and the truth came out.

    Ever since then, I’ve been a little slower to dismiss conspiracy theories.

    Do I think JFK jr is coming back to lead The Storm, reinstate Trump, and finally put an end up the adrenochrome illuminati? No. But I’m a little more open minded than I used to be.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I think it’s important to filter between plausible but unlikely and implausible. Are a group of spy agencies sharing information to bypass prohibition on spying on their citizens? Possibly yes.

      Could a famous person who died 30 years ago come back to reinstate the extremely controversial former president of the United States because he clearly had to have won? No. Faking your death is really hard when everything goes perfectly. He doesn’t have the authority to do Jack shit. He wasn’t even a president. MLK isn’t going to come back to life and reinstate Barack Obama either.

      What about the moon landing being fake? No. The Soviets had every reason to dispute the apollo 11 landing and all of the technology to verify or refute it, they verified it. Additionally mirrors were left and amateur astronomers can verify for themselves. Also astronomers aren’t spies, nasa is bad at keeping secrets.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah it’s how you stay open minded imo. And as a rule when a conspiracy starts blaming the Jews I discount it. It’s one thing to say Netanyahu or Kissinger did a conspiracy, but Moe down the street had nothing to do with it. People and organizations conspire, races religions etc don’t

  • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    Living in emulation. I believe calling it simulation wouldn’t be correct, we’d be more like a video game. If there was somehow a computer powerful enough to actually emulate real world, we wouldn’t be able to tell if we’re in it. And we’d still be real regardless, just on a computer.

    • manned_meatball@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Without knowing the “higher” reality, I’d still call it a simulation. An emulator is capable of replacing the “real” system it’s emulating. Maybe that’s your view on the topic, but I find it more likely the higher reality is more complex than ours because it contains ours. Therefore our reality could not be an emulation. Lots of speculation though.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I believe that the United States government operated a scheme by which they secretly armed the Nicaraguan contras in exchange for cocaine, which the cia sold in the United States and used that money to fund Iran. All against the law and without congressional approval.

    I believe that the American federal bureau of investigation kept tabs on, infiltrated, assassinated, and otherwise actively disrupted left wing causes for at least half of the latter half of the 20th century, and may continue to do so.

    I believe the cia dosed a lot of people with lsd without their consent in attempts to control minds. All without informing any higher ups or democratically elected officials.

    I believe the cia has actively worked to undermine and overthrow democratically elected left leaning governments around the world whenever that comes into conflict with the interests of American wealth holders.

    Modern ones, I have some suspicions based on leaks from somewhat trusted sources, but it’s not like historical ones where there’s such clear evidence and often confessions, which is part of why American ones are so prevalent here, we do like documenting what our government does.

  • kittenspronkles@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    I believe the Disney Channel with their over serialization of minors is responsible for a lot of pedophilia that is going on.

  • Tedrow@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Agents of the US government purposefully destroyed Billy Holiday.

    Also, during prohibition, the US government knowingly poisoned alcohol with the intent of harming people that drank illegally manufactured booze.